When the first fountain pens were manufactured, they were clipless. Clips came some time later because they were useful to keep pens in place in the pocket, to prevent them from rolling off the desk, and also because they could embellish caps.

Even after the introduction of cap clips, many pen makers kept on manufacturing caps without clips, sometimes to reduce cost of production, sometimes to safeguard the slender and clean design of their pens.

If you had a pen without a clip, you could use a mobile clip. The variety of mobile clips is very wide; they were manufactured in various materials, such as chrome colored alloy, silver, brass and solid gold. The design could go from the simpler plain bands with ball-ended clips to more elaborate creations. In Germany we find mostly snakes, in Italy we find various shapes with floral decorations and laurel leaves and in France animals such as elephants, monkeys, lizards as well as gargoyles, Bacchus faces and lots of fanciful decorations were fashionable. Mobile clips could be chosen according to the taste of the pen owner and could also reflect his/her interests or profession. In France during the 1920s and 1930s mobile clips were extremely fashionable and manufacturers offered a large variety of styles, prices and materials.

Mobile clips represent a collecting trend on its own as nowadays figurative mobile clips are very scarce. 

This beautiful Waterman 52V in ripple ebonite is fitted with a rare dragonfly mobile clip of French origin. The beauty of the clip completes the beauty of the pen which is a fantastic writing instrument with a superb super flexible EF nib.