Fountain Pens of AP – Guider Pens

Hi world...

I was all along looking forward to owning a Ratnam Pen, and as usual was browsing the net for information etc…and I hit upon the website of Guider Pens…I was pleasantly surprised with the coincidence that here is another FP manufacturer in AP and that too in Rajahmundry…and they had a website which had pictures of their pens and different kinds of pens…ebonite, acrylic, celluloid, among others…there was a contact ID and I sent a mail requesting a catalogue…got a response, but no catalogue…but nothing further… I sent a letter through snailmail…no response…I had also sent my phone number and after quite a while I got a call from Mr G. Lakshmana Rao, the proprietor…I told him what I wanted and he was gracious enough to send the pens soon enough…

In the meanwhile, I had registered as a member in the Fountain Pen Network online and met a likeminded member – Hari – who gave me information and tips on what pens to order…and based on his tips I had ordered an ebonite, an acrylic and a celluloid fountain pen…According to Hari, Guider is almost the only FP manufacturer who has still some raw stock of celluloid purchased back in the 60s and these pens are rare and Mr Lakshamana Rao himself suggested that I could gift the ebonite and the acrylic ones to friends/relatives, but not the celluloid one, as it is very rare…and for some information on Guider Pens (taken from their website…)

“The company was started by Mr. G. Subbarao in 1946, which is now being looked after by his son Mr. Lakshamana Rao. Pens are still being manufactured with the machines which were imported from Germany 60 years back.In the olden days they used to manufacture pens manually due to insufficient power supply. The raw material was also imported from Japan. Still the company is having the raw material and pens which made by the professionals above 50 years back. You can choose gold nibbed pens, silver body engraved art pens, celluloid, ebonite, acrylic pens, ball pens & marble stone pens. Guider Pens have received appraisals from Babu Rajendra Prasad, Giani Zail Singh, Sri Jaya Prakash Narayan, Mrs Indira Gandhi and former chief minister of AP, late Sri N. T. Rama Rao and others.”

I was delighted when I received the 3 pens and i fell in love with the acrylic one...I liked the green mottled ebonite and the rare celluloid FP...I have started using the acrylic and the ebonite pens...and I pleased with my purchases...in the photo above, the blue FP is the acrylic one, the red pen is made of celluloid and the green one is the ebonite...dont they all look wonderful...they also write well...

When I started collecting fountain pens seriously, I did not know that AP had these many FP manufacturers…and Hari supplied with more information saying that ‘Hyderabad is the Mecca of Ebonite pens’… I also purchased 2 Brahmam ebonite pens...these ebonite pens are manufactured in Vijayawada in AP...that is for another post...till then...