Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 550

Happy BC Day!

This is another new acquisition belonging to Christopher...and it's over 100 years old! Although this particular fountain pen wasn't made in Canada, the manufacturer set up a Canadian subsidiary in 1925 and then...Well, I'll let Christopher tell the story 😀…

He writes:
"Eclipse, with its colourful international past, has always fascinated me. Although the company had its original roots in the United States, in turn, it opening up a successful operation in Canada, was able --based on tremendous marketing sales-- to buy out the US main base and is, to my mind, a unique business accolade! But the pen which I am currently reviewing is circa the Great War, and thus pertains to the American Eclipse production. Evidently in the early days, Eclipse sought out and used Warranted nibs. For their less expensive models, these Warranted nibs were steel and gold plated. But for their more uptown models, the Warranted 14K Gold and Warranted No.1, 14K Gold nibs were duly applied. To this end, the jet-black grip section in this pen I am expanding on, does support an upper end 14K Gold Warranted nib, but a flexy one at that. If. by chance. you are wondering just how to tell if a Warranted nib is a true 14K Gold one, the answer can be found by removing the nib from the section, and if it has the plating marking at that inside back end, it is just that. Still, I have as yet to find a Warranted No.1 marked nib that wasn't 14K Gold."

(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ click on image to enlarge)

"This pen's finish is a lovely black 'bars and checkers' chased hard rubber with the barrel supporting a 14K Gold filled Eclipse style lever filler. At the business end, the pen's cap --which hides and protects the nib, feed and section-- is a lengthy, robin egg blue triple banded, extremely well-made pen part, which also comes with inside threading right out to the cap's opening. Subsequently, the unscrewing of the barrel takes a good number of turns. I should also draw attention to the cap's clip as being a very long tapered ball ended number sporting the company's branding, smartly running vertically down the center. There is also an Eclipse circled logo above this branding and below, a patent dating. This, in turn, is a good-sized pen measuring a full 7 inches posted, but caps back to just a tad under 6 inches. In closing, I can't think of a finer example of the Eclipse best and brightest to add to my vintage pen collection."

Thanks for sharing this one with us, Christopher! 

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! **

August meet-up at the Vancouver Pen Shop! (photos - Part 2)

And now, some photos I took during our little soirée at the Vancouver Pen Shop, held on August 22nd! (Part 1 of our August meeting photos --those taken by Sherman-- were posted here)

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

The store stayed open during our meeting, so many of our members (like Colin above, being helped by Marlon) took advantage of this late-night shopping opportunity to buy some things...

Mohammad also bought something from the store that evening -- this gorgeous Montblanc Classique mechanical pencil!

(Cute dog who attended the meeting): "Did someone say "pencil"?? I thought this was a fountain pen club!!"

Yes -- "Pencils--any kind" was our meeting theme! It was actually suggested by Shannon, who brought one of the most interesting pencils I saw --this clarinet-shaped mechanical pencil! This eye-catching advertising pencil was made for the French company Selmer, makers of professional-grade musical instruments.

Vancouver Pen Shop staffer Sunshine brought his favourite pencils  (above) --a very nice mix of modern and vintage-- to the meeting, too.

Daryl's Monroe mechanical pencil advertising Black Top Cabs (above) is a handsome vintage example, but it's even more interesting when you turn it around....

...and see that it actually has cocktail recipes on its barrel! When you rotate the barrel to select a drink (w.g. a Manhattan), the drink's ingredients (and their proportions) appear in the barrel window. Not surpringly, this pencil's name was the Monroe "Cocktail Pencil".

That's David C. holding up two really nice vintage mechanical pencils---in his right hand is a Waterman '94' in the harder-to-find "Blue & Cream" colour, and in his other hand, a vintage Parker '51' cap-actuated mechanical pencil.

Asifa also brought a vintage Parker '51' pencil (top pen) to our meeting, and Phil brought a vintage Wahl mechanical pencil that belonged to his great-grandmother. The orange carpenter's pencil with advertising on it was a gift I got from Peter H. during the meeting (thanks again, Peter!).

 

Above: a vintage Autopoint mechanical pencil that belonged to Phil's grandfather with a "Property of the Canadian Bank of Commerce" imprint on it. Autopoint first began manufacturing mechanical pencils in Chicago in 1918 but, much later, developed financial troubles and was eventually sold to well-known vintage pencil expert Jonathan Veley in 2022.

The cool black and yellow mechanical pencil belonging to Renz is a modern pencil made by the Legendary Pencil Company (in Newark, Ohio) using New Old Stock parts from (guess who??) Autopoint, the company they acquired in 2022! Below Renz's pencil are two cute pencils that Asifa bought at a night market in Richmond :)

Above: Some nice modern pencils, including an OHTO Sharp Pencil 2.0 (with a 2mm lead), and a Uni Kuro Toga pencil belonging to Christina's husband. The Kuro Toga has a very interesting feature -- it has a mechanism that rotates the pencil lead every time you lift it (while writing), so the lead tip wears down evenly on all sides (side note: in the background of the photo, you can see one of the cool 3D-printed pen stands made by Amy H.)

Above: Part of Trevor's vast pencil collection!

The dark pink pencil in the center of the photo (which is shortened from use), is one that Trevor used in school (Wow! 😮).

I also brought some pencils, but mostly vintage:

(left side of case: a green unmarked vintage pencil and five Sheaffers; right side of case: a cream & black Diamond Medal pencil, two Eclipses, an unmarked vintage advertising pencil (for a poulterer's shop in Leicester, England), a vintage Pelikan 450 repeater pencil in "tortoiseshell" celluloid and a Parker '51' pencil; the pencil in the middle was made by Ketcham & McDougall of East Orange, New Jersey, and it's attached to a retractable chain and matching brooch that can be pinned onto clothing.

I brought some modern pencils, too:

(left to right): Pelikan 'Epoch', TWSBI 'Pagoda', Pentel 'Kerry', and a Faber-Castell 'e-motion' maple wood mechanical pencil.

Above: Me (in the middle), flanked by Vladan and Asifa. In the background, you can see Vancouver Pen Club members Peter H. (yellow cap) and Renz (standing in line behind Peter).

Our thanks to the good people at the Vancouver Pen Shop for being such gracious (and generous!) hosts! Another big "thank you" to everyone in our club who attended our August meeting; we had a huge turnout, so I didn't get a chance to photograph more people (and pencils lol), but thank you for your participation and support!

*** Info about our September meeting will be posted here on our website once the meeting venue has been confirmed. Until then, have a great week, and a great rest-of-August!

Best wishes,
~Maja

April meeting pics - topic: Clipless Fountain Pens !

We had good attendance at our April meeting, held on Thursday April 20th at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library - sixteen members, including two newcomers (Jenny and Lauren)! A good time was had by all, seeing and hearing about clipless fountain pens--both modern and vintage-- as well as our members' newest pen-related acquisitions.

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

And here we are!

Front row (L-R) Jenny, Jared, Alejandra, Lauren, Maja and Kelley. Back row (L-R): Hadi, Christopher, Mandy, Stuart, Peter, Vladan, Luc and Rene. Missing from photo: Mindy.
(Many thanks to Nox for snapping the pic! :)

I took some shots of what our members brought in for our informal "show & tell", so here they are (roughly in the order in which we saw them during our meeting) ...

Jerred brought some cool-looking clipless fountain pens for our primary meeting theme (top to bottom)---his aluminum PenBBS '350' (which was sold with a rollerball tip), a swirly Moonman 'Wancai' pocket pen, and a PenBBS '471' pocket pen in a resin called "Amber is a Cat".

The peacock blue Mahjohn (formerly Moonman) 'A2' capless fountain pen at the bottom of the photo--a new acquisition for Jerred--is a faceted, resin version of the popular Mahjohn A1 lacquered metal capless fountain pen. Currently, the A2 model only comes with a clip, but Jerred said he's hoping for a clipless version to be produced.

Above: Jerred's gorgeous urushi Bottegando fountain pen. I hadn't heard of this Italian maker of handmade writing instruments before, but as per their Etsy shop, they're located just outside of Verona, Italy and they produce some unique-looking fountain pens (many of them one-offs).

Two more clipless fountain pens brought in by Jerred -- LIY (Live in You) 'Future' models in the "Enchantress" (top) and "Blue Coral Sea" acrylics. I love the little metal floral roll-stops :)

I forgot to photograph it at an earlier meeting, so I snapped a photo of one of Peter's favourite fountain pens----the Pilot 'Vanishing Point' above---at our April meeting.

 

Above: the interior of one of the beautiful kimono notebooks that Peter's company imports directly from Japan (the Platinum 'Preppy' fountain pen --also made in Japan--is mine :)

Our secondary topic is always "Newest Acquisitions", so Kelley showed us her new Lamy 'Safari' Yellow fountain pen. The green-capped fountain pen next to it is a Pilot 'Parallel' that Kelley brought in for our clipless fountain pens topic (and yes, she shortened the Pilot's long barrel herself lol). 

The Pilot was inked up with a very interesting silvery ink (shown above) made by Dominant Industry, an ink manufacturer from South Korea that entered the highly-competitive fountain pen ink market in 2021. Kelley said that this ink (which she described as looking like "liquid mercury") has both sheen and shimmer...

 

Some new acquisitions + clipless fountain pens, all belonging to Rene (L-R): a vintage Parker '51' flighter model from 1949, three nice vintage Parkers (two 'Vacumatics' and a 'True Blue' flat top), a vintage Wahl all-metal vest pocket model, a Kaweco 'Special Red' (part of Kaweco's 'Collection' line), an early Eagle glass cartridge fountain pen, two vintage Lady Sheaffers, a Benu 'Minima' in "Baikal Ice", and an aluminum PenBBS '323'. A bit of pen-related trivia - Rene won a Facebook contest to name the Benu pen's special resin material!

A closeup of Rene's antique (ca. 1890) Eagle cartridge fountain pen, the world's first cartridge-filling fountain pen! When Rene acquired the pen, it came with an intact glass ink cartridge, which is truly incredible, given the age of the pen and the fragility of the cartridge's material. There's a nice write-up on this early fountain pen model here on PenHero.com

Above: Rene's amazing Eclipse vintage fountain pen & pencil collection (which features several clipless pens).

Above: Three clipless fountain pens belonging to Vladan (top to bottom: Ensso 'Piuma' in black ebonite, a black Franklin-Christoph '46' model with a great Medium SIG---Stub Italic Gradient-- nib, and a Kaweco 'Sport' Brass), and one of his newest acquisitions - a Platinum 'Century 3776'. Vladan also showed his wonderful clipless green Kilk 'Epigram' fountain pen (not shown here, but there's a photo of it in our March meeting report).

Another new acquisition of Vladan's -- a Faber-Castell 'Ambition' Coconut, made of finely-grained coconut wood.

Stuart showed and talked about a few different clipless fountain pens, including the small all-metal Sheaffer above, and a lovely red Lady Sheaffer in the 'Tulle' pattern. He also brought a Kaweco AL Sport in Rose Gold (shown in these old photos.)

Stuart recently acquired this Lamy Safari in "Aquasky" (one of the three brand-new Lamy 'Safari' colours for 2023) from the Vancouver Pen Shop...

...and he purchased this classy German-made ROWI (Rodi & Wienenberger) fountain pen during the meeting from a fellow pen club member!

Here are the clipless fountain pens I brought for our primary meeting theme - (L-R) a vintage first-year (1940) 14k gold-filled Sheaffer 'Tuckaway' (reviewed here) with a sweet inscription, two ENSSO 'Piuma Pocket' fountain pens (in Titanium and Ultem materials), a red version of the metal Delike pocket pen I reviewed here last month, my brand-new PenBBS 323' "Orange Goddess", an ENSSO 'Piuma' in black ebonite, an HYL sparkly demonstrator eyedropper-filler (reviewed here), and a Kaweco 'Perkeo' in "Indian Summer" (another brand-new acquisition).

Above: A couple more of my newest purchases---a light blue Pelikan 'Pina Colada" fountain pen (a new Pelikan school pen model, also available in rollerball form), and a Lamy 'Nexx' in Lime---both of which I will be reviewing here in the near future.

(top to bottom) Christopher's vintage Wyvern 'Pixie', his Eversharp 'Fifth Avenue' fountain pen and Alejandra's clipless Kaweco 'Liliput'. Alejandra also showed some other clipless fountain pens of hers--a stylish Waterman 'Audace' and a Charles Lethaby 'ION' fountain pen made of titanium.

Mindy's current daily user, her trusty Pilot 'Prera' clear demonstrator fountain pen

 Mandy's Staedtler school pen, purchased over a decade ago in Austria

Last but not least, here's what Luc brought to show us...A fountain pen handmade by a small Australian pen maker ...

...a very nice Franklin-Christoph '45' with a SIG nib...

...and a new journal from the Vancouver Pen Shop that caused a lot of excitement because its cover was made from an actual vinyl record! The notebooks come with different vinyl record covers, and they even make covers from 45s (with the plastic spindle adaptor included). How cool is that? 😁


Many thanks to everyone who came to our meeting last Thursday, My apologies for not getting around to photographing everyone's stuff-- brand-new member Lauren's lovely Kaweco 'Sport' in "Iridescent Pearl", newcomer Jenny's elegant Montblanc 'Classique' fountain pen, Nox's cool Jinhao dragon fountain pen, and some stunning vintage writing instruments (a Parker 'Duofold' set in the rare Mandarin Yellow colour, and a Wahl-Eversharp 'Gold Seal' flat-top) belonging to Hadi.

Information about our May meeting will be posted at the top of each webpage on our blog as soon as I confirm the meeting venue and date. Until then, have a great week and enjoy your pens in good health!

(~Blog post by Maja~)