27 replies to this topic

[david i]

Hi Guys,

Finally home from my couple weeks out of town. Chicago Pen Show (May 2013) was a great success, and I survived my two weeks of night shifts at the ol' Hospital. In fact, I inspected the first Parker hoard I've found since arriving in Parker's home town for work, which was a coincidental thing.

The Chicago Pen show is one i've attended nearly every year since 2000. It is the oldest pen show. It still has a moderately strong focus on old pens. While the show has contracted a bit since its glory days, it remains a great show for finding old pens. And, this year I sold several that now will never make it to the http://www.vacumania.com sales site, as they found new owners before I could do an update. An oversized Sheaffer Balance in Roseglow, a staggeringly lovely Mabie Todd Blackbird (English) in "Turquoise" (blue and bronze) celluloid, two lovely Chiltons I'd acquired in the Swann Auction last year, and more... all found new homes.

Discussing the charms of pen show attendance perhaps I can touch upon in later posts, but details would make this first post too long. Note that if you have not attended a pen show, you are missing something special.

I will show more detailed pictures in the days/weeks to come. Though at the show only 2.5 days, I scored some great pens for my own collection as well as a bunch for the website.

In the pics to follow, for sense of scale in the first pic at left, the Sheaffer Balance in Ebonized Pearl (black with Mother of Pearl flakes) is an oversized pen ~ 5.5 inches, and the bright yellow pen in middle of the the other image is about the same size. Others can be considered in comparison.

I invite comments and questions about the pens. Several here are quite scarce and/or quite desirable. There also are many bread-and-butter vintage pens shown. Most are in very nice condition.

I might keep as many as ten of these for my personal collection. I will offer tidbits about the pens in subsequent posts.

Look at the pics and have at it, folks... if you are so inclined

Tray A:

Tray B

regards

David

[david i]

Oh yeah... the four 1950's Sheaffer Snorkels at the right of the bottom tray? All of 'em have special nibs. Rare fully marked flexible nib, broad nibs, and chiseled broad stub/italic.

regards

d

[JonSzanto]

Yeah, that's a "Happy David" haul, all right! Congrats. I will now go control my Envy Reflex.

BTW: I know you are the big beneficiary of the haul, but I feel a sense of pleasure, as I recognize a *whole* lot more of those pen trays than I would have a year or more ago. FPB has been a great edumacation.

Edited by JonSzanto, 18 May 2013 - 10:25 PM.

[Hugh]

Hi David,
The Endura looks a beauty, I imagine black would be a hard one to find as well. I don't recall seeing a black before, then again the OS ones are never common. The Ed Sullivan looks to be in fantastic condition as well. What is the combo? It's a massive bit of gear.

Regards
Hugh

[penmanila]

hi, david, thanks for showing me some of these in chicago. no wonder you didn't seem to stay too long at your selling post--you were busy buying up the place!

and i think i recall you showed me something in flamingo....

Edited by penmanila, 18 May 2013 - 10:52 PM.

[sloegin]

At the time of this post I think the images are backwards as tray B appears as the first image.

Hugh, the combo is a Schnell.

[Inkysloth]

What's pen 14 in tray B? I'm looking on my phone screen & can't zoom in, but it has such gorgeous colouring!

[sloegin]

It appears to be an Eversharp Bantam in flamingo.

[david i]

It appears to be an Eversharp Bantam in flamingo.

Hi Guys,

Yeah, I have to swap the tray labels and first article description of which tray is which. Sorry.

The Flamingo is not a Bantam, which is a tiny pen never released I suspect in that color. The numbers at bottom obscure the bottoms of each instrument (bad David), which I had not intended, but the Flamingo item there is a pencil to match the long-size Equi-Poised pen done in that color. This is the 7th item I now own in that scarce color

Here is a Flamingo thread for those who might wish to read more about this charming color.

http://www.fountainp...ingo-celluloid/

regards

David

[Inkysloth]

It appears to be an Eversharp Bantam in flamingo.

That's in the top tray isn't it? Or am I seeing the mixed up trays? It's the gorgeous blue & black pen in the bottom tray I was wondering about.

[Paul M]

What's pen 14 in tray B? I'm looking on my phone screen & can't zoom in, but it has such gorgeous colouring!

The one that caught my eye also.....


and I was going to ask the same question !

[Procyon]

Great bunch of pens!

I also like the little black and blue pen. It looks similar to a pattern Sheaffer had, but slightly different. Are the two large pens in the middle of tray B Diplomats? I am having a bit of trouble reading the clip, but it seems to say that. I am not familiar with them, but they look like nice pens.

[JonSzanto]

That's in the top tray isn't it? Or am I seeing the mixed up trays? It's the gorgeous blue & black pen in the bottom tray I was wondering about.

The one that caught my eye also.....

I also like the little black and blue pen. It looks similar to a pattern Sheaffer had, but slightly different.

Folks, I had the same eye-catch and tray mix-up as you, when David posted over at FPG. He was good enough to first give an answer on the flamingo and then, as we cleared up the mix-up, info on the Sheaffer blue/black.

Hopefully this will save him some typing! Nice collection, eh? That Doctor...

[Hugh]

At the time of this post I think the images are backwards as tray B appears as the first image.

Hugh, the combo is a Schnell.

Thanks

[Shadow Wave]

The big ebonized pearl Sheaffer looks like it has a wonderful color. So many of those are dark. I have no idea what that brown-striped thing next to it is, with the partly-black cap. It kind of looks Italian?

Nifty blue and orange Weidlich, too!

Edited by Shadow Wave, 20 May 2013 - 05:40 AM.

[spotted and speckled]

Beautiful!!

I'd definitely have drooled over these at the pen show. That two tone beauty....

[m1928]

The big ebonized pearl Sheaffer looks like it has a wonderful color. So many of those are dark. I have no idea what that brown-striped thing next to it is, with the partly-black cap. It kind of looks Italian?

Nifty blue and orange Weidlich, too!

Are you referring to 3 and 4 ?
Nice oversized Eversharp Skylines.

[pen piddler]

Wow! What a haul! What do you plan to do with the Schnell?

[david i]

The big ebonized pearl Sheaffer looks like it has a wonderful color. So many of those are dark. I have no idea what that brown-striped thing next to it is, with the partly-black cap. It kind of looks Italian?

Nifty blue and orange Weidlich, too!

Are you referring to 3 and 4 ?
Nice oversized Eversharp Skylines.

Hi,

I suspect he means the brown striped pen with cap and barrel gold-tone bands, with a black portion at top of cap above the brown stripes.

This is part of what I tend to call the Moore "A" series which I suspect dates to the early 1940's. 1920's-30's pens carried numbers representing size, L-96, L-95, L-84 etc. The pen in question had the letter "A" after various sizes. Pens were marke 96-A, 94- A etc. Quite a range of colors can be found. Terry Brack managed to find info about the relatively scarce variants split-color caps (black at top, most often). He had posted this on our Gang-of-Five Pens thread. To fair degree I call 'em "A Series" as names are lacking. Thanks to Terry, we have at least one model name, the Esquire.

regards

david

[david i]

Wow! What a haul! What do you plan to do with the Schnell?

The Schell, an oversized Demonstrator, is the only Demo Schell I've (and many at the Chi show) have ever seen. A couple people there had previously seen one. That one is for my collection for- I hope- a long time to come.

Schells are not your typical ~1930 Combo. That though perhaps is a story for another day.

regards

david