Has Anyone Heard Of Henry Simpole?

[Truffle Finder]

I had reason to visit the new Conway Stewart Web-site just recently, and the first thing that struck me was the fantastic photography!

The layout has been changed completely, and as a consequence everything is much easier to find, as opposed to the 'maize' of things on the 'old style' of layout!

Yesterday's Portobello stint was surprisingly brisk for this time of year, and it was made slightly more complicated by virtue of an old friend of mine from about 45 years ago turned up completely out of the blue, to say hello after all those years! In those days, we all knew him as 'Spence', [i've no idea why except that it might have been taken from the Spencer Davis group from the 60's!] So, in between customers, we chewed the fat about old times, and old friends, and what became of everybody that we had known from that long ago. It was quite fascinating, and I sincerely hope that we will meet up again, when he is over here again, [he now lives in Venice Beach in California!]

 

I'm planning not to be too busy today, it must be all that talking yesterday, but I'm feeling a bit tired today! Maybe I'm just getting old!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I had the pleasure of going out for lunch with Steven Hull on Monday, it's always nice to see him, and it was particularly good to see him this week, because the last time we had met was at the last London Pen Show, but then only briefly, as we were both pretty busy 'doing deals', and catching up with people who we don't necessarily see that often.

As he is the recognised 'Guru' of all things Conway Stewart, [and Swan, and Onoto, historically speaking!] most of our conversation was about the linking up of Onoto and Conway Stewart. He is quite familiar with Alistair Adams, and we both agreed that the link up between the two companies makes total logistical sense. All changes and improvements will obviously have to be delivered sensitively, but hopefully the two companies can compliment each other, in the future. Although we both stand on the side-lines of this marriage, we both hope that everything should benefit both parties.

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

Yesterday morning, I was up fairly early to go to a fairly large Antiques and Collectables Fair in Essex. It is usually rather fruitless [as far as finding Vintage Fountain Pens goes] unless the weather is good, in which case, there are usually some outside stalls, and the possibilities of finding pens are a lot better! As luck would have it, the weather was quite good yesterday, so I donned my 'I buy old fountain pens' badge, and arrived early enough to see the outside stall-holders setting up.

Inside and out, I scanned the whole fair, and came away with 7 vintage pens, most of which were fairly mundane, but there was one red marbled Parker Vacumatic, in very good condition, so that was my gratification for making the effort to get up so early on a Sunday morning in the search for my 'quarry'.

Today, I had looked through the 'Fairs and Markets Diary', to see if there were any fairs on in the area, apparently there was going to be one in a local village hall, but having made the effort once again, to get up early, my enthusiasm was shattered when I arrived there at just before 8.00am, to find the place deserted! Still, you can't get them all I suppose!

Hey Ho!!!

Truffle Finder.

[curtisjjr]

WOW!

Those are some absolutely gorgeous pens. I'd love to have a custom commission done by him someday.

[Truffle Finder]

Many thanks for your very kind words 'curtisjjr', I would be delighted to do a commissioned pen overlay for you, just let me know!!!

In the meantime, I'm up to my neck in Conway Stewart overlays!

.............and customer's pen repairs!

.....and the weekly 'big shop' at the supermarket!

There's really no peace for the wicked!!!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

The month of August is normally the quiet time of the year [business-wise] up at Portobello Market, primarily because people are on their holidays at that time, and Antique collecting is not high on their list of purchasing priorities!

So, it was with amazement that yesterday's sojourn at Portobello turned out to be the fourth 'good day' in a row...................in August!

A lady had contacted me during the week, to enquire as to whether I was going to be there at Portobello yesterday, as she was interested in buying a silver Snake Patterned Pen. Needless to say, that I was fairly confident that it was going to be a 'good day'! Anyway, she arrived, and we talked about the pens, and she did decide to go for the Silver Snake Pen, so while we were finalising the deal, another lady-collector [from Israel] arrived at my booth, to look at Vintage Parker Pens, so, I left her with an appropriate folder of pens to look at, while we popped along the road to sort out the earlier transaction by credit card! [Needless to say, that I trust the Israeli lady implicitly!] The credit card arrangements didn't take very long to sort out, and when I returned to my stand, there were two people there, discussing the pens that were on display.

Anyway, the long and short of it was that the Israeli Lady bought two vintage Parker Pens, and the rest of the day was taken up with a fairly steady stream of people who had come to drop off, or pick up their 'pen repairs'! [and , I was offered some fairly nice vintage pens to buy!

A very good day!!!

Truffle Finder.

[Ghost Plane]

Let's hear it for good days.

[esterbex]

I'd say the "charmed life" continues....May it live long and prosper!

[Truffle Finder]

It was quite a good day yesterday up at Portobello market.

It started off with another visit by the Israeli Lady, who had come to see me about the two pens which she had bought last Saturday, [they just needed a little adjustment, to the nib, on one of them,] and she had decided to buy two more pens while she was with me.It was really nice to see her again.

A fellow-dealer friend came to see me, and left me with a small bag of vintage pens, [about 8 or 9, including some pencils] which I looked over. When he came back, I made him an offer for the whole lot, and he accepted. In amongst the pens was a Pullman Pen, with a slight amount of damage, [but nothing that I couldn't sort out!] so, we parted company both very happy! I must have had about 5, or 6 of them since I have been messing around with vintage pens, but this one is destined to go into my 'pension scheme folder!]

Hey Ho! A good day, yet again!

Truffle Finder.

[esterbex]

Another great Saturday! That good karma is at work!

Is your Pullman pen similar to this black HR Meteore Pullman from 1932? (pics via artofpen.com)

 

[RMN]

Thanks for these pics. What an interesting pen

 

D.ick

[Truffle Finder]

The pleasure's all mine,RMN!

Thanks must go to Esterbex for finding a selection of pictures, and being able to post them on here!

It is an exceptional pen though, as I said before, I have owned a few of them in my time of messing around with vintage pens, but you so rarely see any nowadays! That is why I was so pleased when I opened the bag, and found it in there!

The one in the picture, is almost certainly made of hard rubber, but the majority of them were made using cassiene, and it is so very thin covering the metal cap, that almost all of them have split, [as has my latest acquisition!] there is also some work needed to sort out the mechanism inside the pen, to get the lid to close tightly shut!

Hopefully it should not be too long before it is all back in working order.

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I have [just this morning taken apart, and successfully re-assembled the Pullman Pen, [actually, I took it apart yesterday, with the help of my good friend Bernard Hawkins, who probably knows more about these pens than anybody!] and having re-sacked the pen, and corrected the alinement of the lid of the pen top, I managed to put it together again!

It was quite a steep learning curve, finding out exactly which order to re-assemble the different parts of the pen. Anyway, the important thing is that it is now ready for me to fill the crack which goes right along the length of the cap! That will be 'fun', but at least it is slightly more 'in my line of territory'!

When I have finished it, I'm hoping to send it to Neal so that photographs can be done, and hopefully they can be posted on this thread.

Truffle Finder.

[View from the Loft]

Sad news that Conway Stewart is in administration, with the staff apparently laid off. And of course, this will impact on others in the pen world.

 

So my CS100 with Truffle's overlay cap band will be my only modern CS!

[Ghost Plane]

So glad we did the Spirit when we did. Hate to see one of my favorites go under.

[esterbex]

So glad we did the Spirit when we did. Hate to see one of my favorites go under.

Me too! Hard for a ship to stay afloat when some of the crew are punching holes in the hull....

[RMN]

Me too! Hard for a ship to stay afloat when some of the crew are punching holes in the hull....

Could you expand on that? Makes me curious...

 

D.ick

[esterbex]

Could you expand on that? Makes me curious...

 

D.ick

I could, but won't. The post would be "disappeared".

[RMN]

I could, but won't. The post would be "disappeared".

Makes me even more curious, but if it would be against FPN policies, then by all means... Would not want to lure you into breaking those....

 

D.ick

[Truffle Finder]

I was very shocked to hear that Conway Stewart had gone into Administration. But having thought about it since I first heard about it, I just hope that someone will step in and try to re-start the company soon, and iron out the problems that it would appear they had suffered from recently.

I am not a 'captain of industry', but I sincerely hope that if a 'new owner' of the company is found fairly soon, that he or she has the skills and determination to make it work. It would be a terrible shame if the company name disappeared once again.

Truffle Finder.