2011 La Pen Show Report

[AltecGreen]

As requested, here is my 2011 LA Pen Show report.

 

 

 

note: For those replying, this report is very heavy on pictures. Please do not include the pictures in your reply as a courtesy for those with slower connections.

 

 

 

Now onto the report.......

 

 

 

I had the fortune of arranging events so that I was doing work in Pasadena the week of the show so I left on Sunday avoiding the wet weather. I began Thursday at Cal Tech doing stuff. :roflmho:

 

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After setting up the next experiment, I made my way through the LA freeway system to the Manhattan Beach Marriott. This year my room was ready early so I checked in and hit the show. Thursdays at the LA show is mostly a set-up day with the bulk of the traders and dealers still arriving. Still, this year a number of dealers and traders set-up early were ready to go. There was a lot of pen activity.

 

Of course, Susan Wirth was ready to go as usual.

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The showroom. There were already a surprising amount of dealing compared to last year.

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The outer corridor areas were pretty barren on Thursday. Moreover, the weather was not great so the lighting in the corridor areas this year since the corridor areas rely on natural light. This was an annoying problem most of the weekend.

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Our own Pendelton Brown was set-up and working on nibs and pens. Pendelton was awesome and a lot of fun to be around. More on that later.

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I was not planning to spend any money until Friday. I figured that things would be slow until Friday. I entered the showroom. Took a quick look around to get the lay of the land and went to talk to Sarj who was already setting up. The result was my first purchase for the weekend. It took only 10 minutes.

 

Some of Sarj's pens

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Some Nakayas were on my list this year so I hit John Mottishaw's table as soon as he was ready. I was going to wait till Friday to buy the Nakayas but John said now was a good time. So I spent a few minutes with a few other people perusing the inventory. The guy next to meet had that delicious look of shock when I told John I would take a Shu, Kikyo, and Midori Neo Standards. While waiting for John to set the nibs on the new pens, I sent some FB messages to Lisa who could not make the show. Argh! was her answer.

 

John Mottishaw

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Some Nakaya pens

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Someone wanted a picture of a dorsal fin Nakaya. So here you go.

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Detlef Bittner and Bob had set-up already. Meanwhile Bjor at Refill Monster started to unpack the inks and paper. Started was the operative word.

 

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Brian Gray was already here but as usual he does not set-up on Thursday. He was hanging out and chatting with people. A common past time at shows.

 

Brian Gray and Bruno Corsi

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My buds at Penopoly and Penscapes had also arrived in force and were already set-up and suffering from a lack of sleep. :roflmho:

 

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Denise was not feeling quite herself

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Edited February 22, 2011 by AltecGreen

[AltecGreen]

Thursday cont'd

 

 

 

 

One of things I learned last year was that a lot of cool stuff happens after hours. After dinner, I went back to the show room which still had people doing 'business'. There were a lot of cool conversations. Farmboy, Vintage Pens (David Mishimura), and I chatted a bit and watch David's partner delve deep into Jotter Lore. I call this conversation, 'the ecology of a Jotter Collector'. Pendelton (pb2) was still working on nibs and pens. Ron Lee was getting a pen worked on and bought a cool little 60x magnifier/light combo from Pendelton.

 

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All in all, there was a lot of business on Thursday even though many people were still arriving. For those keeping count, I bought 7 pens on Thursday. Pens on my to buy list kept on popping up. One dealer said he business was pretty good and much better than Philly.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Bjor was still organizing. :ltcapd:

 

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Edited February 21, 2011 by AltecGreen

[AltecGreen]

I'll have the other days reports in the morning.

Edited February 21, 2011 by AltecGreen

[Soot]

Ricky, thanks for the report! Your report, to me, is a form of consolation for not being able to attend the show. At least I get to see something!

[troglokev]

It's not that far to swim, really, I guess...

[pen2paper]

Love your photo reports - smiling just like this >

earlier pic of your buys - pursed lips, and swallowed accumulating drool..

[kcunvong]

Awesome! Very nice photos. Thank you.

[mdbrown]

Thank You so much for the report. I very much miss having a table at that show, or just being there as far as that goes. Looking forward to the remaining report.

[bgray]

Keep the pics coming! Thanks, and great to see you again, Ricky!

[stevlight]

Very cool--one day my wife and I will make a trip of it and make it out to LA.

 

Thanks for the pics.

[jlepens]

Great pics Man! Hey I just remembered. You owe me some Brandy!!!! How did I forget.

[Skyppere]

This is the next best thing to being there... sigh... NEXT YEAR!

skyppere

[AltecGreen]

Friday

 

 

 

I got up early on Friday. So what does one do early in the morning at a pen show? I did some pen cleaning on a vintage Japanese pen at 6:30 am.

 

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Friday is usually when the show usually starts. Most of the traders and dealers are set-up by Friday morning (after everyone's had their coffee).

 

 

All is quiet outside the showroom.

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Inside there were some early birds getting a start. Brian Gray was set-up by the time I came down with both his and Ernest's pens. I photographed Brian's pens while he was taking a call.

 

 

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The Stillwell

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A Panopoly of color

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Hakumin Pens

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There was the usual activities amongst the regulars of the show. The LA show's format is very friendly to the collecting community. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are wonderful days to talk to people in depth, make deals, and look at a lot of vintage pens. You can spot when someone just sits down with something cool. A crowd forms immediately.

 

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The show is not always fun and games especially for people working. Sometimes sleep is not overrated. For the rest of lsmith42's sad tale please check FaceBook. :roflmho:

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The LA Show is a treasure trove for those collecting vintage American pens. Since I collect vintage Japanese and Italian Pens, I usually have to work a bit harder looking for pens. Uh........not this year. It would have been nice for Stan to let me know in advance he was selling off a good chunk of his collection at the show. I might have taken out a loan. As it was, Stan's little sale did deep damage to my pocketbook. I knew it was trouble when Stan told me to come by first thing Friday morning on Thursday night.

 

The pens seemed so innocent from 30 ft. away.

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The good stuff hidden under the table

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Stan's really cool 50's map of cloth map of Japan

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By 9:00 am things were slowly heating up in the showroom. It was still pretty dead in the outside areas.

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Kudzu looking for that one pen. She would find it later in the show (with my help). :clap1:

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Some Ariel Kullock Fantasies

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A sample of the Friday action

 

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Brett

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Kudzu talking to Terri Morris (Terim)

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Oh yeah. There were pens.

 

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Can you spot the rare Danish Wahl Eversharp from Cliff Harrington's collection?

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Some Pelikans

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Someone on Sunday was looking for a music nib. They didn't know which pen but were told they needed a music nib. Maybe they should have come on Friday instead.

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[tknechtel]

Ricky, many thanks for the great photos! This is great - like reliving the four days all over!

[pen2paper]

: - ) ...0

good to be 3k miles away, stuck in the snow.

ringtops, lapis, red, gold crescent.. : - )...0 drool emotie is so undignified.

Edited February 21, 2011 by pen2paper

[AltecGreen]

Friday cont'd

 

 

 

More pens. What do you expect from a pen show? :ltcapd:

 

Hirsch Davis's pens

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A really cool LeBoeuf pen in Tiger Eye celluloid. Next year.....

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Here's a smaller pen in the same material. This year.

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If you were looking for modern pens, there weren't many around compared to vintage pens. Fridays is the best day for vintage pens. The modern pens are scattered here and there. More trickle into the show as the big distributors and modern pen dealers show up late Friday and Saturday.

 

 

 

 

Some Pen personalities

 

 

Rick Propas

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Susan Wirth and John Martinson

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Bryant Greer (I cannot take a good photo of Bryant. I tried the entire show. It did not help his table was in the corridor area where there was little light.)

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Frances

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More of Brian Gray

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What to do tonight? Why, take over the world!

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One of the guys from MetalWrtite

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Fred Krinke

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Syd (aka Wahlnut)

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Paul Erano

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The Dark Lord

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Carlos from Brazil. I bought the Soennecken 222 from him.

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Farmbaby

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Penshow dog

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Here are some pics of FPN members

 

Blotto

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Toaster Pastry

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Cory

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Tknechtel

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Natto Girl (see FB for details) Actually, it's just Rita

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Edited February 22, 2011 by AltecGreen

[AltecGreen]

Friday cont'd

 

 

 

Back to pen stuff

 

 

 

 

 

I spent most of time inside since I was looking for specific vintage pens and unfortunately finding them. I did make it to the corridor areas where Winedoc was set-up. I had to spend some time with the maki-e.

 

 

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A bright orange deskset

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New Ancoras and an old Ancora

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American Art Plastics stock

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Cute vintage pencase and pens

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Vintage inks

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In the afternoon on Friday, KTLA channel 5 came to the show to shoot a segment. They did a bunch of interviews so look out for the segment online for those not in the LA area. Here was the crew with Roger Cromwell.

 

 

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The reporter guy was pretty funny!

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This is what happens when you buy a Mont Blanc

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Friday was a busy day. It is my favorite day and I do most of my damage on Friday. The weather made a turn for the worse and the skies opened up. True to LA, I drove 500 ft. to dinner. I feel like Steve Martin in LA Stories. After dinner, there was a lot of activity in the showroom. No pics since I was tired. A bunch of us hung out watching Pendelton work of pens. We were joined by the Dark Lord and our conversations turned from pens to Kevin Pollack impersonations of William Shatner and Benny Hill. I guess you just had to be there.

 

 

But here is a nugget for the TWSBI fans.

 

Blue Vac-Fil TWSBI. The pen belongs to Speedy's wife. Pendelton was making the nib into a stub.

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[Nikolaos]

This is awesome! Thanks so much for the great photos

 

so which pens did you buy? i am dying to know

 

Nikolaos

[DanDeM]

Thanks for the pics. Enjoyed talking with you. Got home and told my wife that the Marantz preamp I traded off now goes for $20K, I got this look that said:

 

"With that kind of foresight, now you're messing with vintage pens?"

[AltecGreen]

This is awesome! Thanks so much for the great photos

 

so which pens did you buy? i am dying to know

 

Nikolaos

 

 

I posted my pen haul in Writing Instruments.

 

 

here is what I bought.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/186158-la-pen-show-haul-2011/