Tuesday, December 31, 2019

First meeting of 2020!

When: Thursday January 16, 2020 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm (don't worry if you're late, as we usually start at around 6:30 pm)

Where: A meeting room (the Strathcona room) in a smaller building located next to Vancouver City Hall, 453 W. 12th, Vancouver, BC (on the corner of W. 12th and Cambie).

This is the same place where we had our last two meetings. If you wish to attend but are not a member yet, please contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com for more info re: the location.

Parking: There is free parking along Cambie Street after 6:00pm, or in the underground parking at the VanCity Building at 10th & Yukon when VanCity is closed. Parking along Yukon Street is $2.00 per hour.

Topic/Theme:WHITE FOUNTAIN PENS! (off-white or *light* beige fountain pens are ok. Fountain pens with a pattern to them are ok, too )

We've never done "White Fountain Pens" as a meeting theme before, so many thanks to Jerred for the idea.
Our secondary topic is always NEWEST ACQUISITIONS (pen-related)---eg. new pens/inks/paper/pen cases/other accessories/etc---so if you have anything new you wish to show, please bring it to the meeting. Hope you can make it!

Saturday, December 14, 2019

November meeting pics

Our November meeting saw our pen club at a brand-new venue---a nice, cozy meeting room near Vancouver City Hall! Nineteen VPC members (including newcomer Nathan) were in attendance to see and hear about the items brought in for our "Open Format" theme...
The purpose of this open-ended theme was to allow members to bring in writing-instrument-related items that didn't fit in with previous topics. Our secondary topic is always "Newest Acquisitions" and we were lucky to see some great new pens, such as the ones René brought in... (~click on images to enlarge~)
(Photo above) René's haul included some nice vintage fountain pens (maroon Parker '45', a woodgrain ringtop, a Lady Sheaffer Skripsert' in the "Balicon Red on Gold" fishnet pattern, a swirly Morgan lever-filler, and a Waterman cartridge-converter fountain pen--all in the bottom row) and some lovely modern ones (the Montblanc 'Petit Prince" LE and a Lamy 'LX' in "Maron" at the top of the photo). Another recent acquisition was René's all-black Lamy 'Studio', also shown above.
(Above) Another new acquisition of René's - this ornate Cross 'Sauvage' 2020 Year of the Rat Special Edition fountain pen
A closer look at René's vintage Morgan lever-filler. The Morgan Pen and Pencil Co had was located at 116 Nassau Street in New York City and made second/third-tier writing instruments in the 1930's/1940's. Some were made of interesting plastics, such as this caramel-y swirly example shown above
Stuart brought in some interesting items for us to see, including the book "The Art of Cursive Penmanship" by master penman Michael Sull.
(Above) Stuart's vintage (aluminum? vanadium?) lever-filler (possibly made by Morrison) and a handsome black Parker '51' used by his maternal grandfather at his job at Vancouver's City Hall:

(Below) A few more pens brought in by Stuart for our November meeting (L-R); Platinum Century 3776 in "Chartres Blue", Pilot 'Vanishing Point' in "Blue Carbonesque", yellow Lamy 'Safari' and a modern Conklin 'Duragraph' in the cool (heh) "Cracked Ice" pattern.
Candice's lovely collection of short Japanese fountain pens made by Pilot. Actually, these are examples of long-short pens---short pens that, when capped, become full-sized pens:
Mindy's vintage Esterbrook 'J series' fountain pen in pastel grey:
Modern and vintage----Jerred's Cross 'Verve' in dark navy blue (a new purchase) and Christopher's vintage black Swan fountain pen:
Three Deltas---(top to bottom) a Delta '366' (cs. 2003-2004), a pink Delta 'Unica' and a bright yellow Delta 'Nabi'--all owned by Jerred:
A classic vintage fountain pen - the Sheaffer 'Balance'. This one was recently acquired by Alejandra:
Tony's Moonman 'Wancai Mini' fountain pen. This diminutive pen measurs 3.4 inches long when capped but a comfortable 4.7 inches long when posted. The fountain pen is filled using bottled ink and has a generous capacity of 2ml:
Dana's "Old-Style" Pelikan M250 fountain pen. After 1997, the cap top and cap rings were changed, and a trim ring was added to the turning/filling knob:
Another classic vintage Sheaffer---Christopher's lovely striated green Sheaffer 'Triumph' fountain pen:
(Photo below) Longtime VPC member Glenn Marcus brought in three gorgeous fountain pens from two Italian pen companies-one old and one new. The fountain pen on the far right is a Scribo 'Feel', made by the newly-formed Scribo pen company of Bologna, which was started by former employees of OMAS. This blue-black 'Feel' model was part of their regular production line, whereas the lime-green version on the far left (in the "Verde Prato" colour) was a limited edition of only 219 pieces . The nibs were made on machinery owned by the late-lamented OMAS pen company. Glenn has a great review (and much nicer photos) of the Scribo pens on his website here.

The pen in the middle has a very interesting story. It was made by the Cervinia fountain pen company (founded in 1936) in its factory in Turin. This pen and many others were hidden during WWII but were eventually found, and then acquired by the Stipula pen factory, who started refurbishing them---essentially bringing them back to life---in 2014 (!). This particular model is the Cervinia 'Transparente', a piston-filler which has a semi-clear celluloid body, an ebonite feed and a 14kt gold nib. Glenn talks about this fascinating wartime story on his pen blog here.
Brand-new VPC member Nathan brought a few pens to his first meeting, including the two classic modern fountain pens below---a blue-striped Pelikan M805 and a Montblanc '149. The two-pen leather case is by Girologio:
Nathan's Leonardo 'Momento Zero' fountain pen in the gorgeous "Hawaii" pattern:
Two recent acquisitions. The iridescent fountain pen is my (Maja's) Parker 'Frontier' "Chromaflair" model in purple and red. This pen was made in the last quarter of 2006, which was the very end of its production run. How do I know this? Because the back of its cap (like many Parkers, both vintage and modern) is stamped with a date code (in this case, a "Y" - see this page for a very useful reference list). Below the Parker is a very unusual pencil (one of a lot recently acquired by Justin) - a Dur-O-Lite wooden pencil fitted with a plastic mechanical pencil mechanism! (thanks for the pencil, Justin :)
A few other other pens I brought in for our November meeting (from L-R): a pink Platinum 'Cool' fountain pen, a sterling silver Waterman LeMan 200 fountain pen, a ThINK rollerball in the "Poolside" pattern, and a Retro 51 'Cioppino' rollerball made of polished pieces of genuine seashell:


Well, that's all the photos from our November meeting! Congrats to Dana on winning the door prize draw, a two-pack of Zebra fountain pens (like the ones in the last phoro of this older blog post)

Don't forget---our next meeting is this Thursday (December 19th)--same place and time as our November meeting (link to info about our December meeting)!.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Last meeting of 2019!

~~~ VANCOUVER PEN CLUB ~ DECEMBER 2019 MEETING DETAILS ~~~

We normally don't meet in December (due to the holidays), but I thought we'd do it this year in case the VPC limited edition pens that many of us ordered arrive in time for our meeting.

When: THURSDAY December 19 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm (don't worry if you're late, as we usually start at around 6:30 pm). Please note: this meeting falls on a Thursday, not a Friday.

Where: A meeting room (the Strathcona room) in a smaller building located next to Vancouver City Hall, 453 W. 12th, Vancouver, BC (on the corner of W. 12th and Cambie).

Full information about the location was in the group emails sent out to VPC members.
If you wish to attend but are not a member yet, please contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com for more info re: the location.

Parking: There is free parking along Cambie Street after 6:00pm, or in the underground parking at the VanCity Building at 10th & Yukon when VanCity is closed. Parking along Yukon Street is $2.00 per hour.

Topic/Theme: Pens and/or Inks that are named for, or remind you of specific places (cities/countries, buildings, landscapes, etc.) Please try to limit it to 3-4 items per person, due to time restraints. We've never done this topic before, so many thanks to Jerred for the idea.

Our secondary topic is always NEWEST ACQUISITIONS (pen-related)---eg. new pens/inks/paper/pen cases/other accessories/etc---so if you have anything new you wish to show, please bring it to the meeting.

FOUNTAIN PEN SWAP! For our December meeting, I thought we might liven things up by doing something we've only done once before. It's 100% voluntary, so if you wish to participate, here's how it works: if you have an inexpensive fountain pen (maximum value $20-$25 + in good working order) that you don't want or need, wrap it in some gift paper (it doesn't have to be fancy), bring it to the December meeting, toss it into the basket, get a "ticket", and then pick out another wrapped pen from the basket later in the meeting.

Hope you can make it to our next meeting! No need to RSVP for this meeting or any other not held at a restaurant. Any questions or concerns? Please let me know at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com