When we see fountain pens for sale today, we think of them as classic writing instruments. However, when fountain pens first began to gain popularity in the 1700s, they were not only beautiful but they were the latest innovation in fine writing instruments. Authors of the time, such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mainer, William Wordsworth with his Lyrical Ballads, Thomas Paine who penned The Age of Reason, A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft, and Voltaire's riotous work Candide were likely written with fountain pens. You can add yourself to that luminous group of authors by joining them in purchasing a fountain pen for use in your writing endeavors.

A fountain pen has a barrel, like a standard rollerball or ballpoint pen, but it also has a cartridge mechanism for holding and releasing the ink inside, and a nib, which is the point used for writing on paper. The nib on the fountain pen might be retractable, or it may come with a cap, as is found with other types of pens such as rollerballs. Although you can find a disposable fountain pen, when you find fountain pens for sale today, they tend to be items that are beautiful and well-crafted, so you want to hold onto them and instead buy fountain pen ink refills in order to reuse the fountain pen.

There are many fine fountain pen manufacturers that offer fountain pens for sale. Parker is one such company that has these pens offered in their Premier and Sonnet lines. Fine and medium-point pens are available, so you can get the ink line that you prefer.

You can find these types of pens for as little as twenty or thirty dollars all the way up to several hundreds of dollars in price. The quality of materials used is the primary feature that adds to the value of the pen. Luxury metals such as gold and platinum, as well as fine jewels are often added to top-of-the-line pens.

You can buy fountain pen supplies quickly and easily online. You might want to look for fountain pen refill ink, for example. The refills are available for specific pen brands and lines, so you can find the exact ink, and save money by purchasing several refills at once, so you never run out at an inopportune time. Another advantage that comes from using refills is that you can change out the ink color as you wish, and are not stuck with only one color, as you would be with a cheap, disposable ballpoint pen.

All of these products are available from fine writing instrument merchants online.