I have some killer show and tell (eye candy) below.
In a recent thread, I discussed a recent pen purchse of about 300 pens-- the Janesville 2013 Pen Hoard-- and insconsistent accumulation ranging from worn out Parker 21's to some truly off-catalogue great rarities. That bunch was found October 2013. I used that as a platform to discuss the challenges and charm of buying large pen collections. Feel free to peek, as I won't repeat all the babble here about buying old pens en masse.
link-Janesville Wisconsin Hoard of 300 Old Pens-link
Not a month later, at the Ohio Pen Show, November 2013, a well more focused and high quality collection of 50 pens met me at the door. The year before, at my usual table located right in front of the final entrance to the ballroom, I had been busy accosting anyone who wandered into the entrance or past my table while carrying pen storage (generally, the notebook sized leather portfolio style cases), yelling, "New pens for old!", "Any nice show and tell?" and even "Any pens to sell?". An older fellow heard and approached. After introductions he noted he was not yet ready to sell his collection but indeed had brought it to show about. I had chance to see a case of very nice Parker 51's, as well as a few other pens. He took my card.
I received a call from him this year the night before my arrival at the show. He mentioned he now wanted to sell everything, preferably in one fell swoop. Would I be interested? Heh. Sad thing is, I could not quite recall the collection. I see many displays of pens each year. The fellow mentioned he had some prime material, including a Parker 51 Empire, but that local offers had focused on just one or another pen, and had been... insufficient. He agreed to meet me Thursday night.
I flew in from NYC arriving at 10pm. He pulled up a half hour later in a vintage English coupe, done in British Racing Green. I'm fond of British Racing Green. An auspicious beginning.
I like British Racing Green
We ran up to my hotel room. This sort of dealing is best not done in the lobby for reasons perhaps obvious. A herd of pen collectors around fresh pens can be dangerous.
The collection was most impressive. Settling on 50 pens during a 90 minute evaluation, leaving some but not much behind, we had a nice chat while evaluating the pens. Had I not been fairly exhausted what with lack of sleep and prolonged travel, I likely would have grabbed the leftovers and the mostly untouched moderns. But, examining a case of truly top notch Parker 51's and many other pens, doing an upfront "correction" of 51's that had mismatched caps (making sure the smooth sterling caps were on first year double jewel not mid era single jewel barrels, etc) was draining. Roomate Jim Baer wandered in near the end and Paul Erano popped in after the deal had been done. Paul noted this was the best focused collection of 51's he'd seen trade hands so quickly.
This was not a random pile of pens accumulated by a flea market hunter. This was the good stuff. Indeed in the arena of old pens (I also have partnered and bought some modern pen collections of solid cachet), save perhaps for the Overbury collection purchased at Ohio last year by a consortium of five collectors I'd organized, this was by far the best quality/cachet collection I've grabbed, even if this was relatively small at 50 pens.
So, here is the eye candy, spread across a few posts. Note too these were shot in my new extra large light assembly, allowing props I'd not been able to use before
Comments and Questions of course are invited.
Near Modern Pens: All these are pretty hefty, that not well conveyed by lack of normal sized pens in the field.
- Pelikan M 1050, a huge Sovereign 1000 with Vermeil cap instead of plastic. Out of production, I believe
- Pair of Waterman Edsons, amongst the most beautiful of near modern Watermans. These included original boxes, not shown.
- Also in the field is a sweet Pelikan 2-pen leather case.
Do continue to scroll. Many more pics below.
regards
David