Has Anyone Heard Of Henry Simpole 2016

[Truffle Finder]

Due to the lack of vintage fountain pens offered to me to buy over the past two weeks, it has prompted me to sort through the myriad of pens that have been languishing around here in the workshop for more than long enough, so I have sorted a few of the more unusual pens amongst them, and I have just finished five of them, and they are now ready to be put in to stock this Saturday.

Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

Usually at this time of the week, I start to think about how things are likely to turn out the following day up at Portobello Road.

I wish that I could tell you that there are several people coming to see me, either to collect their repaired pens, or possibly to have a look at my pens on offer, and maybe buy one or two! But sadly I have no such news, so I am keeping an open mind, and I will see how things go!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

Well, yesterday seemed to have been quite a good day up at Portobello Road, [for Easter weekend]. Usually, I suspect that the more serious buyers are 'out of town' during the Public Holidays, but yesterday there was a fairly constant steam of customers who visited my stand while I was there.

Most of the people were not 'collectors' of fountain pens, but people who wanted to 'use' the pens. This is quite a refreshing experience for me, but it can take quite a long time sometimes, when they are trying the pens that they have selected from my stock. Fortunately, I am quite a patient person, and I find it very satisfying when they reach a decision about the pen that they want, and we conclude the deal.

At one point, a couple from Israel turned up, and told me that they had met me some 15 years ago! I can't honestly say that I recognised them, but they seemed very happy to see me again after so many years! I can only assume that I must have made a good impression all those years ago!

At about midday, a lady came along, and told me that she was looking for a Shaeffer fountain pen, to replace the one that she had inherited from her Aunt a few years ago, and which had been lost. I got the Shaeffer pens out, and she tried each one, until she found the one that suited her hand, then she decided that she wanted to try a Parker 51, and after trying a few of them, she decided that she wanted to buy both pens. As she left, [after we had concluded the deal] she departed, saying that she would definitely be seeing me again!

Quite a good day really!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

With the absence of any vintage fountain pens being offered to me for the past couple of Saturdays, I have been delving into my Parker 'spares draws' to see if there was anything in them worth spending some time on in renovation!

Well, I came up with three 1950's Maxima Duofolds, and one senior Duofold [also from the 1950's]. The problem with this sort of reconstruction, is that you look for the first part that you need, [right colour, and correct size etc:] and then you have to look through the draw again for the next part that you need, until hopefully you have got all the parts to make a complete pen. Sounds simple enough, but it doesn't work out as simple as that!

In one case, I had [i thought] got all the correct components, and after putting the pen together, I went to polish it, and then I discovered that there was a long crack along the cap! So, back to the spares draw, to look for another cap [in the same colour of course!] and luckily found one!

It's a funny old game, but I did find it very enjoyable, and, the best part of it was that I now have four ['as new'] vintage pens to go in to my stock!

Truffle Finder.

[Ghost Plane]

That'll teach you to turn out the parts drawer!

[Truffle Finder]

I'm pleased to say, that I am expecting three people who hopefully will visit me today. They are all coming to collect their repaired fountain pens, but I would be surprised if they might be tempted to buy a 'second' pen, but you never know!

Thank goodness for the repair side of the business!

The weather seems to be reasonable dry, so I am hoping that the day could be quite good.

Truffle Finder.

[View from the Loft]

And no engineering works to get in your way today either Truffle. There may be a few more "tourists" around than normal because I know of a few families in London for the weekend as they have a runner in the marathon tomorrow.

 

Just inked up the CS100 with your cap band - I need to make some notes before giving a talk on careers in the bus industry at a local school this week. The IB nib on the pen is fantastic for this sort of work (I can leave the cards on a desk and still read what I have written

[Truffle Finder]

It's funny, 'View from the Loft', [you mentioned about the IB nib in your C/S 100] but the lady who came to see me last Saturday to find a replacement for her Aunt's Sheaffer pen, came to see me again this Saturday, and tried several broad nibbed pens, including one with an extremely broad oblique nib in it.

In the end she decided to go for a beautifully smooth Watermans fountain pen [from the 1940's] but I wonder whether she might come back again, such is the allure of these incredibly rare nibs!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

As a rule, I don't use this space to have a moan about things, but in this case I am making an exception! Please bear with me, and hopefully, some of those reading this will perhaps empathise with what I have to say.

On Friday of last week, I went to the local Waitrose supermarket, and I parked my car in the car park as usual, but sadly I did so in such a way that one of the back wheels was in my neighbour's bay, I did notice this, but I thought, 'well, I'm not going to be very long!' [bad mistake!]

When I came outside again having done my small amount of shopping, there was a familiar yellow plastic envelope stuck on the windscreen! I took the ticket out of the envelope, and took it in to the enquiry desk inside the shop. The lady at the desk looked at it, and then looked at her watch, and then asked me to follow her outside to query it with the 'parking operative'! She had a word with him, and then left us to discuss the crime that had been committed! He explained that the ticket had been issued because I was badly parked. So, that was it, and I left in a not very good frame of mind! [i really did not realise that you could be issued with penalty points for the quality of the parking!]

Whenever I have been given tickets for similar offences, I have always telephoned the people as soon as I get home, and deliver my bank card details, and finish the phone call as quickly as possible, then put my bank card away, and then forget it!

This time, I phoned the number, and a recorded voice greeted me with:- 'Please enter the PCN number, and then the hash key!'

I tried to do what I had been asked, and then I was asked to do the same thing again. I tried a third time, but to no avail!

Talk about trying the patience of a Saint! I gave up in the end because I was starting to get angry, and I have decided to send them an old fashioned cheque to pay my dues! With the small hope that it might inconvenience them in some small way, having to put it into their account, but maybe that's just wishful thinking!!!

In case anyone is wondering how my Saturday went up at Portobello Road, I'm afraid it was a disaster. One person that I was expecting didn't show up, and despite there being plenty of interested punters around, none of them were in buying mode sadly!

Perhaps this coming week will be better.

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I've just come back from a trip to a very small village hall Antiques Fair, near to where I live. Usually, I don't have much luck when I go there, but I like to go anyway, because I know quite a few of the dealers, and it is always good to catch up with the news.

This time however, I was in luck, and I came away with a black Parker 51, [in excellent condition] and a [mint] Canadian Watermans Junior pen and pencil set in a lovely leather pochette! I also bought three Watermans ink bottles [in their boxes] and two 1950's Pelican ink bottles, still with the ink inside each of them!

Everything that I bought was amazingly cheap, and the dealer seemed very surprised when I gave him more money than he was asking, for the Watermans set!

It makes up for such a rotten day on Saturday!

Truffle Finder.

[esterbex]

Wow! You cleaned up! Good start to the week.

[Truffle Finder]

With the absence of Parking tickets, this week has been quite productive, and I'm pleased to say that I am up to date with all my pen repairs, [both the 'customer's pens', and my own] which I was fortunate to have bought at the little Antiques Fair last week.

Sadly, there are no local Antiques Fairs being held near here this Sunday, but we have got the Farmer's Market on in the High Street, so I will have a wander around that on Sunday morning.

Tomorrow, at Portobello Road, I will just keep an open mind, and take a good book!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

Despite the weather being fine, and no 'planned engineering works' going on on the tubes today, it turned out to be quite a dismal day [business wise], in fact I would call it a disaster!

Sadly I was only offered one pen to buy,but unfortunately it was a Parker 61, [which as you probably know, is not a favourite pen of mine!] but it was not expensive, and it didn't have all the usual inherent problems that they normally suffer from, so I bought it!

One of my long term collector friends came to see me, and showed me a selection of his recent finds, which was very enjoyable, and he left me with a handful of vintage pens which need some restoration to each one, so that should keep me busy for this coming week!

There's only one thing that is pretty predictable in this business, and that is that it is totally unpredictable!!!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

Yesterday there was the usual monthly Farmer's Market on down the High Street, so I felt obliged to go there, to see what gastronomic delights were available, and I was quite impressed. I bought some Dover Soles, and some soft Herring Roes, which will both be very welcome additions to our meals this coming week! [Perhaps I ought to mention at this point that I used to be in the Hotel and Catering business, so it is my 'duty' to provide the meals where I am living!]

Later on in the day, I got started on the most complicated pen repair which my friend left with me on Saturday. It is an Easterbrook Relief pen [from the late 1920's] which has got a nasty split around the middle of the cap! As with most of this era of pen manufacture, the material used was casein, which was prone to distortion, due to it's ability to absorb moisture! Anyway, in between popping through to the kitchen to prepare the supper, I got started on the repair.

I have selected a small piece of brass tubing to act as an internal 'splint' inside the cap, and glued it in place, and the first thing that I did this morning when I came downstairs to the workshop, was to check that it is now 'set', and is very robust! So, now I will have to work on the cosmetic appearance of the pen cap!

I really must 'love' my work!!!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I got the sad news of Sue Wirth's passing this morning.

For anyone who knew her, I'm sure that they would remember her! She was hardly the sort of person to go unnoticed at any sort of gathering of people!

I often thought that she could have been a great cabaret act!

I think that I must have first met her in the late 1990's probably at the Chicago Pen Show, when I first became interested in vintage fountain pens. We often did some trading while at various pen shows, as she was a great source of pen 'spares' which she had 'found' in the Parker Pen Company's dumpster! [i don't think that she did the digging around herself, but she obviously knew someone who was a 'professional' dumpster digger!]

I'm sure that she will be sadly missed by all who knew her.

Truffle Finder.

Edited May 10, 2017 by Truffle Finder

[Ghost Plane]

Oh no! To paraphrase John Dunne, "Any pen person's passing diminishes me"

[Truffle Finder]

The pen Gods were looking down on me favourably yesterday at Portobello Road!

Things kicked off when an American couple turned up at my booth to look at vintage fountain pens, which they did for about half an hour, and he then decided to buy an XXX Broad nibbed Watermans pen from the 1920's. We then chatted about pen collecting, and then he suddenly realised that I was Henry Simpole! [something that must have come up during our conversation!!!] He then turned his attention to my overlaid pens, and settled for an Acanthus Leaf patterned Parker Duofold International, which he decided that he wanted to buy.

The second customer was a gentleman from Turkey, and after selecting a number of pens, we came to an agreed price, and he assured me that he would be back to see me, next Saturday! [He did buy the pens that he had picked out, BTW!]

As I was packing up to make my way home, a Gentleman from South America approached, and pointed to a silver capped Mont Blanc 146 size fountain pen. He made his mind up to buy it extremely quickly, and told me that he wanted to pay for it by Credit Card, so we walked up the road to see my friend, and concluded the deal at his arcade. As we parted company, he asked me about Vintage Watches, so I directed him towards the Rad Teapot Arcade, to see Martin Stamp. I then took a taxi back to the station, it had been quite a long day!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

My trip up to Portobello Road turned out to be financially very good today! [Which was very fortunate, when one considers that the first two Saturdays of this month were really very bad!]

First off was my Turkish friend who saw me last week, and we did some 'horse-trading' [pens for pens!] and he departed very pleased about our deal!

Then a young lady [i guessed that she was a comparatively newcomer to pen collecting] from Singapore. She tried out several fountain pens, and chose a few that she decided she would like to buy.

A little while later, another couple from the East arrived and bought a few pretty coloured fountain pens.

In between these goings-on, several people came along to collect their repaired pens from me, which is sometimes a little tricky, as there is rarely enough room for more than one person to be served at my booth at any one time! But I managed to get everyone sorted out, but I did feel very tired by the time I got back home!

A very good day though!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

Many years ago, [early 1970's] I worked at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, [Ancestral Home of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford]. I was involved in the Catering Department, and during my time working there, I met some very interesting people there.

A few days ago, I received an E-mail from David Coyle, [previously, executive chef to their Graces] who now lives in San Fransisco, asking me if I would like to meet him for lunch [early next month] at a restaurant in Sloane Square in London. It will obviously be a great pleasure to see him again, and I have contacted Finlay [who was the gentleman's gentleman to the then Duke of Bedford] and he will be joining us for the lunch.

It will I'm sure be a great pleasure to see him again, and chew the fat with him, and the other dignitaries who might be dining with us!

I'll keep you posted!

Truffle Finder.

PS. I have been asked if I could bring a selection of my overlaid pens with me, to the lunch!

Edited May 24, 2017 by Truffle Finder

[Ghost Plane]

I would love to be a fly on the wall. Have fond memories of Woburn after a visit with my parents back in the late 80s. Wonder if we passed without meeting!