Blue Peak fountain pen (made in Wales)

Here is some information on the "Blue Peak" fountain pen that VPC member Derek L. brought to our meeting last week (our topic was Non-Parker British fountain pens). I truthfully didn't expect to see any fountain pens made in countries other than England, so it was a nice surprise to see this Welsh pen show up.

Here is Derek's photo of his "Blue Peak" fountain pen, posted with his permission (click on photo to enlarge):


This pen was made and exclusively distributed by Copigraph Ltd, Treforest, Glamorgan, Wales. It is made of Hard Rubber and has a 14ct gold nib. Treforest is a small town in Wales with a current population of around 5,000.
There is a photo of the Copigraph factory, taken in 1976, posted on this page.

Derek did some more research on the pen and found that many of the companies on the town's industrial estate (Treforest Trading estate, later renamed Treforest Industrial Estate), which played a major role in the war effort during WWII, were established by refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe. He suspects that this pen might have been made by German immigrants who moved to the area. The pen certainly looks like some vintage German-made pens I've seen. If anyone has any more info on this brand, they are welcome to contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com

October meeting photos

Here are some photos taken by Richard at our last meeting on October 20th (click photos to enlarge).
The topic was "Non-Parker British Pens" and, as you can see, it was well-represented with examples of many different brands, including Conway Stewart (modern & vintage), Onoto (modern & vintage), Swan, Burnham, Boots, Strand, Mabie-Todd, Summit, Osmiroid and Platignum. One of our members (Derek) brought along a "Blue Peak" fountain pen, made in Wales (update: see our Oct. 28th blog entry for more info on this pen!).



A couple of our members (Bill S---pictured below at far left---and his wife Suzanne--not in photo) handed out back issues of "Pen World" and "Stylophiles" to club members. Many thanks to Suzanne and Bill for their generous gifts!


New VPC member Dexter brought along a few A4 notebooks to give out as well (Dexter is pictured in the photo below, talking to me) Many thanks, Dexter!




(Glenn M. and Tristan)


I was surprised and touched by the special presentation of a lovely Sheaffer "salesman's" 48-pen case, given to me by Perks' owner Richard (pictured to my right) on behalf of the club, as a thank you for all my work with the VPC over the years. Many thanks for this great gift---it will be put to good use, I can assure you! :)

October meeting details

Many thanks to all who attended the September meeting! Here are the details re: our next meeting:
Time: Thursday October 20, 2011
Place: Perks pen store at 5844 Cambie Street (@ 42nd Avenue), Vancouver, B. C.
Time: 6:00pm-6:30pm "Meet & Greet"..... 6:30pm-8:30pm Meeting.
Theme: Non-Parker British Fountain Pens.
(e.g. modern/vintage Conway Stewarts, Onotos & Yard-o-Led pens, as well as vintage pen-makers Burnham, Croxley, Kingswood, Mabie-Todd, Mentmore, Osmiroid, Platignum, Stephens, Summit, Wyvern & others). Thanks to our friends at the London Pen Club in Ontario for this theme idea!
As always, "New Acquisitions" is our secondary topic.

Hope to see you there!

Vancouver Pen Shop's 25th anniversary (and sales!)--October 1st and the rest of October

We are fortunate to have so many nice pen stores in Vancouver, and one of them is having its 25th Anniversary Sale on Saturday October 1st. The Vancouver Pen Shop on 512 West Hastings Street will feature "special pricing" on nearly all items (*except* Montblancs, I believe) on this date (late edit: the "special pricing" applies to non-Montblanc items priced at $25 or more only) Additionally, each subsequent week in October will feature special pricing on a selected pen company brand. I believe the four brands featured will be: Lamy, Faber-Castell, Parker and Waterman (late edit: Week #1 will feature Sheaffer--not Lamy--week #2 will be Faber-Castell, week #3 will be Parker and week #4 will be Waterman. Turns out I won't be able to make it to the sale on Saturday, but I hope that you will come and take advantage of these great deals!).

Belated congratulations to Al Charania, owner of Charals pen store on his own store's 25th anniversary, back in August! I picked up a bottle of nice Montegrappa blue ink there (thanks, Al!) when I stopped to chat with Al about his shop a few weeks ago.

Fellow VPC member Glenn Marcus wrote about these two anniversaries
in this blog entry and individually about Charals' anniversary here, in this article and Vancouver Pen Shop's 25th on this page.

Best wishes to both the Vancouver Pen Shop and Charals on 25 successful years in business. In this tough economy, that's quite an achievement!

Some photos from our September meeting

Great turnout for the September 15th meeting---14 VPC members (including two new members--Sam and Dexter) and two guests (Tim & Elena Sawyer, who came all the way from Hawaii!). Tim and Elena brought macadamia nut treats, and even remembered to bring some "long-short"-style Japanese fountain pens for our theme's show & tell! We saw many examples of beautiful pens made by Nakaya, Pilot, Platinum & Sailor brought in by our members. Many thanks to all who attended!

Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday October 20th at Perks pen store (usual place & time). Theme: Non-Parker British Pens (some examples are: modern/vintage Conway Stewart, Onoto & Yard-o-Led pens, as well as pens by vintage makers Burnham, Croxley, Kingswood, Mabie-Todd, Mentmore, Osmiroid, Platignum, Stephens, Summit, Wyvern & others). Thanks to our friends at the London Pen Club in Ontario for the theme idea!



(Photo above shows---clockwise from extreme left--- Graham, Wai, David S., Sam, Bill K., May, Maja, Bruce R., Louise, Elena Sawyer(hidden from view), Tim Sawyer, Dexter, Christopher R., Norm & Ian. Not pictured: Richard (photographer))






(photos courtesy of Richard C.)

In the spotlight---Japanese Pens! (September meeting details)

Please note that we are back to our usual venue (Perks) for the September meeting.
I thought it was about time we had a theme devoted to Japanese pens, so here you go!

Time: Thursday September 15, 2011
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC
Time: 6:00-6:30pm "Meet & Greet"..... 6:30pm-8:30pm Meeting.
Theme: Japanese Pens! (modern & vintage)-- Sailor, Pilot, Platinum & more!
As always, "New Acquisitions" are our secondary topic.

Everyone is welcome to attend and no RSVPs are necessary for this meeting as it is being held at a pen store. Meetings are held monthly, on the third Thursday of each month, *except for* December....Please check our blog for last-minute schedule changes/updates.

VPC annual summer dinner at Moxie's!

(click on photo to enlarge)

What a great time at the VPC annual summer dinner at Moxie's tonight! Many thanks to everyone for chipping in for my meal, as well as our pen club host Richard's; the sentiment was much appreciated, and the food (and company, of course!) was excellent. Our waiter Adam snapped this photo of us and it turned out to be the very last photo saved on my camera's memory card---good timing!
Next meeting: Thursday September 15th (6:30pm-8:30pm) at Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver (our usual place). Meeting theme/topic will be Japanese Pens.

For trade Nakaya portable writer

Hello Folks, well I am going to put my Nakaya up for trade again, would prefer a straight trade but would consider a sale as well.

I am sure most of you have seen my Nakaya, purchased from John Mottishaw with his lovely custom double broad stub flexible nib. My pen is in the very dark black/red finish and comes with the kimono but no box.

I am looking for a Cartier fountain pen, preferably the Diablo but will consider others and must be in good to mint condition.

thanks so much, hope your all having a lovely summer!

Some photos from our July meeting

VPC members Charles and Graham chatting. In the foreground, you can see Graham's Ink Sample Vial Holder from GouletPens.com . Photo by Glenn M.


Maja's selection of pens brought in for the evening's theme- "Made in Canada". How many of them can *you* name?(click on image to enlarge). Photo by Glenn M.

We had good attendance at the July meeting, which was held at the Vancouver Public Library's Oakridge branch. Nineteen members in total showed up with writing instruments that matched the meeting topic/theme, as well as inks for the Ink Swap.

Our August meeting will be the annual summer dinner for VPC members (info in the group email sent to VPC members). Update: Thanks to all VPC members who RSVP'd to reserve a seat--we're all booked up now!

Regular (themed) meetings will resume on September 15 at Perks pen store at 5844 Cambie Street (our usual place). The September meeting theme will be Japanese Pens. Please check our website for any updates..

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Engraved Pens ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thanks to all who brought examples of pens with names or initials engraved to our last meeting on June 16th. Our next meeting will be held on July 21st at the Vancouver Public Library's Oakridge branch (please see previous blog post for details).

I took a couple of quick shots of a few of the engraved pens I brought with me and wanted to share them with you (click on photos to enlarge). Normally my photographs don't turn out this good, but I had some lovely late afternoon light to help me.



The top photograph shows three vintage Sheaffers (from top to bottom: a carmine-striped Sheaffer Balance, a black Sheaffer Touchdown 'Autograph' and a marine green Sheaffer Balance 'Autograph', with their previous owners' names engraved on them.




The second photo shows two modern ballpoints (a lovely Parker Classic ballpoint in the Milleraies pattern with the name of our brother-in-law's late uncle engraved on it, and a Sheaffer '300' ballpoint with my own name engraved ---a 2010 Christmas gift from myself to myself :)

There is an excellent article on PenHero.com about the Sheaffer 'Autograph' and 'Signature' pens here . After purchasing one of these pen models from a Sheaffer dealer, the buyer signed a card with his/her signature on it, and then the dealer sent the pen & card to the Sheaffer pen company to be engraved by their specially-trained personnel. The result was a signature as close to the original as possible. I have a large Sheaffer flat-top with an 'Autograph' band, but its former owner chose not to have his signature engraved on it, opting for his name to be embossed on the barrel. To each his own, I guess! I personally love the look of an engraved signature (or nicely engraved initials) on a vintage fountain pen.