Los Angeles Pen Show report - part 1 (the loot)
Half the fun of attending a pen show is meeting and hanging out with
like-minded pen folks, but I thought I'd start my L.A. Pen Show
report by posting some photos of the stuff I bought there.
In addition to the fountain pens and pencils below, I bought some
Noodler's Ink specially made for Fountain Pen Network
(the
Van Gogh "Starry Night" and "Dumas Tulipe Noire") as well as a
bottle of ink from Scribe's Pens and a nice brown leather 3-pen case
from Matt at Toys from the attic:
Group photo below (from left to right): a nifty Retro 51 Crossword
mechanical pencil from Anderson Pens, a Romet Asia fountain pen in
the "Pomegranate" design, a Stipula Gaudi 'Casa Batlló' Limited
Edition fountain pen from Penquest
, a pink Pelikan 'Pelikano' fountain pen (purchased from
fellow VPC member Dave Moffat), a Sheaffer 'NoNonsense' fountain pen
and Pelikan "Twist" fountain pen from Sherrell Tyree of Ink-Pen.com,
and a cool vintage mechanical pencil by Ritepoint with advertising
for Orange Crush on it (also from Dave---thanks, Dave!).
(photo below) A TWSBI 580 Aluminum fountain pen, purchased from
the awesome Andersons (Brian & Lisa) of Anderson Pens.
(photo below) A lovely all-metal Kosca button-filler, purchased from
Peter Crook of Carneil Pens in Scotland. Probably my best deal from the
whole pen show---only $60 for this lovely fountain pen!
Sometimes you find a pen you've been seeking for a long time, and
other times you find something you never knew you really wanted...
until you saw it in person. The former pen is the red Romet Asia in
the red "Pomegranate" pattern (see photo below) . I'd been looking
for this discontinued model for ages, with no success. I spotted it
on the first day of the L.A. Pen Show but didn't buy it. Why? I have
no idea, but I won't do that again! I found it again on day two and
quickly purchased it. It's fitted with a 1.1mm Conklin stub nib but
I don't mind---it's a gorgeous pen that has been on my Wish List
since I saw it online a few years ago.
The Stipula Gaudi
'Casa Batlló' LE (in the same photo as the Romet pen below) was
purchased from Kim Sosin of Penquest.com, a respected pen seller from whom I'd bought
many pens in the past. I visited Barcelona with my husband in '98
and saw the building that inspired this pen, so I jumped at the
chance to acquire it. It's a gorgeous writer with a responsive 14K
Stipula white gold nib. My particular fountain pen is #147/193.
Late edit: I forgot to include a couple of cool print
ads I got from Pendemonium and a nice vintage Parker '51' box I bought
from Sule S! Here they are....
(Not pictured---the Parker '51' book by David & Mark Shepherd, also
purchased from Sam & Frank at Pendemonium. I purchased the book as a
gift for my good friend Glenn in Australia. Happy birthday in
advance, Glenn! :)
Los Angeles pen show report - part 2 (new faces)
(To clear up any possible confusion...The 2015 L.A. Pen Show ran
from Thursday Feb 12th up to & including Sunday Feb 15th. The Sunday
was the only public day; the other days were for dealers & traders
only)
I've always maintained that at least half the fun of
attending a pen show is the people, and this year's amazing show in
L.A. only reinforced my belief. Part two of this report is about
some folks I've never had the pleasure of meeting until last month's
show. For example, I've been buying pens from Lisa & Brian Anderson
of Anderson Pens
for years, but never had a chance to meet them in person
until I went to L.A.
(That's me--Maja--with Brian & Lisa)
They are among the nicest people you'll ever meet...and know
their stuff when it comes to writing instruments, both vintage and
modern. It was a pleasure talking to them and seeing their
professionalism in action when dealing with customers. Brian & Lisa
--- many thanks for the TWSBI pen & cool Retro 51 pencil!
Oh, and this is what they brought to L.A:
Another pen person I had the pleasure of meeting for the
first time was Dan Smith, from FPGeeks.
Dan & I have traded emails and letters, but I've never talked to him
face-to-face until we met up at the show. Dan is a great guy and is
just as funny and personable as he is on those "FPGeeks TV" podcasts
you might have watched.
I didn't have a chance to talk to Eric Schneider of
FPGeeks, but he swung by the Andersons' table and I got him to pose
with Lisa for a quick shot:
And here's a photo of Lisa with Dan:
It was nice to finally meet Bryant Greer of Chatterley
Luxuries. I'd been buying lovely Italian pens from Bryant for many
years, so it was great to chat with him and see what pens he brought
with him to the L.A. show.
As you can see, he brought a lot!
That's me with Ross Cameron of
YAFA. Ross helped our pen club import the gorgeous Delta
Dolcevita Caruso Vancouver Pen Club Limited Edition pens
from Italy late last year, so it was nice to thank him in
person!
YAFA had a really nice display at the L.A. show, as you can see:
I forgot to photograph the one-and-only Susan Wirth, she of the
famous Pen Show calendar, but I had fun chatting with her on the
first day of the L.A. show. To be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed by
the size of the show and didn't photograph much until day three!
Here's Susan's display from this year's L.A. show. It's is very
"user-friendly" and consists of tables & chairs and inked pens ready
for potential buyers to try---a great idea!
I feel really badly for not photographing the awesome
new friends from FPN (the Fountain Pen Network) I met on Saturday
(day three)--- Amberlea ("amberleadavis" on FPN) and Frank ("Frank
C") from Vegas, Steve ("stevesurf") from Arizona and Pierre
("PrestoTenebroso") from Chicago. Amberlea was kind enough to invite
me to join them for dinner at a great sushi place in Manhattan Beach
on Valentine's Day. Thanks for making my day, guys, and thank you
very much for the meal, Steve ;) Incidentally, Pierre is the man
behind the amazing creations at Desiderata Pens. I had the pleasure
of trying one of his amazing flexy-nibbed fountain pens at the
dinner, and I was suitably impressed. Well done, Pierre!
Here is the ink specially made for FPN by Noodler's that Amber was
selling at the pen show, on behalf of FPN. She drove down from Vegas
with her daughter Eleanor (a very cool fountain pen person in her
own right :) on Saturday and spent the day promoting the FPN website
and the three FPN Noodler's inks--Noodler's Galileo Manuscript
Brown, Noodler's Van Gogh Starry Night Blue and Noodler's Dumas
Tulip Noire:
Amberlea had the great idea of pre-filling fountain pens with the
various FPN inks (the red pens below), so that people could try them
out on paper. She also brought some Noodler's ink made for
Dromgoole's pen shop in Houston, Texas, including Noodler's Texas
Live Oak (a lovely dark green ink) and Noodler's The Alamo's
Twilight (a very interesting dark red ink):
Many thanks for the ink, Amberlea, and for your thoughtfulness in
including me in your group's dinner plans; I had a blast! :)
Los Angeles pen show report - part 3 (old friends)
Pen shows are a great place to reconnect with old pen friends, and
the L.A. Show was no exception. I had a wonderful time talking to
people I'd met at pen shows and kept in touch with (via email and/or
letters) over the years.
Sam & Frank Fiorella are the good
folks behind Pendemonium, a great online pen store (and, until they
moved to Arizona recently, a brick & mortar retail store) that has
been around for a long time. I first met Sam & Frank at the Portland
Pen Show (which ran from 2004 to 2008) and purchased many things
from them over the years, so it was nice to see them in person again
in L.A. As usual, they brought a wide variety of items with them to
the show, including print ads, books, inks and ephemera, in addition
to writing instruments. I bought a couple of really nice ads from
them (and included a late photo of them in part 1 of my pen show
report), as well as a book on the Parker '51'.
Here's me with Bruce Hirschman, the pen maker extraordinaire
behind Bruno Corsini Pens. I had a great time hanging out with Bruce
(whom I also met in Portland) and his friends in the Pan Pacific Pen
Club (which meets in San Francisco's Bay Area) on Friday night, as
well as pen people from as far away as Portugal and Brazil. Thanks
for inviting me along, Bruce!
A quick & candid shot of Sherrell Tyree, who runs Ink-Pen
with her brother Joel Hamilton. Sherrell and Joel are super-nice
people and it's always a pleasure catching up with them at pen
shows. We first met at the Portland pen show back in 2004 and I've
bought several pens from them over the years. They are experts on
Sheaffer and Parker pen restoration and always have lots of nice
pens to sell at pen shows.
Oh, and seated to Sherrell's right is Sam Highsmith, with whom I
chatted on Saturday. Sam is a member of the very-active Arkansas Pen
Club and is a real Southern gentleman. It was a pleasure making your
acquaintance in L.A, Sam :) Oh, and P.S -- I managed to try some
grits on this trip, but in an odd setting---the Amtrak restaurant on
my way back home!
Here's Nibmeister John Mottishaw of
Nibs.com
examining a client's pen. John is a mainstay at many pen
shows in the U.S (I first met him in Portland, too) and is a master
at repairing fountain pen nibs. He delivered an excellent seminar on
Saturday that was well-attended and much appreciated. Thanks again,
John!
Photo above: That's Kim Sosin of Penquest talking to Sarj
Minhas, who (with his lovely wife) came all the way from England to
attend the show. Sarj is fondly referred to as "The One-Man Pen
Show" because he always brings many, many lovely pens to sell. I
hadn't met Sarj before, but I knew Kim from the Portland shows. I
bought my amazing Stipula Gaudi Casa Batlló LE pen from Kim at the
L.A. show this year (see part 1 of my L.A Pen Show report for photos
of it) and I am thrilled with it. Many thanks, Kim!
Kim is
the Executive Assistant at the Pen Collectors of America (PCA) which
runs a free program called
Pens for Kids (PFK). The aim of PFK is to "foster(ing)
an interest in pens and pen collecting in the next generation."
To this end, the PFK program has free workshops at some U.S. pen
show which "also stress the importance of handwriting and
personal expression in communication." At these workshops, each
child is given a fountain pen to use and then take home.
That's Stuart Hawkinson and Jim Leonard, both from the Portland Pen
Club. Stuart is one of the first pen people I met at the very first
Portland show back in 2004. I bought a really cool vintage Eversharp
Skyline pencil that he converted to a modern ballpoint at that show,
and I still have and use that pen. Stuart is an amazing pen
repairperson and a very nice guy, so it was good to catch up with
him and see what he's been up to.
Last but not least....the
one-and-only Dave Moffat from our own Vancouver Pen Club! I thought
I'd be the only person from Vancouver there but I wasn't (as far as
I know!). Dave is one of the very first pen people I met in
Vancouver and he's been collecting pens for decades, having amassed
an amazing collection of both vintage and modern pens.
To finish up this long post, I thought I'd end with some
photos of some very special Dupont pen sets--the Medici and
Pharaoh---that were being sold by Toys From the Attic, the online store from whom I bought
my nice new 3-pen leather case. My photos don't really do these
gorgeous works of art justice, but I thought I'd include them
anyway. Enjoy!
Many thanks to the organizers for putting on a great pen
show! The hotel and setting was marvelous and I had a wonderful time
(and hope to attend another one in the future. ;)
