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Has Anyone Heard Of Henry Simpole 2016


RMN

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I have good news!

I have finished the 'fine-tuning' to the Pullman Pen, so, today it will be winging it's way to Neal, to have a photographic session!

I hope that you will find the results interesting.

Truffle Finder. :) :D :excl:

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I wasn't expecting anything to happen today at my stand, up at Portobello Market, but it turned out to be fairly busy! Apart from keeping myself fairly well occupied, I had a visitor from the Fountain Pen Network, who wanted to look at my stocks of fountain pens. I took the opportunity to show him a few of my 'pension scheme pens', and he did seem to be fairly impressed with them. Of course, the little Doll's House pen was photographed [yet again!] beside a Parker 51 near it for perspective purposes!

Thankfully, two people came to collect their repaired fountain pens [always welcome 'income'!] and as I said before, I was kept fairly busy for most of the day, which was quite refreshing after the rather dismal last two Saturdays.

Truffle Finder. :) :D

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Here's the Pullman triplets, the newest addition being the green & gold pen. You can see the surgery repairs in the close-up shot, and no doubt Henry will detail the work involved.

 

fpn_1464073572__simpolepullman01.jpg

 

 

fpn_1464073623__simpolepullman02.jpg

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Something which happened last Saturday [which I didn't mention in my last posting] was that one of my visitors asked if he could see my selection of Sheaffer PFM's. He had a good browse, and decided that he wanted to buy a black Mk:5 model, which had a 'broad-ish' oblique nib. He tried it, [just dipped in ink] and then, I offered to test the filling mechanism with plain water, but unfortunately it decided not to work!

Assuming that it was the air-tight washer at the back end of the barrel that was causing the problem, I got another black Mk 5, and swapped the barrels, but that didn't solve the problem, so, I got yet another one, and tried it, but still to no avail!!!

To say that I was embarrassed would have been an understatement, so I just apologised to the gentleman, and we shook hands, and he left. He was very disappointed, but he understood that occasionally these things can happen with old fountain pens!

I brought the three 'rogue' pens back home to the workshop, and tried them out with plain water, and after 'wetting' the front section of each pen, they all filled perfectly! I just wished that I had done that on Saturday!!!

Truffle Finder. :) :D

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As always Neal, the photographs of the Pullman pens are terrific. Thank you very much for doing them, and posting them on here.

I don't think that I have ever seen more than one of those rare pens at any one time, so it is even more surprising to see three of them together!

Many thanks once again.

Truffle Finder. :) :D

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I have just got back from an Antiques Fair, [some 20 or 30 miles away], and I was pleasantly surprised to find a few quite good vintage pens, [a rare occurrence, I find nowadays!] particularly at that Antiques Fair!

The first one was a fairly decent condition gold-filled cap Parker 51 for £10, which was very welcome! The next one, was an Esterbrook button filler, in black hard rubber, with an 'uncious' nib in it! Then I saw a BH rubber Conway Stewart No: 200, with a very early C/S nib in it, for £15! The nib is a number 5 Conway Stewart nib with the imprint done in a 'child's handwritten manner', which are quite rare, so £15 seemed a very small price to pay for the pen.

Yesterday at Portobello Market, I was also quite lucky, in that I found a Burgundy Mk: 3 Sheaffer 'Pen For Men', which had a rather badly damaged cap, for £35. [i have a large PFM 'spares-box BTW!] Needless to say, that I bought it, hoping that I had the correct cap in my spares box! When I got back to the workshop, I went and checked, and as luck would have it, I found the correct cap, so I will be sorting that one out today.

Happy Days!

Truffle Finder. :) :D :P

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Here's the Pullman triplets, the newest addition being the green & gold pen. You can see the surgery repairs in the close-up shot, and no doubt Henry will detail the work involved.

 

fpn_1464073572__simpolepullman01.jpg

 

 

fpn_1464073623__simpolepullman02.jpg

I can't contain the drool!!!

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

~~Larry Brown

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Truffle you have had a most fortuitous weekend!!!

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

~~Larry Brown

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Well, it's Saturday morning again, and I will shortly be on my way to Portobello Market, and I'm pleased to say that the pens that I bought last weekend have all been repaired, and are ready to go into stock.

Obviously, I am hoping that people will be popping in to see me during today, but a good friend of mine has told me that he definitely will be coming, so I am hoping that it will be quite quite busy. We usually do a bit of 'horse-trading' whenever he turns up!

Truffle Finder, :) :D

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At the end of last week, a gentleman sent me a 'Big Blackbird Pen' to be repaired. The main problem with it, was that the barrel threads only just engaged with the cap, so, I spent quite a while yesterday, working on it, then re-sacked it, and then decided to clean it as well, [purely because I was enjoying doing it!] and now it not only looks good, it works well also!

A very satisfying day, I think.

Truffle Finder. :) :D

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I wasn't expecting anything to happen today at my stand, up at Portobello Market, but it turned out to be fairly busy! Apart from keeping myself fairly well occupied, I had a visitor from the Fountain Pen Network, who wanted to look at my stocks of fountain pens. I took the opportunity to show him a few of my 'pension scheme pens', and he did seem to be fairly impressed with them. Of course, the little Doll's House pen was photographed [yet again!] beside a Parker 51 near it for perspective purposes!

Thankfully, two people came to collect their repaired fountain pens [always welcome 'income'!] and as I said before, I was kept fairly busy for most of the day, which was quite refreshing after the rather dismal last two Saturdays.

Truffle Finder. :) :D

 

That visitor was me! :D

I have been meaning to post about my visit for a while, but I have been traveling a lot and couldn't do it before.

I had a wonderful time chatting with you that Saturday and to say that I was impressed with your work is an understatement! Your pens are a magnificent work of art! I just wish I had the money to buy the two shown below :wub: :puddle: .

The pic of the "doll pen" next to the Parker 51 that I brought home with me :wub: is also below (sorry for the bad pics).

Thanks a lot for taking the time to show your work and your personal collection to me. I had an absolutely wonderful time visiting you and I hope that next time I visit I will be able to bring one of your pens back to home with me :D .

Cheers,

 

Luiz

post-120237-0-64074300-1465199369_thumb.jpg

post-120237-0-39432900-1465199648.jpg

Edited by Lam1
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Thank you Lam!

I am so pleased that you enjoyed your visit to my stand at Portobello Road, when you were in the UK.

As I have often said, I am very proud of the overlaid pens that I make, but I also get quite a 'kick' out of showing people [who can appreciate what they are looking at!] my 'pension scheme vintage fountain pens!

I look forward to seeing you the next time you are over on this side of the herring pond!

Truffle Finder. :) :D

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I had a bit of a stroke of luck this week.

A lady telephoned me on Monday, asking me if I would be interested in buying her 'late' husband's fountain pen collection. She explained that she had come across my letter-heading, and had tried to contact me from the number in my letter to him, [it was dated 2003, BTW!]

She told me that there were about 20 pens, but that she was pretty well housebound, so she couldn't come to see me at Portobello Road, so I suggested that she send them to me, and then I could make her an offer once I had looked at them. She agreed to do that, and sure enough they arrived on Wednesday.

All too often, these sort of 'collections' can be very disappointing, but this was not the case with these pens, the first one that I saw, was a Watermans Patrician, in Nacre and Black! The others were of lesser calibre, but very nice anyway. Another one which was in the parcel that had arrived was a John Holland 'hatchet-filler'!

I phone the lady, and made her an offer, and she was amazed at how much I was prepared to pay, [i do try to be as fair as I can with this sort of thing] and needless to say, she accepted my offer, which I sent off to her that day.

I'm quite looking forward to seeing pen enthusiasts tomorrow at Portobello, and I will be able to show the pens off to them!

Truffle Finder. :) :D

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I'd call that quite an unexpected blessing for the both of you! Nice beginning to your Summer, Truffle!!!

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

~~Larry Brown

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The same lady phoned me yesterday, to ask me if I knew anybody [in the trade] who might want to buy about 40 Pocket Watches, which her late husband also collected when he was alive.

While I am up at Portobello today, I will ask around to see if any of the horologist people up there would be interested in looking at them with a view to buying them. It would be nice if I can help the lady out, as she doesn't know anything about the watches.

In the meantime, I hope that there will be a few Pen enthusiasts 'mooching around' Portobello Road today.

Truffle Finder. :) :D :excl:

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My father collected pocket watches Henry and like pens I understand that there is a massive spread in values and desirability between the Walthams which may be worth less than $20 to the very special brands like Patek Philippe, where you can talk $10,000+.

 

Sadly the market is not what it used to be for pocket watches with the demise of the waistcoat.

 

We sold fathers smaller collection through an English auction company who held regular watch auctions, I think they were called Fellows

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Thank you Kenlowe for that information. Would you mind telling me whereabouts Fellows Auction House is based? [Perhaps by PM to me.]

Sadly, Portobello was really very quiet yesterday, [i suspect that the 'Trooping the Colour' might have something to do with it! So, unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity to show off my recently bought pens to any 'Pen People'! Which was a pity.

I spent my time checking over the pens in stock, making sure that they were all clearly priced, so that my friend Tim will be prepared when he stands-in for me next Saturday, when I go off to Wiltshire to attend my re-union down there!

Truffle Finder. :) :D :excl:

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PM sent with link, they also do online valuations which may assist your friend, perhaps she may need to take some pics. I have heard that some pocket watches are only worth their weight in gold.

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The lady concerned has agreed to send me the pocket watches, so hopefully they should arrive here tomorrow, then I will speak to a good friend of mine [who certainly knows much more than I do about such things!] and then we will decide the best way to proceed.

Many thanks once again for the information, regarding the Auction House 'Kenlowe'.

Truffle Finder. :) :D

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