As a last minute decision I got my ticket for the Frankfurt Paperworld on Tuesday, went home from University on Friday and left on a foggy and cold saturday morning for an one hour drive to Frankfurt , but NOT before Len had mailed me the names of a couple of Pentrace sponsors and not without instructing me to take some pictures, too.

Paperworld is one of the biggest (possibly even THE biggest) international show for paper, office supplies, writing instruments, school materials, stationery through to computer accessories, drawing instruments, gift articles, greeting cards, picture calendars and albums, organisers, diaries and leather accessories. It's not open to the general public - it is aimed more at the the trade visitor.

If you believe the Frankfurt Messe (Frankfurt "Fair") factsheet, last years 2002 show had a total of almost 62,000 visitors (with around 36,000 being from Germany), over 2,000 exhibitors (1,600 from outside Germany) in an area of 86,000 sqm. Time will tell if this year's show matched these figures.

Simultaniously with Paperworld, other trade fairs are taking place, at the fairgrounds of Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Center: Christmasworld (festive decoration) and Beautyworld (trade fair for perfumery, cosmetics)

This will give you an impression of the size of this show - even my seven hour visit with no long breaks (and only two cans of Cola...) wasn't enough for me to see every booth and visit every brand of pens, paper and ink.

This years visit to the Frankfurt Paperworld was my second visit to this show.

I knew that some of the "big" names in pen business wouldn't be there this year like Montblanc and Montegrappa. During the show I also learned that Omas and Sheaffer UK also didn't attend this year.

....that's the only bad news.

The good news; almost all brands showed new models which will soon hit the market and almost all representatives had been very helpful and kind in providing information to be used in this article for Pentrace.

If catalogue material wasn't available yet (some pens arrived on the friday just before the first day of the show, so some of the pictures I took were the first ones ever taken!) and / or lightning didn't allow nice close up photographies, many representatives offered to mail me more additional digital material like photos and product informations after the show. Those will be used in a second part of this article as soon as I receive them.

So let me thank Jaques Van Acker (ScriBe Consult bvba - Distribution for Delta pens), Robert Kronenberger (President of Krone pens), Vincenzo Massimo (int. sales and export - Marlen), Don Yendle (President of Conway Stewart), Howard L. Levy (Principal of Bexley pens) and Dr. Werner Pflug (Aratrum - Distributon for Kaweco and Visconti) for letting me take pictures of their pens, showing me the new arrivals and their kind offers of sending me more information and images after the show, just to name a few.

Now let‘s get to some new pens:

AURORA:

The Aurora eyecatcher was one of the most expensive pens in the world; an 88 for over 600,000 US $, decorated with little diamonds all over cap and barrel.

More affordable for my pen budget Aurora showed some great additions to the Optima series.

There will be the Mini-Optima, a smaller, thinner and more tapered model as Fountain Pen, Ballpoint, Roller Ball and Pencil (the pencil reminds me of the vintage Sheaffer Balance Golf Pencil), in the new burgundy marbled color with silver trim.

The bigger Standard model Optima will also be available in this very nice color.

The cap bands on the new models will have "OPTIMA" engraved on the capbands rather than the geometric pattern of recent models.

The Ypsilon is now being made in engraved all Sterling Silver and all Satin Chrome finish. A new color (bright red) is added to the Ypsilon De Lux models.

Shiny Gun Metal Laquer is a new finish on the Style models.

The Idea pens were shown in Lined Sterlin Silver (with matching or black barrel) and also in Satin Chrome.

BEXLEY:

Howard L.Levy of Bexley Pens was very kind in showing me some of his new pens. The Americana Collection is a small collection of, you guessed right, a Rio Grande Red marbled, Sanibel Blue marbled and Sierra Silver marbled pen completed by an additional black pen specially. for the European market. This collection is reminiscent of the Art Deco style pens from the 1930‘s, with eight facets on cap and barrel (turned from solid blocks of acrylic resin) with an open-work capband.

Also the new American Artists Series #1, limited to 18 pens of each model, looked very nice, especially because of their unique (damascus steel) metal work.

Hope to also receive pictures here soon.

CARAN D’ACHE:

Caran D'Ache stayed with their nicely finished standard pens and showed two new Limited Editions.

"La Poya" (or the cow pen as I call it ;-)) is a Limited Edition pen, 2002 pieces made. The black body has a Rhodium plated solid Sterlin Silver Overlay, showing the legendary procession of the cows, which is the ceremonial of driving the cattle up to the summer pastures ("la poya") in the first days of spring in the heart of the Swiss Alps.

CONWAY STEWART:

Don Yendle (President of Conway Stewart) showed me the latest arrivals in the Conway Stewart Collection. Several beautifully colored casein (one of Conway Stewarts specialties) and acrylic pens were displayed in his booth.

Colorful Casein, 58, Churchill, Dandy and Dinkie models everwere all over the place. The new vertically golden striped 58 is just a wondeful pen, very bright and brilliant in color.The new “goldfish” color (Don thinks about offering a free goldfish with every pen... :-) is also amazing in terms of its different shades of orange!

A new acrylic color was the laminated grey-blue-beige shown on the 58 series. Those really made me want to add a Conway Stewart to my collection.

Several new colors were also shown with the other models.

I was happy to see one of the original vintage “floral” pens sitting besides the newer “Floral Rose Pen” from the Gold Collection.

Even I was able to make some of the first public pictures of those pens; Don promised me to mail me some close-up shots of the new colors, which will be nicer than my pictures for sure.

CROSS:

Cross didn't show any new writing instruments (maybe some of the finishes were new; e.g. the ATX is now being offered in nice laquer finishes) but they introduced their completely new line of accessories (palm cases, pen cases,...)and watches (yes watches, and they didn't look bad at all!).

DANITRIO:

I’ve never seen the pretty pens of this Japanese manufacturer in real life; again pictures don’t do justice for those little pieces of art, mostly showing traditional Japanese themes.

DELTA:

Delta pens were presented by their new distribution ScriBe from Belgium. I was told that no catalogue information was available at this point of time but Jaques Van Acker promised me to mail me detailed infos and pictures of the new pens after the show; so I guess this will have to wait.

Delta still celebrates its 20th anniversary (1982-2002) and I’ve caught a glimpse of some of the new pens like the “Anniversary Pen” (big classic looking orange marbled pen) or the Limited Edition “Monza” pen, celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Monza racing circuit Italy. Fire Red / silver trim pen with a small cap and semi-hooded nib with a clip mounted to the barrel rather than to the cap. I hope that we will be getting images to show to you soon!

KAWECO:

Kaweco seems to remember their origin and a modernized replica of the Kaweco Elite from the 20‘s will be brought on the market soon. The Elite is a full size pen made from black acrylic resin with silver trim and cap and Rhodium plated 18 K goldnib.

The Kaweco Sport is now available in full cap and barrel aluminium with a clipped on clip.

KRONE:

I also got to meet Robert Kronenberger (President of Krone pens) who is a sponsor of pentrace.com. He was very happy to show me a lot of new pens. He will also mail more detailed infos but I will try to remember the most important news:

Similar to the Laminato Krone created a “Demonstrator” model called the “Prism”. The choice of this name becomes obvious when seeing this pen. Transparent colors of orange, blue and green are laminated together for this pen. The difficulty in this model is to polish not only the outside but also the inside of the barrel and cap.

Robert Kronenberger had of course also some new Limited Edition pens in his pockets of which some only were prototypes so far.

The heavy “General Patton” with true military look of damascus steel, camouflage olive green and sterling silver engraved with military themes was one of them.

The Westminster pen with sterling silver overlay was another one.

In my opinion most impressive were some prototype pieces of hand laquered barrel and caps for a new Limited Edition Snake pens, which will differ from what most people have in mind when thinking of a snake pen. The pens had very detailed painted surface recreating the pattern of snake skin. I’ve seen four different finihses like King Cobra or Rattlesnake and think those pens are really going to be something special.

As with many other of the exclusiv small brands we will get more infos mailed after the show.

Krone had most of the recent Limited Editions on display, which are looking wonderful in real life. Pictures don’t do justice to the wonderful painted surfaces.

LAMY:

Lamy’s motto this year again was “less is more”. Beate Oblau (Lamy’s friendly Product Manager) “toured” me through a small collection of designer desk lamps. Expresso makers, an IBM think pad and water boiler in their modern designer-space booth to finally approach a new ballpoint pen made by the same designer as the mentioned non-pen items: Richard Sapper.

This will be the first model of a new series of designer writing instruments – one mode and one model variation – which will be continued if successful.

The Lamy dialog 1 “Lamy meets Sapper” (...this is the full name if I recall it correctly) is a matte titanium coated, triangular grip ballpoint which will be sold completely with a neat wooden designer case. The triangular shape proved complicatedly in terms of the ballpoint mechanic Beate Oblau explained, but the sample I got to try out showed that Lamy solved all those problems.

This concept slightly reminds of the Aurora Thesi ballpoint but it is more comfortable to hold due to its shape and size.

A new addition to their original Accent line (Matte Black or Matte Palladium) is the Lamy 4pen, a combination pen which can be equipped with 4 different writing modes (pencil, ballpoint, highlighter and PDA stylus tip).

MARLEN:

Together with Krone, Marlen displayed their pens. Vincenzo Massimo (international sales & export) showed me most of the Marlen news.

The 20th anniversary pen will be the first pen with a barrel made from coned glassfibre with the same technology as carbonfibre is used in formula 1 racing cars.The cap of this pen is made of Titanium. 200 pens are available fitted with rubies and sterling silver and 20 each fitted with white or black diamonds and white gold trim.

A very interesting approach was the combination of a sun dial with a fountain pen: The “Sun Dial” pen (called the “Cadran Solaire petit complications”).

I will get more infos and pictures of this high end Limited Edition pen and its development soon.

An interesting Standard line pen is the Marlen Continente. This piston filler is available in 5 theme colors representing the five continents. All were stunning in terms of color combination of the acrylic used. Semitransparent “windows” and laminated two color design made this pen a real eyecatcher. While all color combinations are harmonic the “africa” stands out in my opinion with its pearlized shades of black brown and red.

The Forme was another nice pen with a pearlized acrylic cap and silver overlay barrel, with filled in metallic laquer matching the color of the cap.

Another Limited Edition Pen and Watch collection shown was the “Sciarpa Azzurra e Accademia”, celebrating the 430th anniversary of the Italian military symbol of rank, the blue sash.

NETTUNO:

Nettuno remains their tradition of marine theme pens and I was able to hold one of the “Shark” prototypes which are made from a two tone shark-like white and grey pearl acrylic resin material. It resembles the appearance of a shark pretty nicely. Little magnets hold the cap (closed or posted) in place; even if it is not perfect on the prototype this is a nice patented gadget.

The Dolphin models will be available with metal body instead of black resin and a wooden version was also shown.

The Trident seemed to be a new model, made in nice shades of green-blue marbled material, offered in three sizes (small, standard and oversize).

PARKER:

Parker didn't show much really new stuff. They had the Parker 51 Edition on display as well as the red Mosaic Duofold which have been new to most of the European customers. The Parker 51 won't be officially available in Germany but dealers had the chance to place an one-time order for this pen on the fair.

New to me were new finishes for the Sonnet models. Parker showed a new silver finish with an engraved big square-line pattern and very nice new laquer models in transparent colors (Dark Blue, Burgundy Red and Light Green) over metal (similar to the copper and blue laquer finish of the now discontinued Ellipse). Those models as well as the black laquer model have a silver trim and a new, more modern nib decoration design.

New to me also were the plastic colors Red and Blue for the Parker 45.

The Parker Frontier is also available in a two tone White and Black color with silver trim.

PELIKAN:

Pelikan presented their pens together with their school supply and printing accessories. I've spotted only a few display windows with fountain pens.

Pelikan brings the last of the "original of their time" models, a replica gold and black Toledo with the famous Pelikan motif.

The cities series will be accomplished by the "Chicago". A very cool looking semi transparent silver-grey-black marbled pen with silver trim.

Two new models really stood out from the regular Pelikan models: Two M 1000 Maki-e Fountain Pens (The "Mubyo" (Health) and "Takara-zukushi" (Wealth)) are available in 60 sets worldwide, using Kaga Togidashi-Taka-maki-e technique (if anybody wants to know the details), which is a combination of Taka-maki-e and Togidashi-maki-e ....you always learn something new :-).

...I think that here pictures really say more than thousand words (e-bayers know what I'm talking about :-)).

VISCONTI:

In a smaller booth the distributor Abraxas displayed Visconti and Kaweco pens.

Visonti showed the Wall Street (Limited and Standard Edition). A silver or blue striped celluloid pen (we know this material from the Visconti Manhattan or Copernicus and of course the Parker Vacumatic) with a four sided facetted barrel and cap. In my opinion an very elegant pen. Pictures will be available from Visconti soon.

Another addition is the Gulliver; as the name already implies a series of small writing instruments, made from handpolished acrylic resin.

Visconti also showed the new “erotic art” model “Shunga” which hides its delicate colorful secret under a barrel sleeve.

WATERMAN:

Waterman had a stunning pen on display. They will celebrate their 110th anniversary with 4000 pieces of a Sterling Silver Edson fountain pen with a transparent blue gripping section. The nib is Rhodium plated to match the engraved silver barrel and cap.

Additionally I've never seen the Carène (brown/silver trim), Charleston (white/gold trim), L'Ètalon (Cascade Green and Canyon Brown with silver trim) in those colors.

The Ici et Là is now offered as a fountain pen with an open nib; I would have prefered some sort of inlaid nib. New colors were also introduced.

Very interesting to me, Waterman was one of the few companies having a great collection of vintage pens on display. Nice Patritions, Ripples, a giant Waterman together with a doll size pen as well as precious golden overlay pens from the 20‘s.

As I already said Montblanc, Montegrappa and Omas didn't attend, so I didn't see any of their news on the show.

Sheaffer was represented by their German Distribution Standardgraph, but they didn't show anything new and didn't know yet if there will be new models coming. As a big Sheaffer fan I was a little bit disappointed here! The last time I've been to the Paperworld in 2001 Sheaffer UK showed the new Legacy finishes Black Pearl, King's Gold and Emperor's Silver as well as the Intrigue Limited Edition #1 of 1 and some new finishes for the regular Intrigue line which are now available.

All in all a great show, showing that the market is still very active with many new pens being introduced.

Especially the representatives of the smaller brands have been very kind and helpful to provide me informations for pentrace, and this was a lot! I hope I didn’t miss any major new arrival or forgot to mention important pen news.

I had a great day at the Frankfurt Paper World.