2015 LA Pen Show Report

[AltecGreen]

LA Pen Show 2015


Going into this year’s LA Pen Show, I felt it was going to be interesting times at the show. For those who do not follow the inner workings of various pen shows, there was a major change in the ownership of the show and with change comes uncertainty. Over the last few years, you get a sense of change coming to the pen community. It comes as no surprise that much of the change is represented by a changing of the guard. Many of the first generation are retiring from pens leaving a vacuum. I want to this opportunity to say farewell to Saul Kitchener who passed away just before the LA Show. Saul was was a fixture in the San Francisco pen scene.

My usual plans for LA are to get there early, spend early and often. A few years ago (see my 2012 report), I learned to not leave for LA on Thursday but early Wednesday so you don’t miss anything. Unfortunately, life gets in the way and I had to be in a design review on Wednesday so I did not leave until late afternoon. I would still make it to LA Wednesday but would it be too late? So I left work as soon as I could leave and put pedal to the metal. I did stop in some remote and lonely place in the middle of central California for gas. Of course, I found this awesome pupusa truck selling food to truck drivers in the middle of nowhere.







I did not have time for pupusas since those take a bit more time so I settled for some tacos. Very good at $1.50 ea.




Fortunately, I dodged all traffic in LA and made the trip in 5 hours door to door. At the bar, a number of pen people were having drinks after dinner since they like the rest of the hardcore people arrived in the afternoon. Unfortunately, a lot of selling took place Wednesday evening before the show even started. Some of the pens I was interested in were already spoken for. The lesson is to get there early and realize the pen dealing starts before the show and often in the evenings away from the ballroom.


Thursday
I got up early to work out before breakfast. You really need to be in the ballroom by 8:00 am.


Sunrise over the golf course.





The ballroom was not as active in years past. It seems people were getting a late start. However, the Thursday morning regulars were feasting on the early action.













The early morning is a great time to catch up with your friends. The room is fairly empty and quiet. I find it relaxing.












This is a good time to buy lots of parts and pens.

[AltecGreen]

I had made arrangements on Wednesday night to see Laurence Prenton, a dealer of antiques in Tokyo. I first met him at the LA show in 2013 and he knew I collect vintage Japanese pens. This year he brought quite a few pens for me to see. I proceeded to clean him out of pens. I felt a bit guilty because he did have others who were interested but I pulled the trigger quickly. This was at 8:15 am and I had blown through a quarter of the money I brought.

Here are some of the really high end items he brought.


A maki-e box with a well for Japanese tsunami ink and brushes.









The usual crowd started to slowly filter in.









Dale Beeb of Pentooling had a bunch of new pen tools for sale.









The outer areas were still being prepped early Thursday morning







By 9:30 am, some more people begin to show up. What’s with the sleeping in people?

[AltecGreen]

Despite the seemingly slow start to the show, a lot of money was being thrown around. Sarj, the one man pen show, finally shows up. There was crowd buying stuff and prevented him from even setting up. He brought some vintage Italian pens with him for me and there went another 30% of the budget. I ended up having to go to the back before lunch to get more cash because I had committed to some pens from people showing up later in the show.








Pen buying is hard work. Luis Olivera Leite, a very well known collector from Portugal had a cure for that. Luis is known for bringing food from his home country for people to enjoy as well as his incredible collection of extememely rare pens. It was probably around 11am when Luis started serving a traditional drink from Portugal made from aged White Port, soda water, and a splash of lime. Very refreshing. Pen shows are more than just the pens. It is all about the people that you meet and become friends with.












With cocktail in hand, it was back to the show.


John Marks of Scribe’s Pen started making his own ink. He was selling his ink at the show for $3 for 118 ml. There are currently five colors. The Pen Posse will have report on the ink when we test it at the Post LA-Pen Posse stay tuned. In addition, John has a nice selection of vintage inks in huge bottles.






The nibs.com advance guard arrives. That is Jonella arrived by herself to set up. Jonella has a system and had everything set-up in no time. The problem was that John Mottishaw was bringing the pens so no pens to look at for buy just yet.

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The only one set up outside was Artus pens.


Here is Maxim talking to Loren.



Artus’s line of handpainted pens are always stunning. They are keeping alive several Russian schools of painting. I’ve known Maxim for about four years when he started first bringing these pens to the US. Their artists continue to refine their craft and the latest generation of pens are even more beautiful than the ones I first saw in 2011.


















Things pick up after lunch.

Here is An Tran ready to go.








The Anderson’s arrive and begin setting up their huge display.

[AltecGreen]

LA can be a difficult show for a new company to break into. There is a lot of tradition. The guys from Karas took things and stride. They brought their new line of machined metal pens in awesome bright colors. (I am not a member of the Black pen society)











Now for some cool things I found on Thursday


I forgot which company made this but it’s an elephant’s head pen. The trunk is the clip.


It comes with an elephant foot’s base.




An original M. C. Esher that ended up in Roger Cromwell’s hands.



Pen advertising pre-internet




A rare Aurora Ethiopia imported by Colonial Sand & Stone Co. This example is nearly perfect and comes with the even rarer original ink pellet case.







Wahl-Eversharp Skyscraper LE



This is how the experts do it.

[AltecGreen]

I always tell people new to pen shows that the show does not end after the ballroom is closed. Some of the best part of pen shows is what happens in the evenings. In LA, there is always a large group by the pool. As in years past, we celebrated Lee Chait’s birthday at the show.

Jon Szanto, Brian Leair, Loren Smith, and Paul Rossi pondering the wonders of Calvados.






Arnie and Jim cutting the cake.




The Dark Lord

[MY63]

Thanks for taking us with you

[AltecGreen]

I'll have the other days up ASAP. I expect around 2 hours for each depending on how much time I take out for dinner.

[lsmith42]

Your labors are appreciated!

[Jerome Tarshis]

I can't say this is at all like being there, but it is a great pleasure of its own kind.

[Jon Szanto]

Oh, man... Ricky! I didn't think you would crank this stuff out so fast. Honest-to-gods, I look forward to these reports even after I've *been* at the show!!

Thank you so much.

[ethernautrix]

Oh wow, I didn't know that Saul had been the director of the SF Zoo. SFGate article. RIP, Saul.

Kindv hard to segue to gushing over your photos, Ricky - but great photos! Maxim's pens are gorgeous! I love the details on the ends and caps, beautifully painted filigree or patterns. And the maki-e pens, too! I can't wait to see photos of the pens you bought.

We're trying to cajole Luiz to attend Pen Show Poland. I think he might. After all, Sarj and Jas, Tsachi, Michael and Carmel, and Thierry have said they'll be attending. Pen Show Poland is going international! Not too many Americans, though coughCOMEONcough. [April 11 & 12, Katowice.]

[ethernautrix]

F5, F5, F5, ahem.











Kidding, Ricky. It's only 12:30 am here (or as they say in European, 00:30. I'll be up for a while. (Hahaha.)

[da vinci]

Thank you for the excellent report. Looking forward to the next instalments.

[Jon Szanto]

F5, F5, F5, ahem.

Ha! I remember you used to post that. Oh my, one of the only things missing at the show was YOU! One day - Poland Pen Show!!

[AltecGreen]

Friday


Thursday was a bit of a blur. The show seemed to move slowly but I bought a lot of pens. Others I talked to also said the same thing. I do know quite a few significant pens changed hands. Then there was the running game of whether Farmboy or Tim would buy more Parker 51s. It usually is a race. I think Farmboy had the edge when he found a significant 51.



I saw this as I entered the show area Friday morning.




Greg Minuskin was doing -pre-internet crowdsourcing. I ended up giving him a dollar of which later Doug Berg took. I love the Hello Kitty tape.


There was other stuff on Greg’s table






The show slowly wakes up









One of the lessons you learn from the experienced collectors is that you often only have one opportunity to strike. Dayne Nix arrived late Thursday so he did not set up. I had blown quite a large sum of money on Thursday and needed the rest to cover pens that I had already agreed to buy. Thus I lost this opportunity. Dayne was selling an entire collection of vintage pens including 48 Parkers. The seller did not need the money so the proceeds were slated for a charity. The price was very good and I would have bought it on the spot. Another person not to be named was next to me and also failed to strike. Trying to text your partner was a losing game. In the end, I called Farmboy over and he took one look and it was over. On the other hand I earned OPM points.







After the sale was over, Dayne showed me one of his new acquisition. Sub-brands can be a fun way to collect vintage pens. He showed me a Tower Extra. Tower was a sub-brand for Sonnecken.

[AltecGreen]

One of the reasons I did not buy the collection was that I had committed money to buy from Stylo Art and Eboya. This was the third year that Stylo Art came to LA and the second for Eboya. Mr. Motoshi Kuzuno and his wife Shuko sell incredible wooden pens made from rare Japanese woods as well as some stunning uric pieces. I had posted an advance preview of the usury pens earlier on the week here on FPGeeks so I already knew what was coming. In addition, they brought a new line of wooden pens made using fuki-urushi technique which is an old sushi technique derived from making fine furniture. The sushi brings out the beauty in the grain of the wood.




The two pens on the right use rare Japanese Kurogaki wood.












One of the virtues of Stylo Art pens is that they can be fitted with nibs from all three Japanese companies including all of the specialty nibs Pilot FA, SU, PO nibs, Platinum SEF and Music, and Sailor Naginata. Those were very popular with the buyers. I don;t have any pictures, but Mrs. Kuzuno brought Japanese itch knives made by Takeda Hamono. These are hand forged knives made using traditional Japanese methods. They are light and super sharp. She brought them because I mentioned using Japanese knives last year. I’ll have to post a demonstration in a different thread.


Eboya is part of Nikko Ebonite who make ebonite rods as well as sell pens under the Eboya brand name. Mr. End returned to LA with a new selection of ebonite pens including the bamboo body pens this year. The ebonite is very high quality and is extremely well made. These pens come in C/C and Japanese Eyedropper fillers even in their small pens.


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One of the coolest things Mr. Endo brought was this pop up lucky cat card.









One of the news coming out of LA was that nibs.com started to carry the Eboya pens. So contact nibs.com for more info.

[AltecGreen]

By Friday morning most dealers were set-up and things were humming along.








A nice crowd over at nibs.com



The outside areas were beginning to fill out in time for the weekend.


Keno has their usual display. They were promoting the new Montegrappa DC super heroes pens.



They also had Aurora.



And Omas




Edison pens was just down the aisle. The pens look so cool in the sunlight.







Here is Brian hard at work.



Across the aisle from Edison pens, Rik Knablein and Rikwell was set-up


They had these cool custom wooden display cases designed to hang on the wall.

[AltecGreen]

Somewhere in between our own Gale Pedowitz set-up and unloaded all of the Japanese stationery she brought back from Japan.

Gale’s magic suitcase


Pile o’stuff


Cats




Gale’s display of 3d printed items. More on this in the Saturday report. You’ll have to ask Gale where she got the yellow pen case.



FPN set-up next to Gale. They brought the special FPN inks. There were interesting discussions with Amber Lea Davis who represented FPN.


FPN inks


Amber’s incredible ink test books




Around the corner in the Foyer, Franklin-Christoph set-up.

Jim and Scott always have a great display. They have one of the best tester pen set-ups for their pens and they do tuning of you pens right there.,














The new F-C 80 pen case. I call it the ‘PenMaster’. These are very nice and quite functional. I bought one of each color.

[AltecGreen]

Ryan Krisac and his friend Brandon Lee were here again. Ryan makes wonderful wooden pens and carved pens while Brandon makes custom chocolates. Nothing like wandering the show while munching on chocolate truffles. A lot of people had the same idea.

A pen and chocolate pairing











YAFA was the big show sponsor and started setting up their huge display area out front.









Back inside, Teri Morris of Peyton Street Pens were showing off their new Ranga Zayante pens. These come in ebonite or acrylic. The one Teri showed me have been fitted with 19th century gold dip pen nibs for huge flex.








What is wrong with this picture?



Sam and Frank from Pendemonium always have interesting stuff they pick up on their travels through the US.


I think Chess’s going to be jealous.
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