Photos from January meeting

A total of 29 VPC members turned up for our January 2015 meeting, whose theme was "Fountain Pens Marketed To Specific Genders". Many thanks to all our members (including new members Bill M. and Muhammad) who attended - both those who brought in pens for this topic and those who showed up just to listen and learn.

Oh, and just a quick reminder---you don't have to bring in examples for our monthly topics in order to attend a meeting! Our club was formed primarily to share our knowledge & enthusiasm for fountain pens...and our meetings are pretty casual (as befits our West Coast lifestyle ;)

(click on individual photos to enlarge ~ all "people photos" by Richard, pen photos by Maja)

The topic was well-represented with examples by the "Big Four" vintage pen companies (Parker, Sheaffer, Wahl-Eversharp and Waterman), as well as some modern fountain pens. Many thanks again to Stuart for the topic idea. Stuart brought in a wide variety of pens, foremost of which was his ever-growing Lady Sheaffer collection. These clipless fountain pens were introduced in 1958 and came in a wide range of finishes and patterns, as you can see in the photo below:

(from L-R) Mido, Penny, Derek and Ralph listen to Stuart's short talk on the evening's topic:

In addition to the Lady Sheaffers, Stuart also brought a Aurora Style Gemstone fountain pen in the Rose Quartz Pink finish, two vintage Wahl-Eversharp Skylines in the smaller "Demi" size, a Lamy Safari in the "Neon Coral" colour, a Sheaffer Agio Compact (?) in a purple pastel colour, a Sheaffer Tuckaway (a pen model made to be carried in men's trouser pockets), a Sheaffer Balance with so-called "military clip" (more on that below), a Sheaffer Imperial and a Sheaffer "Pen For Men". These pens (in addition to one more Lady Sheaffer--the orangey-red pen) can be seen in the photo below (listed from L-R in the pen case):

There's that Sheaffer Balance with military clip I mentioned earlier. There's a nice write-up on them at Richard Binder's informative website here. The article mentions that Sheaffer started putting military clips on some of their "Balance" line of pens in the year 1941. The wrap-around clip (which was not attached to the front of the pen at all) was a design triumph in that it was both functional and elegant:

Mark Harcourt, the resident pen repairperson at Perks, showed us some lovely examples of smaller-sized vintage Parkers, presumably made for their female customers:

VPCer Rohit brought in a Schrade Tactical fountain pen, a decidedly masculine-looking writing instrument made of aluminum, that can also be used for self-defense. Yes, there exists such a creature!!

In addition to the pens he brought for the topic (shown in the blog post below), Derek brought in a lovely "Parker Pen" makeup powder compact:

Last but certainly not least (and completely unrelated to the evening's topic)...Here's a very quick shot of VPC member James K. trying out his brand-new Delta fountain pen Vancouver Pen Club LE (Limited Edition), a pen specially made for our club by Delta Pen of Naples, Italy. Happily, the pens arrived just in time for our January meeting! More about that in a separate post coming up :)

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday February 19th at the usual place and time (6:30pm-8:30pm or so, at Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street in Vancouver, BC). February's topic will be announced at the end of this month, so please check back then!