We started Friday morning early after having packed late into the night Thursday. I got up early to do some “real” work for my job at 2:30 am, then we finished packing the car and were on the road by about 6:00 am, which got us at the hotel by around 9:00 am.
We got oriented with our tables, which were the same as last year, right behind Joel Hamilton and Sherrell Tyree of Ink-Pen, and then noticed Tom Zoss setting up with his pen liquidation sale. I foolishly did not stand by, but went back to the car to start unpacking. Two trips in and we had everything out of the car, but by this time there was a hoard of people around Tom’s table and all the good stuff was already gone. Pens 1, Brian 0
While we were unpacking, I managed to get a quick conversation in with Joel Hamilton, who has been our neighbor for the past several years. I slid him some money for a very special bird I knew he was bringing, a Pelikan 400NN tortoise for Lisa for our anniversary. I slipped it in her name badge holder and then put it out on the table for her as we were finishing our set up. 🙂 To say she was surprised would be an understatement.
Pelikan, Omas, and Esterbrook
The Pelikan of course, prompted Lisa to run off to find our new best friend John Colton. He was kitty corner from our table, and when he came back I poured over his Omas pens for a while and grabbed the black Paragon I drooled over in Atlanta. It was a delightful pen and I was ecstatic to purchase it.
Omas Paragon Nib – Inked and Ready!
At one point Lisa saw a bunch of people hovered over pens at a nearby table. She told me to run over there and see what was going on. I went, and came back with a lovely Waterman 12 eyedropper with milled gold filled bands at a good price. It was too pretty to leave in the tray.
Waterman 12
A little while later as Lisa and I were walking around we spotted a cute small Omas on another vendor’s table. We looked at it, talked about it and decided for that price it was going to be Lisa’s mother’s day gift and it made a cute little mini-me of the Paragon!
Just before 3:00 pm I made my way over to the Fountain Pen Hospital table and met up with our friend Rob Bader to get in line for the parts sale. I had been waiting for this event with great anticipation. Rob had a huge bankers box and said he wasn’t leaving until the box was full. We were the first two people there and it was pure chaos for about twenty solid minutes as bags of pen parts were being tossed around, some literally like footballs, across the length of about four tables. Lisa gave good advice before hand and told me to just grab and look later, I did, and managed to come out with 12 bags of goodies. Rob achieved his goal and walked away with a pretty full box of pens.
Among the many cool pens and parts to be found in those bags were a nice early Wirt with two gold filled bands and an overfeed, an early Waterman straight cap eyedropper, presumably a #4 model (based on the fact the #2 nib is a bit on the short side when placed with the early three fissured feed), and a Waterman 4x so called “desk pen”, which is an eyedropper with more of a taper at the end. This was a precursor to the 4x series which eventually became safety pens. There were also some great eyedroppers by Hicks, imprinted “Hicks Sackett Fountain Pen” which had a cool overfeed and long curved feed inside. The end of the barrel has a hole in it which turns out is a placeholder for the top of the cap to be used in posting. Another interesting point of this pen is the nib imprint is on the back side of the nib.
Early Wirt Eyedropper
Early Wirt Eyedropper Open Showing Overfeed
Friday night, we grabbed a drink at the bar with several people, including a scheduled meeting with a high-ranking official of the Society of Inkwell Collectors (SOIC). I think we are finally in a good place with negotiations for the PCA and SOIC to come together. Aaron was just delightful to spend time with. We had some appetizers and a beer and then headed back to the pen area for a small reception for Russell Sheaffer, great-grandson of Walter Sheaffer. Russell was a delight to meet and as it turned out he stays in our home town quite frequently. We gave him our card and hope on one of his next trips he can make it over for some lively pen talk. Russell talked about his life growing up as a Sheaffer, then we heard from one of the product engineers of Sheaffer who talked about current development of Sheaffer pens.
Early Waterman Straight Cap Eyedropper
Immediately after the Russell Sheaffer talk came the auction, and while I was NOT victorious, we did have a good time. Eleven Parker 61 prototypes were to be had, and near the end, they started the bidding at $500 and went up from there. The star of the auction, a very hard to find Waterman 418 in cardinal red hard rubber with fine silver overlay, complete in the box with eyedropper started out at $5000, but with no bidders, worked it’s way down to a $2000 start and ended up at $4500. At that point bidding stalled and the reserve was never met. A pity, such a beautiful and rare pen, in an even more rare box. After the auction was another reception, and then home to the hotel to get to bed by around 11:30 pm. It was a LONG day.
Early Waterman 4x “Desk” Pen?
Saturday saw us accidentally leaving our lunch at the hotel, so I drove back to get it before it got busy at the show. What a hassle with the parking meter and traffic and all. $19.00 just to get out of the lot after having been there for 3 hours. Traffic at the show picked up after I got back and we were pretty busy most of the rest of the day.
Unusual WIlliamson Pen – Note Feed and Lever
It was nice having Kenro to our immediate left and Edison both at the show, so that as we sold something, we could run over to the table and restock. The moment I discovered Kenro finally had the new Sheaffer Taranis, I jumped on the chance to get some. We had them on order, but delivery has been slow initially, so this was a nice surprise.
Eagle Cartridge Pen
Eagle Cartridge Pen Open
Eagle Cartridge Pen Showing Glass Cartridge
We saw plenty of friends, old and new, including some from Reddit, Pentrace, The Fountain Pen Network, FPGeeks, and more. Saturday also saw a moment of silence for veteran collector Frank Tedesco, who had recently passed away the weekend prior due to a heart attack. Frank would have been directly across from us so it was a little weird not seeing him at the show. Save for a few show goers who probably did not know Frank, the entire room was silent for a moment, which was pretty impressive.
Hicks Sackett Fountain Pens
At one point on Saturday a young collector came up to the table and inquired about a couple of Esterbrook pens he recently acquired from his grandmother. As he pulled the pens out of his pocket, I immediately noticed the black twist knob on the end of one of them as a rare Esterbrook twist filler. We talked about the rarity of the pen, the fact that unfortunately, none of them work, and I offered a number of pens, plus the repair of his other pen in trade. After several trips to the table, we made the deal. He got two brand new pens and I got another twist filler for my collection.
Hicks Sackett Pen Posted
Dinner at Giordanos is a show ritual for us. And why not? GOOD food, right next door to the hotel, and good prices. Waitress Joann has waited on us several times, and this year was no exception. She treated us to a free dessert in honor of our anniversary. A couple of years ago, we got free beer. 🙂 Dessert was amazing!!
Hicks Sackett Eyedropper Fountain Pen Showing Long Feed
On Sunday there were more parts lots available, and now at a discount, so I picked up three more bags of good stuff. We were busy for a Sunday overall. It is nice to spend Sunday morning cleaning up a little, restocking and shopping nearby tables when we can slip away.
Kenro ordered a couple of pizzas from Giordanos Sunday afternoon. They couldn’t finish them, so our friend Jared brought over a half pizza for us. YUMMY!! These are incredible deep dish pizzas, and even though we had just finished our sandwiches that we made for lunch, we dove right into that pizza.
Our Early Pen Haul
Seemingly as soon as the show was set up, it was winding down and people were packing up and headed for home. There was a little drama with respect to the actual tear down time, but after that got ironed out, we made it out of there by 7:00 pm and home by 10:00 pm. A successful and busy show, but boy were we tired! We saw some great pens, bought some more and got to catch up with some of our friends and had great food. What more could someone ask of a pen show? See you in Raleigh!
Cheers!
Brian & Lisa