June meeting photos (topic: Newest Acquisitions)

There were 26 of us in attendance for our June meeting, which was held on Thursday June 19 at the Vancouver Public Library's Kitsilano branch. Among those in attendance were three members who attended their very first meeting -- Andrew, Monika and Steve K!

Our evening's topic was "Newest Pen-Related Acquisitions" and we saw lots of really nice fountain pens that night. I snapped a few photos during this busy meeting, so without further ado, here they are...

(all photos by Maja ~ please click on images to enlarge)

Newcomer Monika brought three fountain pens to show us, starting with this handsome blue Pelikan 'Pura' (above)...

Monika also brought two more (also blue!) German-made fountain pens -- the Kaweco AL Sport in "Stonewashed Blue" (a very nice pocket pen) and a cool Diplomat 'Viper' Blue Guilloche (I love the snakeskin-like etched pattern...)

Some of the cool vintage writing instruments that Mark brought to show, including a really nice boxed vintage Parker '51' set ...

That's Andrew's Pelikan '120' (Merz & Krell version) fountain pen --a "daily driver" pen for Andrew--which was produced from 1973 to 1977.

I brought three recently-acquired fountain pens to the meeting - a Kaweco AC Sport in Champagne (bottom pen), a Baoer 507 "Eight Horses" fountain pen (a pen that Stuart "de-stashed" last month -- thanks, Stuart!) , and a Lamy AL-Star "Turmaline' (purchased from Noteworthy Stationery---an online-only stationery store in Burnaby, BC---using a birthday gift certificate from some of my lovely pen club friends --thank you *so* much! 😊). 

Glenn M. recently returned from Europe and brought back three gorgeous Italian-made fountain pens! The pen directly above is a Stipula 'Etruria Magnifica', one of several beautiful 'Etruria' models Glenn owns (you can see the rest of them on his awesome website - https://glennspens.com/pensofnote/Stipula-Etruria.html)

These two stunning fountain pens are prototypes of a new model from Radius 1934 that Glenn brought back from his trip to Italy. Glenn has known the owners of Radius 1934 (who also own Leonardo Pens) for many years, so he was thrilled to receive the pens from them...

Though they might look like beautiful resin pens, they're actually made of highly polished ebonite (they almost glow in the light!)

A nice mix of vintage and modern! The top pen belongs to Phil and it's a vintage Parker 'Duofold Jr'  in the harder-to-find "blue on blue" Permanite plastic (the pen was only produced in this material for about a year). Phil acquired the pen at the famous Fountain Pen Hospital retail store in New York.

The modern Graf von Faber-Castell 'Guilloche' "Anthracite" below it, the black vintage Craig (which was a sub-brand of the Sheaffer Pen Company) lever-filler, and the sleek black Sheaffer 'Imperial' all belong to Stuart. Stuart got the Craig --which came with its original price tag on it! -- in trade from Mark during our meeting, and he received the Imperial as a gift from a local book store.

Above: A better look at Stuart's new Graf von Faber-Castell 'Guilloche' "Anthracite" fountain pen. This is the seventh "Graf" Stuart now owns, and he got this one (like many of the others) from the Vancouver Pen Shop.

Paul also brought some interesting vintage fountain pens to show--a vintage LeBoeuf (bottom pen), a swirly red, black and grey Wearever, and a demonstrator (clear) Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pen. 

Above: A closeup of Paul's lovely vintage LeBoeuf fountain pen....

And now for something completely different-- an eye-catching modern Conklin 'Duragraph PVD Blue' belonging to Jerred! The pen was made from solid brass with a PVD coating on it. And "What is PVD?", you might ask...
From Conklin's official website: "PVD, which stands for Physical Vapor Deposition, is an environmentally friendly coating process that will protect and prolong the life span of each writing instrument to which it is applied."

I love the use of rose gold-coloured trim, which complements the blue so well. Jerred said the pen originally came with a black nib, but he swapped in the yellow gold-coloured Conklin nib seen above...

Another modern blue fountain pen--David L's dark blue Faber-Castell 'Hexo' (above). This hexagonal fountain pen was made using anodized aluminum and features a clever capping design feature; the cap's facets always line up with the facets on the pen's barrel, no matter how you orient the two parts.

We also saw some new Japanese-made fountain pens, like Vladan's Pilot 'Custom Heritage 912' with FA nib....

Vladan had inked the pen and passed it around for us to try; I had a lot of fun trying out its amazing flexy nib...

Above: Another lovely black fountain pen, but this one is a vintage beauty---Catherine's Eclipse lever-filler, which (like Stuart's Craig vintage fountain pen) came with the original retail price tag --a small paper ring-- on it. The pen was likely made in the 1930s, so it's amazing that the price tag survived after so many years (and the pen itself is in fantastic condition).

Anson of Springfield Pens brought along his newest handmade fountain pen model (the swirly pale blue & green one seen above) to show us. Above it is its full-sized counterpart, the model that Anson first started out making. Both are lovely handmade (in New Westminster, BC !) fountain pens...

I just realized we saw a lot of black fountain pens at our meeting lol. The one on the far right is Vladan's newly-acquired Pelikan M200, while the middle one is a vintage Waterman 7 Red belonging to David C. The reddish-orange fountain pen on the far left is the iconic vintage Parker 'Duofold' "Big Red" (a full-sized vintage Duofold), also belonging to David.

Many thanks to everyone who came to our June meeting, whether you brought new stuff to show or not; the most important thing was that you brought yourself to the meeting! 😁

** Information about our July meeting will be posted here (at the top of each web page, in big red letters, as well as a blog post) very soon! **