Providence, Rhode Island, isn't necessarily the first place that pops into your mind when you think “Pen Show!” but thanks to a collusion between artist and collector Pier Gustafson, also known as the Pen God, and the Providence Art Club, a Pen Fair was indeed held in the old Benefit Street Armory on Saturday, October 18, in conjunction with the Art Club's “Design in Hand” exhibition of writing and writing instruments. With a gate count of over 300 persons, this was a small but satisfactory show, and I had the good fortune to be able to attend. Barbara was with me, as this was in the way of a birthday present for me; otherwise I'd have been slaving away at home. Probably stacking firewood, pretending to be Ant instead of my usual Grasshopper.

I shot the picture above as soon as I was past the check-in desk, shortly after the show opened at 10:00 a.m., and already the place was busy. The armory is small, and it got a lot busier in there before I departed at about 2:00 that afternoon!

The first, and in many ways most impressive, table I saw as soon as I began to take notice of things smaller than the room at large, was David Nishimura's impressive and mouthwatering display of some early pens, including 19th-century dip pens and eyedroppers. I saw some Mabie Todds in David's cases that would have definitely had David Moak's rapt attention.

I also saw David, too, of course, and had a brief chat with him. Here, he was just getting his pens set out for sale in a very nice Parker display case that I thought about inquiring after for my own stuff. But I wasn't really there to buy cases, so I turned reluctantly to other tables.

Among the Pentracers there was Ann jr, whom I met inside the front entrance at just about the same time as I was ogling David Nishimura's stuff. Ann and Barbara and I had a nice chat before going our separate ways, but we kept running across (but not over) each other as we moved around the room.

Always on the lookout for pens I can use to enhance the articles on my Web site, I jumped at the opportunity to photograph a Sheaffer Connaisseur for my Birthday Pens: A Timeline reference article. This one, which its owner Tom Smith kindly allowed me to cart over to another table for better light, is an uncommon specimen; Sheaffer made only one small run of these babies with engine-turned engraving to resemble chasing, and they're arguably the most attractive of the plastic-bodied Connaisseurs.

I shall make no attempt here to list the names of all the people I knew, but a few stand out in my (admittedly flawed) memory; for example, I enjoyed talking with Andy Belliveau (in his fisherman's cap) and Paul Erano, and ogling their pens. I finally broke down and bought a copy of Paul's “other” book, Collecting and Valuing Fountain Pens, a trade paperback with quite a lot of hardheaded advice between its ancient (published in 1995) covers. Paul tells me there aren't any more, so you're out of luck if you wanted to assemble the complete Erano oeuvre.

Now then, if you read Don Fluckinger's Extra Fine Points articles in Nib Noise, you'll have seen his rant about the supersizing of everything from fries to pens. Well, didja ever wonder just how big a Waterman's Ideal Nº 20 really is? Check it out, with a Waterman's Ideal Nº 452 (a 52 with silver overlay) for comparison. That nib looks big enough to eat soup from!

I toured the room several times; Barbara went around a couple of times and then retired to the comparative comfort of our PT Cruiser to read. In my circuits I made a point of immortalizing the Pen God himself, Pier Gustafson, and I caught Pentracers Jon S (center) and Vance Koven (left) at David Nishimura's table.

As my energy was winding down, I went over to the corner that housed the incredibly busy and energetic Nathan Tardif, who had set out for the first time at any show, so far as I know. Here I present for you a portrait of Scaupaug himself. And of course no discussion of Nathan would be complete without something about the world's largest nib, so here, too, is a picture of that prodigious instrument. I was fascinated to see it and to watch Nathan write with it, as it does really just snuggle right down into his hand and become almost an organic extension of his body.

And last, of course, is what the show was ostensibly about. Pens. And more pens. I don't remember whose cases these were, but I spent an inordinate amount of time drooling over them. But of course pen shows really aren't about pens at all. They're about sharing a hobby, a passion, an obsession, with others of like temperament.

© 2003 Richard F. Binder