Flea Market Haul

[amk]

I've had a number of weekends when although I've found interesting things at the flea markets - several toy pianos (they play little chimes, and are now, following my exploits with a 1" file, nicely in tune), a wonderful top-of-the-line shooting plane, and a pristine Hohner piano melodica - I found no pens at all, not even a Waterman Kultur. And I've hardly seen a Parker all year. It was about time my luck changed.

 

I nearly missed these.http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/haul.jpg

They were stuck in a mug on top of a little cabinet right at the back of a stand. I grabbed the handful. Fifty euros all told for nine pens and a mechanical pencil. I've managed to identify most of them but the Wahl, at least tentatively.

• Gold Starry, lapis, but with the wrong cap. Gold Starry is a French pen company that had its glory days in the 1930s and 40s, with some really lovely celluloids.
• Waterman c/f, gold plate, but I'm not sure what the pattern is/was; it's a very fine design, not milleraies which I originally thought it might be. Most of the plate has disappeared. However the nib has cleaned up nicely and there's not much corrosion on the 'wings'.
• Waterman c/f, stainless and gold trim.
• Waterman Super Master (I think), steel nib.
• Waterman Concorde, matte black - looks very similar to a relatively porous blackwood. A surprisingly light pen.
• Waterman Master (again, not sure) with 18k nib, grey marble lacquer. Out of all the Waterman tubular pens I have, this is the nicest looker.
• Wahl Pen (says it on the clip), Greek Key pattern chased in the BHR, signature no 2 nib.
• Waterman 55, a little bit of discoloration and, oh dear, someone has burned it a bit on the barrel. I see this a lot with pens I acquire in France, often associated with spots of red sealing wax, which tells an ugly tale of a user who has just finished writing his envelope and can't be bothered to put his pen away before getting out the wax and the lighter...
• Edacoto green celluloid mechanical pencil. Lots of bit marks on the cap!
• and (not shown as it is still in the workshop unsticking the mechanism) a Waterman 44 safety, absolutely full of dried, bright blue ink!

I'm still not sure quite what I've got with regards to the modern Watermans or the Wahl pen, so if anyone has some input, I'd be grateful.

 

Here are the nibs.

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/haul-nibs.jpg

 

I think I've got a couple of really big broad nibs in the Watermans, which is a surprise - I hardly ever find anything other than M and F. The Concorde looks particularly tasty.

 

I also acquired, later in the day, a Bermond button-filler in pinkish-brown marble celluloid - Bermond is a Belgian brand but I do see it quite often in France - and as a little digestif, a Waterman Reform in blue marble for fifty cents. I find it quite amusing to put the two 'marbled' pens together as a pair. Both of them have matching bite marks too! - fortunately not very deep.

 

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/bermondwaterman.jpg

 

And a lovely little Rotring Variant set in a leather zipped case, with the original instructions:

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/rotring.jpg

 

I have to say a big thankyou to FPN for giving me the confidence to take on a bunch of pens like this. When I started, I'd never have plunked a fifty euro note down this way! Really this was a fantastic day pen hunting - and a great way to finish the sales in France for this year, as they're pretty much closing down now that autumn is here.

[vikrmbedi]

congratulations on such a nice find...

 

really like the look of wahl eversharp. : )

[basterma]

They look like a great find. I hope they end up being good writers.

[Pickwick]

You paid with euros, is the UK now conforming with the European currency?

[injesticate]

The only time I've seen fountain pens "in the wild" around here was at an antiques show last week. I've been here for five years. I've given up any hope of ever finding any in my area.

 

The Hohner melodica...I think I used to have one. Just over a foot long, maybe 2 inches wide, piano keys and a mouthpiece?

[Bo Bo Olson]

Somgai, you.

[amk]

Pickwick, this was one of my forays across the channel, so euros were in order. That also explains why so many Watermans and no Parker in the bunch - statistically it's a French bundle, with the Gold Starry representing the 'duofold' contingent :-)

 

injesticate, you did indeed have a melodica. There are ones with little stubby keys, and there are the piano melodica versions which, as a keyboard player, I find much more user-friendly. And unlike a piano accordion (the big Maugein accordions they make in France, for instance, weigh about half as much as I do!), you can take them pretty much anywhere.

 

I'll pop up some writing samples once I'd had a chance to get the nibs dipped in some decent ink.

[bsenn]

Thanks, now I have the kazookeylele Final Countdown in my head. Aaauuugh!

 

Brian

[balson]

thats a fantastic haul!

[pankaj]

Enviable catch AMK. Lucky you. Congrats.

[Six Dollar Dave]

Nicely done! Congratulations.

[amk]

Here's the writing sample. It threw up a few surprises.

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/writingsample.jpg

 

Big surprise; the Gold Starry. Incredible! It's horribly scratchy, but what a fantastic nib! a bit of smoothing and I think this is going to become one of my favourites. This pen, ugly as it looks with its battered wrong cap and a bit of barrel discoloration, is a keeper. Love it to bits. Big bold and actually writes italic.

 

Both the Waterman 44 (back from the workshop. It's always a marvellous moment with a safety pen when you try that knob for the n+severalth time and suddenly you feel the mechanism beginning to slide) and the Waterman 55 flex nicely - the 55 is much easier. But not so flexy that I can't write pretty quickly with them.

 

Waterman Concorde, a broad nib that's an absolute nail, but nothing wrong with it at all.

 

The CFs are both nice. The flighter a true F, very well defined and an easy writer. The 'was' gold-filled is scratchy, as if someone's tried to grind it to medium italic and didn't quite finish, but shows promise. I'll see how it works with the brownpaper bag treatment.

 

The Master (got this wrong in the writing sample) is dreadful, but that's because I can't get the nib to go the whole way into the section. I suspect the section may be damaged. Have to do a bit of work on that.

 

I didn't find any of the other pens a completely satisfying writing experience. The Wahl feels very light to me, though it flexes nicely. The Bermond will flex, but the pen felt a little unbalanced. And I can't make the Edacoto pencil flex at all, nor does it have any significant line variation. I must be doing something wrong.

 

One star, four quite nice, one disaster.

[georges zaslavsky]

congrats on a nice haul