One of only two remaining German family owned and run pen makers (unlike Pelikan and Montblanc which are both publicly listed and multinational-group owned) - Lamy deserves particular attention for its contribution in developing truly modern pens.
This pencil is made of Makrolon, a Swiss patented type of polycarbonate, similar to resin, which is very durable and a lovely soft and matte material to hold. There is a small, replaceable eraser under the top click button.
Unfortunately, no longer family owned, as of 2024, Lamy was bought by Japanese stationery powerhouse Mitsubishi Uni. Nevertheless Lamy remains German run, with its state of the art factory in Heidelberg which produces 95% of pen parts needed to build a full writing implement. Night and day the factory is able to produce parts unmanned. Similar to the Japanese pen making philosophy, Lamy believes in limiting outsourcing (mostly nibs which are made in smaller workshops in the area), all the tooling is produced in-house, which is nothing short of amazing from an industrial point of view. Our visit to the factory in 2023 corroborated much of the above impressions.
The company was founded by Josef Lamy in 1930. Prior to starting his own business, Josef Lamy had in fact been working as a sales rep for Parker. This influence can be found in Lamy's early pens, which used the same filling system as Parker, and whose conservative designs were loosely based on the classic 1921 Duofold.
Where he, and his son Dr. Manfred Lamy, did innovate radically is by using moulded plastics - as opposed to hand-turned acrylics and celluloids. Much like Braun and Olivetti, post-war companies interested with ideas of modernity, Lamy broke with the past by creating mass-manufactured quality writing tools with a design focused approach.
