Photos from our July meeting!

Our July meeting was held at the Vancouver Public Library's Terry Salman branch on Thursday July 18th. There were 22 members in attendance that night, including one brand-new member (Esther) and two visitors from India and Japan (Abhijit and CY)!

(all photos by Maja, except where needed ~ please click on images to enlarge)

L-R (standing): Stuart, Abhijit, Asifa, David C, James, Rene, Glenn M, Shona. myself (Maja); L-R (seated): Jerred, MMina, Esther, Grant, Christopher, Phil, Paul, Rumi and Vladan. Not pictured: Dana, CY, Yugo. Many thanks to Liz for taking the photos!

Our meeting topic was "Birthday Pens" and we saw some very nice examples. The topic was inspired by the recent birthday of our youngest pen club member, who turned 10 years old last month😊

I didn't get a photo of her birthday pen, but newcomer Esther showed us a Caran d'Ache 849 ballpoint that she got for her birthday (love those ballpoints!). Esther told us that her first fountain pen was a Lamy 'Safari', but that she subsequently bought others, including a Platinum 'Preppy' and a MUJI fountain pen. Her most recent purchase was a Sailor dip pen.

Stuart brought this handsome Montblanc '146' fountain for our primary meeting topic; he later told me that it was given to him on his 21st birthday. Stuart has brought this fountain pen to our meetings a few times (for various topics) and it's obvious how much he cherishes it :)

Our secondary topic is always "Newest Acquisitions" so Stuart showed us his new vintage black Parker '51' with Lustraloy cap. The shiny golden Sheaffer 'Imperial Triumph' Touchdown fountain pen was given to Stuart's maternal Grandfather on his 65th birthday, in 1963.  His Grandmother purchased it at Woodward’s Oakridge, and paid $35 for it, a high price at the time!

A couple of Asifa's recent purchases--a TWSBI 'Eco' Indigo Bronze (filled with Robert Oster's wonderful "Blue Denim" ink) and a purple Pilot 'Metropolitan' with a Pilot "Calligraphy Medium" (marked "CM") stub/italic steel nib on it. I can't remember what ink was in the 'Metro', but I know that Asifa likes to match inks with pens of the same/similar colour :)

Vladan's handsome green-striped Pelikan M800 was a recent acquisition....

...as was his new Retro 51 'Tornado' 'Tesla' fountain pen. This model was a tribute to the famous Serbian engineer/inventor and the pattern was inspired by Tesla's spiral coil, used in his wireless power experiments. Vladan also showed us his new Pilot Custom '912' (not pictured).

David (who’s a really big vintage Parker fan) used a birthday gift card to the Vancouver Pen Shop to purchase this Platinum '3776 Century' fountain pen (you can't go wrong with a modern classic like this pen!)

...and speaking of David's love of old Parkers---he recently bought the "Blue Pearl" striped Parker 'Vacumatic' above. The top pen in the photo is another classic vintage Parker fountain pen--a Parker 'Duofold' in "Chinese Red" belonging to Grant... and it's the first fountain pen he restored himself (yay, Grant!).

The middle fountain pen is an Inkograph 'Mickey Mouse' fountain pen with images of the iconic cartoon character on the cap band. It belongs to Christopher, who wanted a Mickey Mouse fountain pen ever since he saw one as a kid. I didn't get a chance to photograph it, but Christopher also brought in a tiny Peter Pan fountain pen with a 14K gold overlay (late ed - Christopher sent in a photo and review of the pen and it was posted here a few days later).

Christopher's beautiful vintage OMAS 'Gentlemen' (above) was a recent acquisition (another late edit - this was initially labelled a 'Gentleman' model, but Christopher sent a nice write up about it after the meeting, which I later posted here).

Above: Liz's impressive Namiki 'Emperor', one of pendom's largest fountain pen models…

Another eye-catching pen belonging to Liz--a Schon dsgn fountain pen in Ultem material. The pen sports a very cool Schon-designed Monoc nib. The entire nib and collar are made from a single block of Grade 5 Titanium, and there is no tipping material added to the end of the nib.

I'm sorry I didn't photograph Liz's Opus 88 and the Turnt Pen Co. fountain pen she got/bought for her birthday (I think it was a 'Bardugo 13' model in "Ocarina Abalone"), but she brought them--and other two pens-- all inked up for us to try, along with this note showing what ink was in each pen (thanks, Liz!).

Above: My haul from the recent Pacific Northwest Pen Show, held in Portland, Oregon (I did a report on the pen show & the stuff I got in the blog post before this one)

(Left to right: Nahvalur 'Voyage' Pride 2024 special edition, Zodiac Pen Co. 'Taurus' in "Polar Cenote", Newton Pens 'Moody' (Medium size) in "Ivory Roses", Mike's Pen Fun handmade fountain pen in "Full Tilt Boogie" resin, Karas Pen Co. 'Vertex' Baltimore Pen Show special edition and Waterman Harley- Davidson 'Combusition'. Top: Retro 51 Tornado rollerball "Good Dog Sheldon" special edition made for Dromgoole's pen store. The Zodiac Pen Co. 'Taurus' pen was a belated self-gift for my May birthday. The cool Rickshaw Bagworks six-pen roll features a design by our pen club's own Richardo!

I saw Shona & James at the Portland pen show and at the meeting, Shona told us about the things she bought there--a special nib by The Good Blue (and another by JoWo) and a handmade fountain pen from Mondu Pens (mondupens.com). James showed a lot of restraint (lol) and didn't buy anything at the show.

The most recent acquisition of mine -- a vintage Sheaffer 'Reminder' ballpoint with perpetual calendar, a gift I got from my fellow VPCer Paul just before our meeting.

It's called a 'Reminder' model because you can't clip the pen onto a shirt pocket (and possibly staining the fabric) unless the pen tip is withdrawn by pressing on the clip. Sheaffer came out with a modern version of the 'Reminder' a few years ago, but I prefer the old-style. All my vintage version needed was a modern Sheaffer ballpoint refill (which I had at home) to get it up and running again :) Thanks again, Paul!

It wouldn't be a Vancouver Pen Club meeting if Jerred didn't show us another addition to his wonderful Delta fountain pen collection, and this meeting was no exception. The bright orange model in the middle is a Delta 'Dolce Vita Oro' (mid-size), flanked by his Montblanc '149' and Jerred's new A.G. Spalding pocket fountain pen.

Paul recently acquired some vintage fountain pens, including a Sheaffer 'Fineline' model (top pen) and the vintage Esterbrook 'M2' model below it.



Above: Another vintage Sheaffer that Paul recently acquired...

That's Abhijit trying out the elegant Montblanc 'Noblesse' fountain pen Paul bought for himself as a "self-gift". Abhijit came all the way from Calcutta, India to attend our meeting, and it was a pleasure chatting with him about pens and the pen community in his city/region.

This is Paul holding his newest acquisition---an oversized store "dummy" fountain pen (advertising pen) that he won in our July meeting's door prize draw! (congratulations to Paul and thanks to Christopher for donating the prize). Paul had made some dip pen ink from black walnut and brought samples to give out to our members, so his door prize win was rather karmic lol

Rumi brought some lovely new acquisitions to show us (top to bottom): a beautiful handmade Springfield Crafts (now Springfield Pens) resin fountain pen made by our fellow VPC member Anson, a purple Pilot 'Decimo' and a Leonardo 'Momento Zero' "Hawaii". The 3-pen case at the top (a Rickshaw Bagworks 3-Pen "Coozy" case) was a limited edition, specially made for the Canadian Fountain Pen Enthusiasts (CFPE), a Facebook Group Rumi belongs to.

Phil showed us some newest acquisitions, including two pens he bought in Trondheim, Norway (!)  -- a bright blue Pilot 'Explorer' (Phil said this one takes international cartridges, which is unusual--turns out that versions of this model sold in the EU are like this) and a Lamy 'Safari' Strawberry. I believe the beautiful fountain pen at the bottom is Mmina's Sailor Shikiori (in the "Dragon Palace" colour, I think...).

Another fountain pen Phil recently acquired --this one from a pen shop in Greece!--- a gorgeous new-style OMAS 'Bolonga' in the "Grigio Luminoso" material. The pen is made of Diamondcast resin, and the cap band features the city of Bologna's famous porticoes.

I forgot to photograph another handsome Italian fountain pen that we saw at the meeting--Glenn's amazing Scribo 'Feel' Mosto fountain pen. The pen was a "birthday pen" and was featured on Glenn's excellent website here: https://www.glennspens.com/pensofnote/Scribo-Feel-Mosto.html

Dana came to our meeting with lots of wonderful modern fountain pens, including these soft pastel-coloured Sailor 'Realo' fountain pens that had Zoom/Music nibs on them...

...as well as this elegant vintage Sheafer 'Targa'  with a factory italic/stub nib on it (I tried it and it's a wonderful writer :)

Above: One of Rene's recent acquisitions--a Platinum '3776 Century' "Sands of Komodo" fountain pen. The rose gold trim was inspired by the pink sand beaches (and  the pen’s colour by the tropical waters) surrounding Indonesia's Komodo Island.

And here are some birthday fountain pens Rene showed us--a Cross 'Townsend' "Year of the Rat" Special Edition (in the box) -- every year, Cross comes out with a new pen based on the year of the Chinese Zodiac (hopefully they'll have a Year of the Snake for my birth year!)---as well as a brushed stainless steel Lamy 'Studio' and a handsome Mabie-Todd 'Swan' fountain pen from the 1930s.

Above: More of Rene's recent acquisitions ... but they're playing peek-a-boo (I ran out of time to take them out--it was a really busy meeting). Among other new acquisitions, Rene showed us two pens he got in Switzerland--a Parker 'Vector' "Le Petit Prince" fountain pen and a Waterman 'Laureat' (not pictured).

And last, but not least--two lovely pen cases belonging to Rene that were made by Rickshaw Bagworks specially for the Canadian Fountain Pen Enthusiasts (CFPE) Facebook Group. These are the most recent Rickshaw cases made for the CFPE; Rumi's Rickshaw case (the bright green/yellow Northern Lights case further up this blog post) came out last year.

Many thanks to everyone who came to our July meeting, whether you brought anything for the topics or not! Information about our August meeting will be posted on our website (please check the top of each website for that info in big red letters) as soon as the date/time/venue are finalized!

(~blog post by Maja~)