Yesterday my wife and I went to our first ever pen show, and it was a blast. I think this is one of the, if not the smallest one around and it was still overwhelming to a first timer. One vendor in the middle of the room had over 4000 vintage pens!
First up is a couple of general shots of the main room:
It was "shoving room only" for the couple of hours we were there, every age group was well represented and it seemed like almost as many women as men. Everyone was very friendly and many were just chatting about pens standing in the corner.
There were some nice "not for sale" collections here too such as this collection of Conklins:
I have never even seen pictures in the books of these pens all together like this, what a treat!
The show was spilled out into the main hallway and even overflowing to take up at least half the lobby (sorry, no lobby shots):
One really nice treat was this guy right in front of the entrance to the hotel:
His handwriting is astounding (but like an idiot I didnt write his name down), and he sat there the whole time just writing people's names for them, and I didnt see him make one singe mistake, even when I accidentally flashed him with my camera!
That Mabie Todd he is using flexes like a paint brush, litterally! I did not know that flex like that existed. Here is the one he did for my wife:
This is on just plain heavy duty paper from I think he said OfficeMax, using Noodlers ink as dipping ink. Just the nicest guy you would ever want to meet.
My wife loves the pens by David Oscarson and he was there, live and in person, with a glass case with all his pens in them. I told my wife (who is a bit shy) to go talk to him and play with the pens. Finally I had to drag her over there and her face lit up like a christmas tree when he gave her this:
She also picked up some ink and a notepad while at the show. I picked up a Dip pin holder with nib from the guy doing the handwriting samples at the front door, he included a sample card with each of the dip pens showing what it can do, here is the pen:
And here is the sample card of what that pen can do:
Now let me tell you, HE can make it do that, but I havent gotten it to look anywhere near that good yet, heh :-)
The other pen I picked up is one I have wanted for a long time, and this picture does not do it justice, the color is ourstanding and very even, the gold is just beautiful with no brassing I can see. It writes wonderfully with it's original fine extra flexible nib (oh can it flex for a fine):
Now if I could just get that lapis to show up in the photo like it does in person!
All in all it was a great show, a few things I noticed while there:
The silent auction was pretty good sized with our own Danny Fudge contributing three pen repair certificates and our Kevin Chen contributing one heck of a nice new Dani Trio black Urushi pen. I may have missed others from here and I apologize in advance. I dont know too many people by sight in this hobby so I cant say who all was there except for of course David Oscarson, Pendemonium and a little store in Houston I have frequented called Dromgooles.
I hope you enjoyed the report even a fraction as much as I enjoyed the show!
Allan
Is Leroy Fairchild the brand of the pen?
