Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
The pen show is great for all of the knowledge. While I was passing out brochures for the SF Pen Show, I struck up a conversation with a Conklin expert. He pulls out a case from underneath the table of rare and pristine early Conkin Crescent pens. It was quite an education of the early Conklins and the evolution of the crescent.
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I thought this was cool. I just can’t remember why though.
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Susan Wirth got a late start.
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Actually, it seemed like a lot of dealers just started late. They were at the show but did not set-up as early in years past.
The show begins to pick-up by mid-morning.
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The Anderson’s arrive. Thus we have ink at the show on Thursday. Yay! https://ycpi-farm3.staticflickr.com/...ee74c386_c.jpg
I was chatting with Bob Nowak and he had this stunning 18k solid gold Parker 61 in pristine condition. I’m not a Parker guy and Bob’s not a 61 fan but this was fabulous.
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I was chatting with Hirsh Davis and he had one of those vintage pen collecting mysteries. In the picture below is what he showed me.
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The black barrel is a barrel from a Chilton desk pen. There’s was nothing odd until you look inside the barrel. The picture above does not really show it but the inside is not black. The pen had been turned from the Clown material and painted black. How this came to be is one of those mysteries of vintage pens.
Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
Outside in the hallway, there was only Mario Campa and Maxim and his Artus pens set-up. I’ve known Maxim for three years since he came to the 2011 SF show. We chatted about the latest pens they have been doing. Here is a tribute ones to the first dogs that retuned from space.
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Here’s is the pen nominated for the 2014 Reader’s Choice Awards
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One thing I dod not know was that their beautiful pen boxes are made from paper mache. I said paper mache!?! Apparently, this art originated in Germany but has been kept alive by Russian craftsmen.
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John Strother arrives after lunch causing another feeding frenzy.
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If you’ve been paying attention you can identify the sharks by now.
The Anderson’s finished setting up (well almost).
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One of the finniest moments on Thursday was Brian Anderson showing off his Google Glass.
Here is the other Brian playing with it.
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This prompted the following quote
“No wearing Google Glass to bed!”-Lisa Anderson.
We quickly dispersed after that. :-)
Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
One of the highlights for me last year was the attendance of Mr. and Mrs. Kazuno of Stylo Art. They came back to LA this year and brought Mr. Endo of Eboya. Eboya was a company I’ve heard of for a while but never experienced their pens and their ebonite.
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I had already traded e-mails with Mr. Kazuno a few months back. This year he brought more of his sublime wooden pens. The difference is that he brought ones that could be fitted with nibs from any of the three big Japanese companies. This includes the Pilot #10 specialty nibs.
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Mr. Endo of Eboya also runs Nikko Ebonite, the only ebonite manufacturer in Japane. Brian Gray already uses some of his materials.
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Eboya makes a line of beautiful ebonite pens and other ebonite products including guitar picks (yay!).
Pens
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Pen rests
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Guitar Picks
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A piece of raw rubber and some ebonite rods
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Later in the afternoon, John Mottishaw and Co. set-up.
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Here are the usual drool worthy Nakaya pens
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New for this year is the custom Nakaya made test pen holder.
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Here is a new Nakaya Dorsal Fin pen in Awai-Murasaki, a color I pioneered.
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Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
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Ah, my fix is rolling in.
Super job, Ricky!
Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
Fun! I see a green marbled Stipula in one of the later pictures that would have been hard to resist, if not for the $360 price tag, which makes it easy to resist.
The benefit of sharp, detailed photos, right there. :)
Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
Bonus pic from Thursday night. Maxim brought the vodka from Russia. The rest is self explanatory.
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Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AltecGreen
Bonus pic from Thursday night. Maxim brought the vodka from Russia. The rest is self explanatory.
I remember that vodka. It was immoral to shoot it. But... I didn't want to insult Maxim. (I sipped the second shot. Hee hee!)
Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
I collect pen signage(when I can) and that Parker/Quink sign is sweet!
Thanks for the pics,Rick!
John
Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
now i want to go to the LA show next year.
Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
Friday
As I commented in a few threads already on various internet venues, Thursday was a good day for business. Many of the vendors both modern and vintage said they did really well on Thursday. I spent 75% of my budget on Thursday. It was weird because there were less people but more pens and people were spending.
I started my morning by avoiding the hotel breakfast and hit the local bagel joint. It was near a bank where I had to make my customary annual withdrawal a day early. Normally, I do this Saturday. I didn’t get back to the hotel until 9:00 am.
As usual Friday has much more people activity. Some people came in late Thursday but did not bother to set-up.
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The usuals were setting up in the hallways.
Here’s Rik from Rikwell.
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Between the last LA Pen Show and this year, Mike Masuyama moved from Georgia to LA. Thus he was in attendance at LA with a secret partner.
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Right next to Mike was Brian Gray. Brian always brings a large collection of pens. I caught up with him to see what the latest trends were with Edison pens.
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The current hot ticket item is his pump filler/vaccumatic clone. It’s a nice pen and the mechanism seems very nice.
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These come in a nice array of colors. I like the colors.
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Brian did make a double nibbled pen a la the Golden Age of fountain pens. He did not have a finished pen at the show but did have one that was partially finished. It’s a pretty cool pen that harkens back to the 1930’s. This one still needs the middle section and final polish. I did kinda like the satin finish at this stage of production.
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Here is Sarj buying a lot of pens.
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Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
Here’s Frances
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I checked up on Syd at Wahl Eversharp. The new Skylines are doing well. It was the one year anniversary of the unveiling of the new Wahl Eversharp. So far the anodized aluminum pen has been the hot seller. It is cool that the modern parts are made to the same exact specs as the vintage ones. Here’s a modern clip that could fit a vintage Skyline.
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Rick Propas was right on the other side from Syd on Friday,.
He had arrange for several members of the SF Pen Posse to help him at the show. Here are Brian and Christina talking to Bruno. I OPM’ed the two of them on Saturday for big points. This was the day before.
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The next story is a lesson on what not to do at a pen show. To protect the innocent I’ll use fake names. Rick has a beautiful Quadretti dual nib pen in red lined celluloid. This is considered a grail pen among vintage Italians. A person we shall call “Bob” was expressing interest even though the pen was beyond finacial reach short of a quick divorce. Rick said name your price and “Bob” answered with a number he thought Rick would never except. Rick said yes. We all got a good laugh.
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Since the title of this year’s report is “Other People’s Money”, we should start spending some of that. I ran into Cherry right after the quadretti incident. I know exactly the kinda of things she likes so I took her over to the Stylo Art Table to show her one of Mr. Kuzuno’s pens and his selection of specialty Pilot nibs that are not normally available in the US. I had her pegged and she bought a pen with the last Pilot #10 FA nib.
Here is Mr. Kuzuno setting the FA nib on the chosen pen body.
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Mr. Kuzuno sets and adjusts every pen he sells. He is as good as any of the US nibmeisters in that regard.
Here is Cherry with her new pen.
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I took more pictures of the Stylo Art ones while waiting for Cherry. I should have bought the pen in Tamo ash.
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Stan the moderator from FPN brought some of his best pens for show and tell. You won’t easily find pens like this in the US.
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He was showing Mr. Prenton. Mr. Prenton lives in Japan and deals in antiques. He brought a quantity of rare Japanese maki-e pens and other items. This is a sterling smoking pipe made by two masters. A very cool item.
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Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
I was asked to look at some vintage Italian pens. Here are four vintage Tibaldi pens including an early hard rubber pen. People familiar with the 90’s incarnation of Tibaldi will recognize the material and design of the pen on the left. The material and shape was used in the Modello 60 line of the 90’s Tibaldi. This is the original.
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Right next door was Taccia. They are bringing out some very nice pens at a reasonable price.
These are pens in their Timeless series. The one kinda invokes a more upscale version of a Rotring 600. The pen has a heavy and sturdy feel and is quite elegant.
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Another cool pen is from the Covenant series. The open has a single large and long cap. It can be used capless like a medium sized pen or ‘posted’ to a large sized pen. The pen is light and balanced.
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Taccia was running a promotion. If you bought two pens, they would give you a very nice Japanese made silk pen wrap. Here is Shu Jen demonstrating the wrap.
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Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
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Re: LA Pen Show 2014 Report
breathtaking! wish I could have been there.