Thursday, October 18, 2018

September meeting photos

Ten VPC members braved the rainy weather and came to the Terry Salman branch of the VPL for our pen club meeting on September 20th. The miserable weather didn't dampen their enthusiasm, however, and everyone brought some interesting things for our "Open Format" topic.

Without further ado, here are some photos from that meeting, starting with these group shots courtesy of Christopher's phone camera:
Going around the table (clockwise, from lower left): Stuart, Mindy, Alejandra's daughter, Christopher, René, Alejandra, Dana, Maja (me), Justin and Jerred
René brought in an interesting assortment of pens, both modern and vintage
That's Tony in the upper-left corner...
All in all, an entertaining meeting with a small-but-enthusiastic bunch of VPCers! Thanks to all who attended the meeting :)

Now some pen photos I snapped with my cel camera (apologies for the picture quality)
~Click on images to enlarge~
Christopher's vintage Parker 'Duofold Jr.' fountain pen in the desirable "Mandarin Yellow" colour, and a vintage Waterman fountain pen in highly collectible "Olive Ripple" pattern

A Sheaffer 'Imperial Sovereign', a lovely fountain pen that Christopher found for a bargain price

(L-R) Pelikan M200, four Kaweco 'Sport' pens (including a hard-to-find black and white marbled 'Sport Art' pen) and a Delike 'Alpha Resin' (a 'Sport' look-alike) in the "Maple Leaf" pattern--all owned by Mindy

A nice selection of black vintage fountain pens by an assortment of makers, including Conway Stewart, Salz, Swan, Summit and Whitney, brought in by René

René's Winkpens pen (a demonstrator pen with a glass nib that utilizes a ink converter that can be filled with a variety of liquids---e.g. coffee, wine, ink et al.) and a Pilot 'Kakuno' in the special "Kumamon" edition

René's beautiful Platinum 'Century 3776' "Yamanaka" Demonstrator Limited Edition fountain pen (only 3776 numbered pieces made)

Two vintage Wahl-Eversharp 'Skyline' fountain pens brought in by René. After consultation with an expert, it was determined that the bottom pen has a replacement cap and is not a 'Streamliner' (a less-common, lower-tier Eversharp model)

Vintage and modern ~ René's bright blue TWSBI 'Eco' and vintage Wyvern fountain pen in a woodgrain pattern. Below that is a Wahl-Eversharp 'Skyline', brought in by Christopher

A closeup of the engraving on the cap of Christopher's 'Skyline'. You can't see all of it, but the inscription says "Mother, Love Bob & Jim ~ Sept.19 '46"

A fine mini-collection of Sheaffer fountain pens belonging to Stuart. Among the pens are the 'Crest', 'Touchdown' and 'Balance' models (all vintage) and an all-black 'Taranis' (modern pen). Stuart also brought in his newest acquisition---a TWSBI 'Go' (not pictured)

Our topic was "Open Format" so we saw some unusual items, such as this Montblanc piston-removal tool created by VPC's own Tony using a piece of metal and a Dremel

Tony also brought in his TWSBI collection! (including some brand-new acquisitions)
The red, white and blue demonstrator is the special edition '580 Taiwan' that uses the colours of the Taiwanese flag (TWSBI being a Taiwanese manufacturer)


Alejandra' red Pilot 'Decimo', a slimmed-down version of the classic Pilot 'Vanishing Point' fountain pen, and a cute new Hobonichi Techo Weeks planner with a wild boar piglet motif

Part of my (Maja's) Retro 51 writing instrument collection (photo courtesy of Justin) displayed in a new acquisition, a bamboo 16-pen display case made by Retro 51

Dana brought in some really nice inks in some really nice pens---(top to bottom) Sailor 'Sapporo' (aka 'Professional Gear Slim') Orange demonstrator, vintage striped Pelikan 400NN, Lamy 'Al-Star' and a mystery pen I will endeavour to ID after I post this! (photo by Justin)

Christopher's 'Skyline' by Wahl-Eversharp (photo taken by its owner)

My apologies to Justin and Jerred for not snapping pics of the items they brought :(
Justin brought in some very cool handmade pens---a Osprey ebonite fountain pen, a Hinze (American made) fountain pen and a pen handmade by the Birmingham Pen Company in the "Eye of Sauron" resin---as well as a Montegrappa 'Game of Thrones' fountain pen, a new Pilot 823 (one of the pens on my own Wish List---Santa, are you listening??), a PenBBS pen and one by Delike. Jerred brought in some pens I'd never seen at any of our meetings before---a Delta 'Monza', a Bexley 'Imperial' and a Hero 'Century 5' (a discontinued model with an integrated fountain pen nib).

Many thanks to everyone who brought in stuff for our topic. We will being continuing this topic ("Open Format") at our meeting on October 18---all details about that meeting are here in this post.