January 2020 meeting photos - part 1

Despite the bad weather, twenty-two Vancouver Pen Club members braved the snow and showed up for our first meeting of the new year, held on January 16th!

(~ Click on photos to enlarge ~)

It was a fun evening of pens and people, especially for those who picked up their Vancouver Pen Club Leonardo Officina Italia "Momento Zero" Limited Edition fountain pens (which I later reviewed here) from Glenn that night...

(that's our new pen club pen being excitedly held aloft by some of our members :)

Pictured (clockwise, in photos above and below): Tony (at the very front, wearing glasses), Ricardo, Rene, Barry, Stuart, Isaac, Jim, me (Maja), Daryl, Jenny, Dana, Glenn, Ben, Nathan, Ray, Mindy (hidden, wearing beanie), Alejandra, Bruce, Jerred, Tim and Christopher (group pics by Candice, all other photos taken by Maja)

Our January meeting theme was "White Fountain Pens" (including off-white/light beige pens and pens with a pattern). The idea for the theme came from Jerred, so he kicked it off with two Asian-made fountain pen---a PenBBS 309 piston-filler in the swirly white "Smog" pattern and an inexpensive Platinum Riviere fountain pen:

Two Italian-made fountain pens brought in by Jerred for our meeting theme - a white Delta 'Vintage' fountain pen and an off-white Markiaro 'Posillipo':

That's Tony's own Platinum 'Riviere' (a gift from his daughter) in the photo below. Above the Platinum are two pens Christopher brought in for our "permanent" secondary meeting topic- "Newest Acquisitions" - a NOS (New Old Stock) vintage Sheaffer flat-top in the "pearl" pattern and a Majestic lever-filler with a gold-plated overlay:

Rene's Eclipse lever-filling fountain pen. Eclipse was an American pen company that also had a Canadian subsidiary. Its first factory in Canada was located at 21 Dundas Square (in the historic Hermant Building) in the heart of downtown Toronto...

I forgot to photograph this beautiful fountain pen at December's meeting, so I asked Rene to bring it to January's. It's a Benu 'Minima' in the sparkly "Baikal Ice" pattern (Rene actually won a contest to name this particular 'Minima' finish!):

More cool fountain pens brought in by Rene for our topic - (top to bottom) Jinhao '950' ceramic fountain pen, another Jinhao with a dragon overlay, FPR (Fountain Pen Revolution) 'Himalaya' and a Conklin 'Duraflex' 365 Dayflex Limited Edition. The FPR fountain pen was made in India, and is an affordable fountain pen that comes in a variety of colours and materials (acrylic and ebonite):

(photo below) Stuart's gorgeous Graf von Faber-Castell 'Intuition' fountain pen. From their official website: "The pure black colour, polished to a high gloss, conveys a deep intensity. The finely fluted barrel is made of a single piece of material so that no screw joint interrupts the elegant and pure shape." After seeing it in person at our meeting, this beautiful fountain pen quickly made it onto my Grail Fountain Pens list!

I was pleased to be able to show my white fountain pens (a new collecting focus of mine) at the January meeting. Top row (L-R): Faber-Castell 'Loom', Sheaffer 'Intensity', Daiso all-metal fountain pen, Nemosine 'Singularity', Lamy 'Safari', Faber-Castell 'WritINK', Lanbitou '3059' (a TWBSI 'Eco' clone), TWSBI 'Eco', two Parker 'Reflex' rollerballs, Manuscript 'Curve' and Manuscript 'Trio' (an interesting triangular fountain pen). Bottom row (L-R): Pelikan 'Pelikano', Senator fountain pen, Cross 'Solo', Cross 'Aventura', bunny fountain pen by Dianshi (model number DS-980), Sheaffer 'ION' rollerball, Sheaffer 'NoNonsense', Visconti 'Rembrandt', Stipula 'Etruria', Retro 51 'Scriptmaster', Jinhao 'X750' and Jinhao 'X450':

In November, Rene brought in his new Cross 'Sauvage' 2020 Year of the Rat Special Edition fountain pen. At January's meeting, he showed us his most recent purchase---the same Special Edition in the Cross 'Townsend' model (top pen in photo):

Ricardo's TWSBI 'Eco' in white, customized with Pacman "ghosts", using nail stamps!

TWSBI 'Eco' with Ricardo's Visconti 'Opera Club' in the wonderful "Cherry Juice" pattern:

Isaac's elegant Conklin 'Nozac' Special Edition made for the State of Israel's 70th anniversary:

Another new acquisition of Rene's---a vintage Esterbrook SJ in the striped red "Icicle" colour. The "Icicle" versions are most commonly found in the (larger) LJ size, so this was a neat vintage find:

Speaking of neat new pen-related finds - Daryl's unusual (folk art??) dip pen:

More fountain pens brought in for our topic - another white TWSBI 'Eco' and below it Jenny's PenBBS 471 pocket fountain pen, Dana's Pelikan M200 "Café Crème" Special Edition and Jenny's Lamy 'Safari' "I ❤ Vancouver" special edition:

A closer look at Rene's new Cross "Year of the Rat" Special Edition fountain pens - the 'Sauvage' model and below it, the larger 'Townsend' model:

Rene also recently acquired two new inks (shown below)- a bottle of the brand-new TWSBI fountain pen ink (red cap) and a bottle of Diamine "Les Couleurs du Comte", a special line of inks made for the La Couronne du Comte pen shop located in the Netherlands:

Many thanks to all who came to our January meeting, whether you brought items for our topics or not! Part 2 of the January photos coming very soon...