Many thanks to everyone who came out to the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library on Thursday (September 15th) for our September meeting. We had 10 members in attendance, including a couple of members who attended their first in-person VPC meeting! I snapped some photos during the meeting and Christopher added a couple, so without further ado, here they are...
(all photos by Maja, except where noted ~ please click on images to enlarge)
Our happy group! (left to right): Alvin, Yen, Mindy, Jaime, Alejandra, Christopher, Rene, Jerred, me (Maja), and Stuart.
Stuart celebrated his 9th anniversary as a member of our pen club this month--congrats, Stuart!-- and brought some really nice recent acquisitions (the theme of our September meeting) to show us.
The ones in the removable part of his new Galen Leather 'Slip & Zip" pen case (which he reviewed here) above are (top to bottom): a Montblanc 'StarWalker Blue Planet' Metal Doué fountain pen, a Kaweco 'AL Sport' fountain pen in the "Iguana" colour, a Pentel 'Graphgear' mechanical pencil and a Lamy 'Logo M+' ballpoint in the "Lagoon" colour. Above the Montblanc is a Senator 'Windsor' piston-filling fountain pen.
Here's a closer look at Stuart's new Kaweco 'AL Sport' in that stunning "Iguana" colour. The 'AL Sport' is the aluminum version of the ever-popular Kaweco 'Sport' (which is made of plastic). The 'AL Sport' fountain pens have some (unexpected, to me) heft to them and feel good in the hand...and that "Iguana" colour. Wow!
If you've you've been following our virtual "show & tell" closely on this blog, you might have noticed that Stuart is a big admirer of vintage desk sets. This lovely yellow glass desk base was made by Sheaffer (ca. 1936-1937) and we'll be featuring it in a separate blog post on Tuesday.
Stuart also brought another vintage Sheaffer desk set (an Art Deco-ish set in black plastic) to the meeting; I didn't photograph it as Stuart sent in a review of it that we'll post later this week on our blog.
(Stuart says that this particular vintage Sheaffer desk pen model didn't originally come with the desk base, but I think it's a perfect visual match!)
We saw a lot of different Kaweco pens at our meeting, including this beautiful Kaweco 'Special Red' (part of Kaweco's 'Collection' line) fountain pen belonging to Rene.
It's an octagonal fountain pen made of aluminum and brass, and it comes in a golden nostalgic tin box with the matching leather pen sleeve shown above. Kaweco 'Collection' items are available in the Kaweco range for one year only.
Rene also brought in a Waterman Taperite 'Crusader' triple set--fountain pen, mechanical pencil and ballpoint--for us to see, as well as many of the pens he acquired during the pandemic. They were a feast for the eyes!
In addition to some new pens, Jaime brought along some of her ink sample cards to show us (so many beautiful colours!)
This lovely fountain pen was made by the Mythic Pen Company, a smaller pen maker based in the southern United States. It's the 'Aeschylus' model and Jaime is its proud owner
Above: An eye-catching fountain pen (also belonging to Jaime) made by Ian Schon of Schon DSGN, a small pen company located in Pennsylvania. Ian wears many hats -- he's an engineer and watchmaker in addition to being a pen maker! The pen in the photo is the diminuitive 'Pocket 6' model (so named because of its full-sized #6 nib) in the "Unicorn" colour.
Though they're primarily known for their inks, Ferris Wheel Press of Markham, Ontario also have a small line of writing instruments. This is Jaime's Ferris Wheel Press 'Brush' fountain pen.
Like its namesake, the 'Brush' fountain pen has a long, tapered body. It is handmade of copper, brass and stainless steel materials and has a wonderful engraving on its section that adds to the overall aesthetic of the pen and enhances the user's grip, as well.
Above: Another Ferris Wheel Press writing instrument that Jaime brought to the meeting--her 'Roundabout' rollerball. It uses fountain pen ink, and is filled via the supplied ink converter.
(the two photos below are courtesy of Christopher)
Someone once asked me what we actually do at our pen club meetings and I explained that the bulk of any given meeting is the "show & tell" portion, which revolves around a monthly theme** (September's meeting theme was "Newest Acquisitions", but we might change it up next month); before and after the "show & tell", we chat amongst ourselves.We're a very casual bunch, so if you're interested in joining our club, please feel free to drop in on one of our meetings! 🙂
**If you don't have anything to show that relates to our monthly theme, please don't worry--just come and have fun learning and talking about pens (and inks and paper), and seeing some great pens & pen-related stuff!
Alvin and Yen (in the lower right of the photo above) attended their very first in-person VPC meeting and brought lots of great writing instruments for us to see...
That's Yen's zippered pen case above, filled with some very cool pens and her wonderful sketchbook...
...and here's Yen's lovely collection of Kaweco 'Sport' fountain pens!
As mentioned earlier, Kaweco's 'Sport' line includes writing instruments made of plastic and aluminum, but it also includes brass versions (there's one directly above) and ones made of stainless steel as well as carbon fiber (Jaime brought her new red carbon fiber version--a Kaweco 'AC Sport'-- to the meeting). The 'Sport' writing instruments have different model names, depending on their materials, and it can get a bit confusing trying to remember all of them; fortunately, there's an excellent overview of all of the various 'Sport' models on JetPens.com (link).
Alvin brought some really nice vintage pens belonging to his father, including classics like the Parker "Vacumatic', Parker '61' and Parker '45' (all in the smaller pen case above) ...
...and some of his own beauties by Narwhal (Nahvalur) and Leonardo, among others (photo above). And yes, that's a Retro 51 "Hot Coffee" Special Edition rollerball made for Goldspot Pens on the far left-- love it!
Here's one of Alvin's father's fountain pens--a glossy black Lipic Commemorative piston-filling fountain pen. This handsome pen was actually made by Senator (a German pen company) for Lipic, which was an American writing instrument manufacturer founded in 1863.
This Lamy 'Vista' belonging to Yen has a 1.9 mm stainless steel nib--the widest nib that Lamy makes-- and is really fun to write with
Alejandra brought more great vintage pens that she recently acquired, including a pretty vintage Parker 'Challenger', a gorgeous vintage Wahl-Eversharp 'Doric', and this handsome Wahl-Eversharp 'Skyline' fountain pen shown above
I didn't photograph all of my recent acquisitions (I bought several of them--including the Cavallini & Co. "Mineralogie" pen case from Buchan's above---on the day of our meeting, heh) but here are some of them in my Sonnenleder "Nietzsche" leather pen case...
Above: (left to right) Sheaffer 'Icon' rollerball, Hongdian '920' Rosegold White fountain pen, General Supply fountain pen (bought at a local Staples store), and a Lamy 'Econ' ballpoint pen.
In all the excitement, I forgot to photograph Mindy's lovely Kaweco 'Sport' "Iridescent Pearl" fountain pen (Kawecos are very popular with our members!) and two vintage Watermans (a model '32' and a model '6' in black hard rubber that's more than 100 years old) that Christopher recently scored. Happily, Christopher just sent in a review of the Waterman '32', so we'll post it here on our blog next week. Christopher also brought a rarer vintage Parker 'Vacumatic' to the meeting, and we'll be featuring it on Thursday. Jerred brought four cool Delta fountain pens ---a "Galleria", a "Nuova Galleria", and two 'Anni Settanta" models-- that I didn't photograph because they were already reviewed by Jerred here, here and here on our website (and Jerred's photos of them are much better than mine could ever be :)
Many thanks again to everyone who braved the traffic snarls in Vancouver to come to our September meeting! I'm hoping that we can use the same venue for our October meeting, but please check our website in early(ish) October ---the October meeting info will be in big red letters at the top of each webpage---as this meeting room may not be available for our use that month.