What's Up At Christof's

[GemMayhem]

Love the Montblanc Magic Triangle! As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

For a budget pen of the day, the 332 is still beautiful. The comparison photo with the 139 is terrific - I like the way the red ink window is present in each, each one in a manner befitting it's rank.

 

May I ask what blue ink you used to create the writing sample? That flexible OB nib looks like it's very fun to use! I,too, like the understated white star on the 332.

 

Not at all boring! Thanks for sharing - this thread is great.

[christof]

Thanks for all the kind comments my friends! This made my day.

 

The ink in the writing sample is Waterman's florida blue.

[el.Fakir]

Christof,

 

Thank you for making this thread. :clap1: :clap1: :clap1:

This is one of my all-time favourite threads and I immensely enjoy all your posts about those vintage beauties.

Vintage pens still reside in an unknown territory for me and I learn a lot from your very informative posts.

Please, keep them coming.

[christof]

Hi all, finally, here comes the:

 

7. "„hour of the hunter“

 

Last week I was out in the suburbs of my town for visiting a building site. On my way back to the office I took a different route than usual. The weather was fine and riding bicycle in the city is fun. At a place, I never have been before I realised a very small antique shop. Usually, theese shops are closed the most of the time except on week ends, but this one was opened. I stopped and went in. Then the usual dialog started :

 

Me: „ "I am looking for vintage fountain pens, do you have some ? «

Shop guy: "„Fountain what?“

Me: "„pens, you know, for writing, with ink!“

Shop guy: "„nope, never seen one since 50 years.“

Me (disappointed) : « thanks, by…. »

But then, something amazing happened. The guy said:

"..„….ahmm…, wait a minute, I know what you mean. ... it’s all in this box…“

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7094/7295332832_8a422e1876_c.jpg

Well, usually I’m not interested in vintage tin boxes, but this time… but have a look yourself what was inside:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8152/7293239242_73bfde57d8_c.jpg

 

This is really amazing and weird. The first time in my life as a hunter I catched that amount of pens at one time. Seems that I’m a quite good hunter but unfortunately I am a bad actor and the guy realised my blinkin eyes and he doubled the price in the moiety of a second before I could ask about the price. I was in a rush because the next meeting was waiting at the office so I grabbed all the pens, payed the guy what he asked for and went back to work. At home, I opened the box again. Lots of the pens were broken, or missing something. The good thing is, most of them are Parkers, Pelikan and Soennecken. So I can use them as donor pens in the future. But there are lots of nice Pelikan 140/400 100N and 100. Also lots of Parker 51 and vacs.

Here are only the nicest ones:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7092/7293239942_83aafd7693_c.jpg

 

…yes, you are right: this is Nassau Green, and yes, the silver grey vac is oversize, and yes again, the Pelikan 100 has a striped jade green binde…..

 

But now the really shocking part oft he story:

Do you know what the guy said to me when I left the shop???

 

Guy: "...„….ahermmm, …I remember now …there must have been about five of this boxes…but once, there was a guy which bought em all…,...all are sold now…“

Me:“….... ahermmm....….“

 

Edited May 29, 2012 by christof

[ticoun]

I'm speechless! Just... Wow!

Congrats! :clap1:

[dcpritch]

... But then, something amazing happened. The guy said:

"….ahmm…, wait a minute, I know what you mean. ... it's all in this box…"

 

... unfortunately I am a bad actor and the guy realised my blinkin eyes and he doubled the price in the moiety of a second before I could ask about the price.

 

... Do you know what the guy said to me when I left the shop???

 

Guy: "….ahermmm, …I remember now …there must have been about five of this boxes…but once, there was a guy which bought em all…,...all are sold now…"

Me:"….... ahermmm....…."

What a range of emotions you must have gone through in a very short period of time! It sounds like a very fortuitous route you took (I'm thinking of a Robert Frost poem right now), and the pile of pens in that one picture is amazing. I am excited to see them as you clean the pens and show us in more detail the treasures you found last week. This is one of my favorite threads on FPN - thanks Christof!

[ethernautrix]

Wow!

 

What is that saying? Luck favors the prepared.

 

Congratulations on your find!

[Soot]

Christof, this is a ridiculous find...

 

I am green with envy.

[gumwater]

This thread is fabulous. Christof, you are quite talented and your pen collection is fantastic. :thumbup:

Edited May 29, 2012 by gumwater

[markiv]

You have discovered the equivalent of "Open sesame" for fountain pens.

I am glad these would be put to good use rather than being locked in a tin.

Edited June 2, 2012 by markiv

[terminal]

Just amazing. Pretty cool pictures too

[dannyboy]

I must say that's an amazing find--that Parker 51 Nassau jumped right out at me when I saw that incredible mound of pens! Congratulations--as you well know, finds don't come along like that very often (if at all!). Thanks for posting such nice photos and also for telling this amazing story.

[GemMayhem]

Christof, hands down, The Best pen haul from a casual encounter. Congratulations!!

 

Imagine those pens, spending years, maybe decades, stuffed into a tin, forgotten and neglected. If pens had dreams, they would have been dreaming of the day they'd be discovered by a pen lover. And the more ambitious amongst them would have been dreaming of being discovered by a master pen restorer whose talents would bring them back to the former glory and help them find loving new homes. *happy sigh* Dreams come true.

 

This post made my day. It does the heart good knowing those pens will be brought back to life and that you will thoroughly enjoy everymoment of doing so. Thanks for sharing your great fortune with us with such storytelling and photos!!

Edited June 3, 2012 by GemMayhem

[GemMayhem]

Christof, is that a 222 Extra by any chance??

[christof]

Thanks to all of you for your nice comments!!

 

Christof, is that a 222 Extra by any chance??

 

Nope, it's "only" a Superior.

[christof]

As you can imagine, there is a lot to do in my pen studio currently. I sorted all the pens over the week end and started some restauration projects as well. My kids did kindly helping me...

 

...so I didn't had lots of time to photograph and write a new topic for this thread. I just took a quick shot of my latest aquisition: the 2012 color of LAMYs Safari. It's the third green in 32 years. Of course, I have them all three:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7072/7334086724_56c7b99cd0_c.jpg

 

So please excuse this short note and see what's next...

[pen2paper]

Three, and so totally different!

[christof]

You have discovered the equivalent of "Open sesame" for fountain pens.

I am glad these would be put to good use rather than being locked in a tin.

 

You must be kidding! - 80 pens putting to good use! (Not counting the 150 I already own...) Some of them will be restored and - locked in my drawer

 

Others I will share with the community. To be honest, I am preparing a big Pelikan 140 and IBIS sale. There are lots of nice colors: solid green, solid burgundy, solid blue, black with silver trim and of course green striped...

Edited June 5, 2012 by christof

[christof]

Next is…

8. “the swiss connection 1“

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8166/7166007067_b94564db14_c.jpg

It is well known that some manufacturers did made some special models and variants for specific markets. Like Pelikan did with the 300 for the Swiss (and Scandinavian ?) market, or Waterman’s with the piston fillers also exclusively for Switzerland.

So did Soennecken with an entire Series of pens in the 1940’s and 50’s. The most significant feature is a clip which is fixed at the top oft he cap, like military clips. The clip screw is a flat and grooved brass part. There is not that much known about this pens. They came in different colors, sizes and models but all of them that I have seen have this sort of a military clip.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7100/7351218388_afa27c07b8_c.jpg

I do not collect Soennecken pens but, of course I am interested in its history, specially when it comes to the so called Swiss-market models.

In this huge lot of pens have been also three of this „swiss“ Soenneckens. Two oft hem I have seen before, but one is a little bit different. It’s a Soennecken 115 which is significantly larger than all the others that I ever have seen.

For size comparison there’s also a well known Pelikan 400NN on the picture.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7085/7351217432_b7def6ca77_c.jpg

Soennecken are quite well designed pens and always a pleasure to work on.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7234/7351216972_eb7c6ea0ca_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8168/7166006491_2b0ef99e5f_c.jpg

Also the celluloid is completely different. It’s sort of a red „platinum“ pattern which I never have seen before on a Soennecken and not at all. The shape of the pen is typical for this models and the nib is a huge flexible which writes (and draws) amazingly well.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7101/7351218754_a981328ed4_c.jpg

Hope you did enjoy this and let’s see what’s next…...

Edited June 8, 2012 by christof

[Soot]

Christof,

 

You really made this pen shine! Wow, wow, wow... I am

 

What do you know, I AM surprised by the size of this pen, very nice!