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Has Anyone Heard Of Henry Simpole?


GeorgeWP

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Last Saturday, only a few of the 'repaired pens' people turned up to collect their pens from me, so I am hoping that they will appear there this coming Saturday.

This week, I have been working on two fabulous vintage Mont Blanc pens which I bought last week.

You never know, perhaps someone in the photography business will post a picture or two on here in the next few days!

Truffle Finder. :) :D :excl:

Edited by Truffle Finder
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Just back from Portobello Road, and I am pleased to say that it turned out to be a very successful day! :)

It kicked off, with two ladies who had seen me during the summertime, and had looked over my overlaid pens, and they came back today to buy one as a present for someone that they love dearly!

Next to come along, was a couple, who come to see me once a year, when they treat themselves to a weekend in a London Hotel, and go to a theatre, and always seem to manage to come and visit me on the Saturday morning that they are in Town. He treated himself to a brand new French Watermans fountain pen, with an absolutely 'unchious' nib!!!

It made a change [for me anyway] not to buy any pens today, 'consolidation' seemed to be the watch-word for today! :D

Truffle finder. :) :P

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Thanks for the History, Henry. Let's hope we can meet soon in London or Cornwall; my wife's family is from Mevaghizzey if you know where that may be.

 

Post Script

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Postscript, that sounds lovely!

How often are you over on this side of the Herring Pond?

It would be great to meet you, [or have we met at some point before?] perhaps if you are ever in London on a Saturday, we could meet at my stand at Portobello. I will look forward to it!

Truffle Finder. :) :excl:

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Yesterday's trip to Portobello turned out to be quite good.

The rest of the 'Repaired Pens' people turned up to collect their pens, which is always a satisfying part of the process, [most times anyway!] and on this occasion everyone seemed to be very happy.

I sold an unusual number of Parker 51's during the course of the day. I was offered a 1950's small Mont Blanc pen with a medium flexible nib, by a Swedish gentleman who was over here on holiday for the week.

Another addition to my stock, was a small cut glass Ink Well, [clearly marked with the 'Mont Blanc' mark, on the brass hinged lid], atop the actual ink well. I would be surprised if it doesn't sell before Christmas!

It was a good day, and the gods were obviously on my side, as I didn't suffer any rain while travelling, and there was no 'planned engineering works' on the tubes!

Truffle Finder. :) :excl:

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That's because all your rain was over here pounding my house this morning. You'll have it by Tuesday, I think.

Nope, we've had it since last night, and due to be with us for most of tomorrow as well. At least I will find out if my new jacket is actually waterproof!

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Well all of you get ready for the next pounding 'cause I'm sending more your way!

Rainy days....better than snow any day!

 

Happy for your good Saturday, Truffle! May you have many more! :bunny01:

God is seldom early, never late, and always on time.

~~Larry Brown

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During the whole time that I have been involved with the FPN, I wasn't aware that there was a thread all about the Vanness Pen Shop in Little Rock!

Earlier on this morning, I 'stumbled' on it and had a browse around. It is a very interesting thread, and understandably, everyone seems to be very happy about visiting the shop, and reporting about their visits.

I am hoping to be invited again next year, [as part of the Little Rock Pen Show weekend] to do a 'trunk sale', on the Thursday before the actual pen show. [bTW, it will be taking place on the 27th/28th March 2015.

Hopefully, it will be as good as it has been for the last few years.

Truffle Finder.

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During the whole time that I have been involved with the FPN, I wasn't aware that there was a thread all about the Vanness Pen Shop in Little Rock!

Earlier on this morning, I 'stumbled' on it and had a browse around. It is a very interesting thread, and understandably, everyone seems to be very happy about visiting the shop, and reporting about their visits.

I am hoping to be invited again next year, [as part of the Little Rock Pen Show weekend] to do a 'trunk sale', on the Thursday before the actual pen show. [bTW, it will be taking place on the 27th/28th March 2015.

Hopefully, it will be as good as it has been for the last few years.

Truffle Finder.

Dearest Truffle, the actual date is 27-28 February, 2015. If you show up in March, you will be well received, but no pen show will be occurring in the Little Rock area unless you plan to provide one with your stunning creations solo. :lol:

God is seldom early, never late, and always on time.

~~Larry Brown

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Just back from Portobello Road.

Thankfully, the weather was dry, and quite mild for this time of the year, so the travelling there and back was quite good.

Sadly there weren't many fountain pen enthusiasts around today, [perhaps they had spent yesterday at the Black Friday sales!]

But thankfully, I sold two nice pens, and picked up two pen repairs from customers, so that should keep me busy for a while this coming week.

Truffle Finder. :) :excl:

PS. I had a request from a French Lady, who would like me to instruct her on how to make overlays in sheet silver. I have agreed to her request, and it remains to be seen whether she is serious to learn or not, I'll keep you posted!!!

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Dearest Truffle, the actual date is 27-28 February, 2015. If you show up in March, you will be well received, but no pen show will be occurring in the Little Rock area unless you plan to provide one with your stunning creations solo. :lol:

Can't wait to see you and your marvelous creations- Will you be requesting cornbread again this year?

vanness1938@sbcglobal.net

http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae327/VintagePen/vanness.jpg
Selling fountain pens, ink, paper & related items since 1938

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Hi Lisa!

No, I'm off Corn Bread at the moment, Hot Dogs are what I'm looking forward to while I'm there at the shop on the Thursday before the show starts!

 

With just about all the trimmings!

 

Truffle Finder. :wub: :P :excl:

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Sorting through some old external drives I remembered these pictures from 2007 and thought that they might interest fans of Henry's work. These images were at one time displayed on Henry's website, but were removed following news of a case in the US involving someone who was allegedly being threatened by Montblanc over the customisation of their pens. Rather than run the risk of something similar we took the images offline, never to be seen again... until now of course! I don't know what came of the legal case, perhaps someone that side of the pond can enlighten us all?

 

I love the design work on these Montblancs and think that the overlay works really well with the classic MB design. However, I know that the tapering barrel of the original pen was a huge challenge for Henry and I'm pretty certain that he has never created anything similar on any other MB pen.

fpn_1417378297__image_226_v2.jpg

 

fpn_1417378212__image_218_v2.jpg

 

fpn_1417378106__image_212_v2.jpg

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Sorry Ghost Plane, but as Neal has already said, the problem with trying to fit an overlay on a tapered pen barrel or cap is sooooooooooooooooo difficult that I vowed that I would never try to attempt such an undertaking ever again!

They do look rather lovely though, don't they?

I was asked if I would do them for an older gentleman collector friend of mine, who wanted to buy his two sons presents, [neither of them use or even like Fountain Pens BTW!] so consequently I had to work on those two ball-points! Never again though!

Truffle Finder. :) :D :excl:

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A few weeks ago, I was sent a French Watermans Serenite Pen, which had been accidentally been dropped on a flagstone floor! This major accident had left both the cap, and the barrel in a quite terrible state.

The cap had a crack which ran across the flat top of the cap, and then traversed through the hole where the clip was fitted, and then stopped about halfway down the cap!

The barrel had not been so lucky when this accident happened! There was a triangular 'space' at the back end of the barrel where there should have been plastic, following the curved outline of the barrel! Sadly the plastic 'bits' were not sent to me with the pen, which meant that I was going to have to re-create the missing 'space'! The measurements of the triangular hole were approximately as follows:- 2 cms from left to right, at the base of the triangle, and 3 cms from the base, to the top of the the triangle. There were also two long hairline cracks which went along the barrel about two-thirds of the way down towards the nib!

Shortly after I received the pen, I telephoned the owner, and explained that it was not going to be an easy job, and that I doubted that it would be an 'invisible' repair. I also mentioned that it was possible that I might not succeed in completing the repair at all!

I suppose that it was because of my uncertainty regarding the success of the repair that I didn't think about sending the pen off to Neal to have the 'before' pictures done, so, unfortunately there are only the 'after' pictures to see now!

Probably the most important part of the repair was to locate a thin cylinder into the recess at the back end of the barrel. There are two reasons why this is crucial to the repair, 1] to assist in locating the cap when it is 'posted'. 2] there had to be something in the space for the liquid resin to rest on while it sets!

I'm sorry if my explanation of this very complicated repair has clarified [rather than mystified] what I have done with this pen.

Neal has told me that he will be posting the images fairly soon on this thread, so I will leave it to you to decide what you might think about the repair.

Truffle Finder. :) :excl:

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