Has Anyone Heard Of Henry Simpole 2015

[fireskink]

I do think it very unfair of the gentleman to accuse you of selling him an unserviced, substandard pen, especially when he was happy with the (intact) purchase at the time! If you send him back the repaired pen, is he just going to break this one as well and make the same accusation, one wonders?! Perhaps you might email him expressing some confusion as the pen has been serviced, mention the possibility of a replacement barrel - while warning him of the inherently and notoriously fragile nature of the material - and see what he says?

 

Since you already gave him a discount, a replacement seems like a very generous offer to me, and in his circumstances I'd be delighted to receive it (though I hope I'd be a bit less rude!) Giving him the choice does seem like a good solution - though some customers are just determined to be rude and unsatisfied no matter what (many years in retail...) and you might decide it's not worth the hassle and just wish to be rid of him, and to sell the pen to someone who's going to handle it with more care.

[Effin1]

I have never bought a pen from Henry but have availed myself of his repair service on numerous occasions. He is the most ethical gentleman I have ever dealt with and if he says the pen was restored the pen was restored.

The purchaser had ample opportunity to examine the FP and any problems would have been evident then. It's not as though he bought it on line sight unseen. I am convinced the damage was as a result of heavy handling and as such Henry is under no obligation to do anything other than to return the broken pen.

I, would, in this instance refund the gentleman less postage costs purely as a good will gesture but make a mental note never to sell him anything in the future of a fragile nature.

Some people just do not know how to handle brittle pens.

[Truffle Finder]

Thank you all very much for your thoughts about this problem.

I have taken on board what you have said, and I will make my mind up in due course. Bearing in mind that I have now finished doing the restoration to the pen, and I am more than pleased with the result, I think that I will send him the refurbished pen.

My feelings would perhaps have been different if he had not stated in his E-mail that "it was obviously in poor condition, and had not been serviced!" Both of these statements are incorrect, and I can only conclude that he was trying to rationalise his reasons for sending the pen back to me.

Anyway, many thanks once again for your opinions on the matter.

Truffle Finder.

[Larry Barrieau]

First Henry, do you have a written or implied guarantee? If so, is this incident covered by that guarantee? If not, then the guy had time to inspect the pen and ask questions about it and then make his choice to buy or not to buy. Did you feel as though he was a novice with pens? He had time to inspect the pen and ask you questions about it. I don't think that the onus is on you to describe how to handle pens whether it is being gentle with HR or not applying too much pressure with a flex nib. So, what to do? Legally if there is no guarantee, used stuff is usually considered to be as is. What about morally? With an as is sale I would then apply the 'attitude test'. If he's offensive or belligerant or accuses you or wrong doing I would send back one sentence; The pen was sold as is. If he was polite I would try to find a middle ground.

 

Any lawyer looking at the above paragraph will know that my caveat is : I am not a lawyer. I'm only thinking out loud.

[Truffle Finder]

Dear Larry!

Thank you very much for your comments [legally 'sound' or not!] and I'm inclined to think that I will follow your advice, with regard to the man's 'attitude'.

Your thoughts on the matter are greatly appreciated.

Truffle Finder.

[Larry Barrieau]

You're welcome Henry. Good Luck. Also, I'm still interested in a picture of your bench when you complete it.

[Truffle Finder]

Dear Larry,

Having actually managed to assemble the garden seat together! [After a great deal of manipulation! I might add!] it is now looking very good, but it has dawned on me, that I ought to have varnished all of the wooden slats, before I put it together!

So, the next thing to do, is to number each of the slats, and then take the whole thing apart again, and stain and varnish each one, [otherwise it will surely deteriorate in a short period of time!]

Then I will re-assemble it, and then take it over to my sister's place; then I will ask my brother-in-law to take a few photographs of it [in all it's glory!] and get him to send me the pictures, then I will send them on to my friend Neal, and ask him to post them on this thread! [in case you are wondering why such a complicated way of doing it, I have to inform you that I still do not know how to 'scan and send' using a computer!]

Truffle Finder.

[Larry Barrieau]

Thanks Henry, looking forward to it.

[Postscript]

Henry, can you do "in progress" photos as well--pictures of all the pieces before reassembly? Hope so thanks,

 

Post Script

[Truffle Finder]

Good morning 'Postscript'!

If I were you, I wouldn't hold your breath, waiting to see any photographs for a while. Because I wasn't happy with the positioning of the bolt holes that I had drilled in some of the wooden slats, I have dis-assembled the seat, and have 'plugged' the holes with wooden dowels, in preparation to re-drilling the holes in the correct positions!!!

When that has been done, the slats will be stained, and varnished, and then I will put the whole thing back together again. I haven't lost my enthusiasm towards the seat, but I don't know if I would have been quite so keen to attempt this job when I first set eyes on the two cast iron 'sides', when I first saw them at the Bric-a-brac stall in the market, if I had known how much it would take to do this restoration job!

Hey ho!!! I think that it will be a busy day today!

Truffle Finder.

[Daximillian]

Sorry to cut across the current conversation! But I must tell about my day at Portobello yesterday.

It all started with a visit from one of my favourite customers, who lives in Israel, and she is an avid collector of vintage fountain pens.

She is one of those people who doesn't just ask to see a certain 'make' or 'filling mechanism' as a guide to what she is looking for, but she prefers to just look at any type of vintage pen, and then she 'knows' when she sees the one that take her fancy! Which I suppose is the right way to go about it.

Anyway, she chose two pens, and asked me to sort out a grey oversized Parker Vacumatic for next week, when she will come back to pick it up.

 

Truffle Finder.

Yay! That's me

Finally had the time to clean beautiful pens that I bought from Henry, and to fill up the wonderful Wahl Everysharp (pre Signature? Not sure) with some Sailor Jentle ink Epinard (now sadly out of production). This pen has a wet noodle italic nib that is just sheer joy to write with.

 

http://i1156.photobucket.com/albums/p576/nofars/P1040111.jpg

 

 

http://i1156.photobucket.com/albums/p576/nofars/P1040116.jpg

 

http://i1156.photobucket.com/albums/p576/nofars/P1040114.jpg

 

 

My potato quality photos and camera do not do this nib justice (and I love the pen, even though it is a "user-grade" pen).

I will upload photos of the other pens (a Waterman Patrician, Parker 51 and a Parker Striped Vacumatic 1st gen) once I've had a chance to ink them up.

 

If you ever are in London, don't forget to visit Henry's stall in Portobello market. He is, without doubt, my favourite pen seller.

[RMN]

Good morning 'Postscript'!

If I were you, I wouldn't hold your breath, waiting to see any photographs for a while. Because I wasn't happy with the positioning of the bolt holes that I had drilled in some of the wooden slats, I have dis-assembled the seat, and have 'plugged' the holes with wooden dowels, in preparation to re-drilling the holes in the correct positions!!!

When that has been done, the slats will be stained, and varnished, and then I will put the whole thing back together again. I haven't lost my enthusiasm towards the seat, but I don't know if I would have been quite so keen to attempt this job when I first set eyes on the two cast iron 'sides', when I first saw them at the Bric-a-brac stall in the market, if I had known how much it would take to do this restoration job!

Hey ho!!! I think that it will be a busy day today!

Truffle Finder.

 

Henry, just a suggestion here.

 

Perhaps transport will be much easier if you take the whole bench disassembled to your sister, and do the assembly there. In that case you could even ask her to take pics of you doing that... Would be nice to see Henry the Penman in a new capacity...

 

 

D.ick

[Truffle Finder]

I've just been writing here about my day up at Portobello Road, and then when I pressed the thing saying 'POST' nothing happened!!!

I'll try again!

Several people asked me about where the London Pen Show was taking place, and the times Etc: and I handed these people the WES pamphlets, and told them to look up their Web-Site, and that should tell them everything.

When I got back home, there were two messages on my answer-machine, saying that there was no information about the show, apparently the 'Events' calendar only goes up to October 3rd!!!

You couldn't make it up could you?!!!

I sincerely hope that the Pen Show tomorrow is actually happening, and that some people have found out exactly where it is, and exactly when it is happening! But I won't be holding my breath!

Here's lookin' at you kid!!!

Truffle Finder.

[View from the Loft]

Well Truflle, I know of at least 8 of us that will be at the show today :-)

 

I agree that the arrangements have been communicated not so well as in previous years, but still, us regulars have found them.

 

I'll stop by your table later on today, and have a look. Nt looking for any particular pen - it's all in the nib for me. Big italics for me, every time.

[Truffle Finder]

Good morning everyone!

Having slept like the proverbial 'log', I am feeling very happy with the London Pen Show which happened yesterday.

I have actually no idea about the attendance figures, but I did get the impression that the number of visitors to the show was greater this year than last. There were plenty of the early-entry visitors there, and when the 'general admission' people came in at 10.30am, the main room soon filled up, and I am pleased to say that I was kept fairly busy from then onwards. [My voice started to get 'croaky' from about 12.30pm!]

I had several opportunities to browse around the other stands, and it was particularly nice to catch up with some old friends from across the herring pond, who I don't see so frequently these days.

My 'self-restraint' was working well yesterday, and I only bought 3 pens during the course of the day, they were three Parker Sonnets, all of which had broad oblique nibs in them, which I felt were quite unusual. The lady who offered them to me had explained to me that they had been owned by her late aunt, who apparently had had the nibs altered by a professional 'nib-expert' some years ago! They will be welcome additions to my broad/ italic nibbed pens folder! [View from the loft, perhaps next time we meet you could try them!!!]

I think that I had mentioned on this thread, a few weeks ago that I had been offered and subsequently bought, a solid 18ct gold overlaid Dunhill Namiki pen. Because I rarely handle such unusual pens, I took the opportunity to ask some much more knowledgable pen-people about it, and later on in the afternoon, a gentleman came over to see me, and asked me if he could see it.

He asked me the price, and after a modicum of haggling, agreed on a price, and he went away to get the cash, and the lovely pen now lives somewhere in Europe!

A gentleman from the Far-East and his son came to see me during the afternoon, and he bought one of my silver overlaid pens, it wasn't until after the purchase was made, that he told me that he already has two of my overlaid pens, it seems that he likes to treat himself to one each year when he comes over here, and visits the London Pen Show.

All in all, it was a very busy day for me, and as I said before, I did sleep well last night!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I just thought that I would be able to tell you a story. It is absolutely true,BTW.

When I first embarked on my [at that time, a pastime, in my spare time] foray into dealing in Fountain Pens, I used to trade my pens at Antiques Fairs in and around the SW of London. At these antiques Fairs, I used to buy and sell the pens, having serviced them before putting them out for sale.

Most of these pens were in the £35 -£50 range, and a few were more expensive, but in those earlier days, I was more catering to fountain pen 'users' as opposed to collectors.

I can remember selling a particular pen, it was a 1940's Parker Duofold in dark grey, and sadly it had an engraved name on the barrel, [in those days, I presumably hadn't mastered the art of removing such inscriptions!] I can remember a middle aged couple standing at my stand, and the gentleman tried a few of the pens on offer, but when he homed in on the grey Duofold, I noticed that his wife didn't look too happy about him buying it, but she didn't say anything at the time!

Anyway, he decided that the Duofold was the pen for him, [as he really liked the nib] and he paid me for it, and then they left the stand, and presumably the building. But a short while later, the wife returned, and approached my stand, and asked if I would kindly buy the pen back, "at a reduced price obviously!" she said! So, I paid her for the pen, and it went back into my stock.

 

On Sunday, an old collector friend of mine came to see me at the pen Show, and after the usual conversation topics, he reached into his top pocket, and pulled out a grey Parker Duofold, "Do you remember this?" he said.

Well, I didn't, so I told him so.

"Have a look at the inscription on the side!" He said with a smile.

I looked at it, and quite clearly was the inscription:- R.Sole.

Quite a memorable pen I think!

Truffle Finder.

[billydo]

Lol!

No wonder you can recall that story!

 

In my previous career, one of my roles was to liaise between the company health support services and our employees who had ongoing medical conditions. On this occasion, the employee was suffering with an ongoing back problem, resulting in much time off work. As a result of this, he was summoned to an appointment with the company GP, and I subsequently awaited the medical report and advice.

 

Within 24 hours the report came through, and thankfully I read it thoroughly before calling our employee. Amongst all the sound information and advice, I nearly choked on my tea when I read "Mr xxxx has recently had an MRI scan and the results show clear signs of a dick related injury"!!!!!

 

I immediately called the GP and asked her to re-read her own report. She was mortified and apologetic! The error was amended and the report re-sent.

 

Spell-check couldn't save her from this one could it!

 

Neal.

[Ghost Plane]

Yep. Sounds like a legal transcript I got once that converted "tort feasor" into "feasible tart"!

[esterbex]

[esterbex]

British Bespoke Pens made an announcement on Facebook. How very delicious! I recognise the photographer, too! Available from http://www.bespokebritishpens.co.uk/…/henry-simpoles-1907-…/

 

Henry Simpole's reproduction of a 1907 Exhibition Onoto Plunger-filler with sterling silver overlay and flexible "Flag" nib.....