I was pleased to attend my first pen show yesterday, the fifth annual Scriptus Toronto show!
Normally when I write a show review, I add a few comments to each pic. I am not in the best position to do that here as I am still a bit of a newbie to pens. Also, the show was not really set up in a way that is conducive to one of my style of show reviews, for example if it would have been organized by brand (I have done TONS of reviews for gun, knife, car, motorcycle, boat etc. shows). With that said, I will make a few overall comments and then give you a “data dump” of pictures.
Again, with this being my first pen show I did not know what to expect. I know from attending shows for my other hobbies that it is best not to go in looking for something very specific as you might end up disappointed, and instead be open to “surprises.” Still, I couldn’t help having a mental list of “grail” pens that I was hoping to find lol. For example, as you will see in my pics, I am a big Visconti fan so I did hunt down as many as I could find but alas, did not see any of the ones on my “list”.
Overall, I would say the show seemed to be more skewed to older or should I say “vintage” pens. While there were several dealers present, it felt more like a “swap meet” than a “trade show.” I have visited some of the stores of these dealers and it seemed to me that they did not bring their latest and greatest (or highest end) stock. I hope I am not coming across as too negative, it is just that as a newbie, I am more familiar with the newest model pens that appear on manufacturer’s websites and don’t quite know what to look for in vintages. I am sure connoisseurs would have found some treasures. Some of my show favourites included the Bvlgari, Graf von Faber-Castell Bentley, and Montblanc 149 shown in my pics.
There were also lots of accessories and inks (including lineups and a bit of buzz around new and limited releases) but I was surprised that I couldn’t find anything from the Noodler’s Ink brand. Next time I will do more research on inks before attending.
So without further ado, here are the pics…
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