2015 Chicago Pen Show

[Laura N]

So, today was the first public day of the Chicago Pen Show. This year it's in a new location, the Sheraton at O'Hare, and as a result there are three rooms of tables to visit. A bunch of us FPGeekers met up and had fun. Apologies because I took very few photos this year. In retrospect, I spent too much time having fun. Also teasing the wonderful Roger Wooten, who has more than 300 Sheaffer desk sets, but fewer than 300 desks. Well, that's lucky, actually. And I'm lucky that he's a good sport.

So here are some cool things we saw.

The Bittner table had some wonderful modern pens. We were especially taken by the Namiki Emperor pens.



For scale, the object in the middle is the Pelikan Toledo M700 size, which the size of an M400 or M200. These Emperor pens are huge. And the decoration is drop-dead gorgeous. In fact they are so perfectly made that we couldn't even tell they were piston fillers until the very nice Detlef Bittner told us. Here is one of them in dgator's large hands.



Here is just the cap.



Here they are a little closer, to show the detail.

[Laura N]

Okay then it was off to the Kenro table, because they are the distributors of Omas and Aurora and Montegrappa and other objects of particular temptation for me.

Unfortunately the newly released Aurora Optima 365 was not there. But I did see the Mar Adriatico, which was lovely.



And boy this photo stinks, but maybe I can fix it later, and in the meantime it shows some very nice Montegrappa pens. The three in the middle are stunning celluloid pens. The two on the end are Wonder Woman and Superman pens.



Oh and here's the Pelikan M805 Stresemann, which looked businesslike, subtle and attractive.



Some really nice pens, including the "Someday When My Ship Comes In" Montblanc Hemingway.

[Laura N]

Then it was off to the Anderson's table, which was a general store of fountain pen goodness. I spent almost all of my time transfixed by the notebooks of ink samples. I could have curled up in a corner with this for hours.



Though the Andersons sell a "Green Bay" ink which is somewhat painful for Chicago Bear fans, they were kind enough to bring both Illinois and Wisconsin Field Notes.



Here is a shot of the main room, which was packed with vendors and customers. You can see Edison Pens in the corner. Brian and Andrea Gray were their usual gracious selves. I spent too much time talking to them, however, and so took no photos. But I can report that the translucent Menlos looked especially tempting. I covet a Beaumont in one particular material. And I finally, after at least three years of going to their table, and ownership of eight Edison pens, held a Pearl in my own hands. What a nice pen!



The very nice Stephen Mandell had some neat Parker 51 prototypes.



My favorite was this one, which kind of has a bit of everything, and in real life is actually in focus.

[Laura N]

In another room was Ariel Kullock's table. He wasn't there when we were, but here is a nice fellow minding the table with the world's youngest and most adorable pen fan, who thought dgator was the greatest.



I showed you the Emperor fountain pens above, so it's only fair to show these tiny ballpoints, in Linkdeath's hands.



Here was an interesting table that had vintage odds and ends from an estate. The pen and pencil combination.



Boxes of loose nibs.



And this almost complete set of double-line nibs.



And pentooling.com was there, with lots of tools, only a fraction of which are in this photo.



Of course there was much more to see and enjoy. There were lots of people selling and buying, and the show continues tomorrow (Sunday).

[Jon Szanto]

Well done, Laura! I love seeing photos of shows, it just makes it feel like you are back in the hub-bub again. Sounds like all of you had a fun time.

[Crazyorange]

What a ton of fun. Did you get anything?

[lowjax]

Thanks for posting the pictures, Laura. It was great fun meeting you and everyone else that was there.

[Laura N]

What a ton of fun. Did you get anything?

Only window-shopping for me. I took my son Jack, though, which was fun. We saw that Visconti you like -- the clear one with the green swirls -- and it was very nice. Many nice Montblancs and vintage Parkers. Ernesto from Parker 51 wasn't there, which helped me stay on the straight and narrow. I did find some Skrip Peacock Blue for a colleague of Steve. I think some of the others found some tempting goodies, and maybe they'll chime in. When it comes to everybody else, I should keep my lips sealed, in case any purchases were secrets.

[ethernautrix]

Great photos! And ooo, those Namikis! (Namikies? Namiki fountain pens!)

Just as a matter of information about the upcoming SF Pen Show, the organizers plan to have more than 200 (possibly 500) fountain pens, each with a different ink, for people to try. The SF Pen Show is at the end of August. Should you happen to be planning a visit out west. That's all I'm saying.

[Linkdeath]

It was really great meeting you all, and we had lots of fun! I'm still up for us all selling our cars and going in on joint custody of one of those Namiki Emperor pens! Of course, we'll have to work out how to securely share custody.

[dannzeman]

Looks like a great time! Thank you for sharing. I'm so disappointed I wasn't able to attend.

[lowjax]

I had a wonderful time and met some wonderful people. Everyone I met from here was super nice and very welcoming. It was a lot of fun to get to meet you all. Many of the vendors there were great to talk to as well. I had some great chats with most of them, especially Jerry Adair, Sam Highsmith, and Tim Pierson. Very gracious people and helped walk me through a lot of stuff.

Well, the pictures aren't great, but here's my purchases at the Pen Show:



Left to right:
Black 24 Pen Case - I picked it up used from Jerry Adair for a nice price. He had just emptied it out and didn't need it anymore. It's my first big(ger) pen case. I have a 2 pen one I use for work.
On top of that are two Clairfontaine Basics notebooks for testing pens and just general scratching around. Picked them and the two pen flush bulbs from some wonderful people. She was doing a lot of nib work. Everyone seemed to know them, but I can't remember their name.
The two Paperblank journals - one of which will be a mother-in-law's Mother's day gift - the Diamine Burgundy Rose ink, and the 10/20X loupe were from the Andersons.
There were two storage boxes very cheap from Gary Lehrer. Super nice guy.

On to the pens.

From left to right is a Waterman Phileas Mechanical Pencil, a no-name fountain pen, Waterman Thorobred, Waterman ??, a Faber-Castel 5564, and a Wearever that needed a jewel and a clip.

The Waterman Phileas was from Sam Highsmith and was given to my 10 year old son. Sam is a wonderful man and I hope to be doing business with him again. Really enjoyed my conversations with him.
The no-name pen was a $10 bargain from someone, I forgot to get the name. It is a nice looking pen and bought with my 9 year old daughter in mind. She really loves it.

The next 3 pens were purchases for myself.

I picked up a Waterman Thorobred from Tim Pierson. It just jumped out to me and I had to try it out. It is an amazing writer and one of my first flex pens. It goes from f/m to b and back again. I really love the pen.




Next up is a Waterman something from Jerry Adair. I don't remember what model he said it was, but looks like a 92. Not sure on it. Another flex pen that I love writing with.






Last is a Faber-Castell 5564 Fine from Nathaniel Cerf. Very nice guy and as soon as I tried the pen out, it jumped into my pocket and came home with me.




Overall, I had a great time and would love to go back again. I'm just not sure my wallet is ready for it.

[lowjax]

More pictures of my 3 new pens.

[Hawk]

This was our second show in Chicago. Sharon and I had to rescue some orphan pens. I rescued: a Wahl Gold Seal, a Pelikan 400, two Swan Eternal's (New York and England), a Conklin Endura, and two Parker 51's. As you can see we decided to limit ourselves to golden age pens. The people and the pens were great ther was something for everyone. Last year's venue was better in our opinion. However, many people preferred the three rooms in two locations. The pens and the people make the show. We are looking forward to next year.

[reprieve]

Out of curiosity, who was doing nib work at the show?

[dgator]

Out of curiosity, who was doing nib work at the show?

The folks from Indy Pen Dance were doing nib work at the show.

[earthdawn]

Out of curiosity, who was doing nib work at the show?

The folks from Indy Pen Dance were doing nib work at the show.

When Mike & Linda were at the Long Island show I don't think they ever got a chance to even breath they were so busy.

Great photos! Thank you for posting them up.

[hsianloon]

In the last picture of your first post, can I ask what's the model of the pen with the polar bears on it.?

[earthdawn]

In the last picture of your first post, can I ask what's the model of the pen with the polar bears on it.?

Good taste...

http://www.nibs.com/NamikiEmperorPolarBear.htm

[SteveE]

I'll have to say that I had more fun this year at the Chicago Pen Show than in any past year. Part of it was that the show felt more "relaxed" because it was in the three separate rooms and was brighter and quieter than the hall at the Westin. The other reason, and probably the larger reason for me, was the people. It was just wonderful to meet all the local FPG members - some new friends and some I had met some weeks ago. It was also wonderful to be able to spend so much time with some of the exhibitor/sellers at the show. I hope this was just due to the relaxed nature of the show, not due to decreased traffic at their tables.

As I mentioned to some friends early in the day Saturday, this year I came to the show with no "shopping list" of pens or supplies to bring home. That didn't mean that I came home empty-handed, though. After a great experience last year, I always make it a point to visit Linda and Mike Kennedy (Indy-Pen-Dance), and never come away without finding some pen that just jumps into my hands and says "take me home with you." This year's new addition is a tortoise Gate City Belmont. I know this is not a new release, but somehow I never got to try one while Richard was selling them. I tried it at the Indy-Pen-Dance table and it is a neat pen, and it holds about half a bottle of ink. Alright. . . that's an exaggeration, but with its syringe-filler mechanism it holds a lot of ink. The way Linda set the nib, it writes just right, every time.

I also spent time with the Andersons, and brought home some of their new (to me, at least) private-label inks to try.

I did make the rounds of all of the tables at least twice, but this was a year for minimalistic purchases for me. It was more about seeing friends both old and new. A special "shout-out" to old friends Don Lavin, Roger Wooten and Len Provisor.