Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin. Amazing the things you learn at the Chicago pen show!

Of course, there was much more than simple medical trivia to learn about at this year's Chicago show. Plenty of pen related stuff. Three full days of it, in fact. Three and a half if you include Thursday afternoon, which I will, since we arrived at around three PM, and the fun didn't stop until around ten AM on Monday morning.

By now, you're probably beginning to see a sort of a pattern to the articles featuring pen shows. We talk about the people, the pens, and somewhere in there somewhere, we get to the fun. This time around, I'm going to try something a bit new. We're going to split the article into two separate pieces, one part written by Richard Jarvis, and one by myself. We thought it might be interesting to get multiple viewpoints on the events of the show. In the accompanying photos, you'll see plenty of what went on during the show, inside the main trading room. Pens and people galore, with deals on every side.

Unfortunately, there were not cameras during the after-show events. The "show behind the show" so to speak. Probably for the best, lest someone somewhere end up with photographic proof of my attempts to play darts after a misguided attempt to bolster Australia's export economy by single handedly consuming all the Fosters lager the hotel had on tap. There are some images best left to the minds eye, trust me on this.

The Chicago Show as Seen by Richard Jarvis

Well, another pen show is in the books as we make our first round of the major pen shows with Penspiration. Chicago is the oldest (and by some arguments the largest) of the major pen shows. It has many unusual elements, including a large and well attended auction, trading floors open until midnight (or "whenever") , vintage pen upon vintage pen, an active lobby scene, an active backroom dealing scene and just a lot of folks looking at pens in general.

For new pens, Chicago falls short of D.C., mainly because it has only one day open to the public schedule and because of it's long standing focus on vintage pens. Still, major dealers such as Fountain Pen Hospital, Total Office Products, Bertram's Inkwell, Penstop Online, Bittner's and many others made the journey to the Westin O'Hare for this year's show. Sunday's public admission day saw lots of new pen buyers and many first-time pen show attendees, judging from the traffic at the Penspiration table.

Sailor and Conway Stewart got lots of attention as show sponsors and Conklin and Bexley also had a strong presence at the show. Howard Levy from Bexley had a small pen case filled with some new goodies that we'll be seeing on the market soon. These are good-looking pens that continue the vintage feel Bexley is becoming so adept at. Sailor was showing off Swisher's new Mojave Jewel special edition based on the well-loved Sailor Magellan series of pens. A good-looking twist on a familiar pen.

As always, the people are what make a pen show special. Chicago had some of the best and most fun people there. Richard Binder (pronounced Bender, by the way) working like a one-armed paper hanging modifying and adjusting nibs all day; John Mottishaw showing off a table full of pens with wonderfully tuned and reground nibs; Roger Cromwell and Victor Chen from Penopoly keeping a steady stream of pen parts in seeming levitation at their table while also selling a few with some help from "Bandolier Bob"; Joel Hamilton and his sister Sherrell Tyree selling some great vintage pens that could be easily mistaken for new ones; Bert Heiserman from Pen Haven and his lovely wife Alice; the Mawhorters, Terry and Sonya, who promote the Columbus Pen Show, Lisa Hanes of Pen Kreations; Louis Kaplan with a big stack of Mont Blanc limited editions next to our table and many others who I'm sure I've overlooked.

The Chicago Pen Show is an active one for traders and collectors because it begins on Thursday evening, runs all day Friday and Saturday for weekend traders and culminates in a rush of general admission attendees on Sunday. It is a great show to attend for getting to know more about pens in a casual setting. Many dealers and serious collectors are there to answer questions and to show off some pens you may not see anywhere else. I saw many vintage pens this year that were unusual, rare or both. I saw a Triad with plastic that looks like the 1920s Sheaffers in Jadite. The pen itself was triangular and had a cap that screwed off from the top part of the cap. Lisa Hanes had the weirdest assortment of Esterbrooks I've ever seen, including some with visulated sections and plastics that looked like the Duofold Vacs of the war years. Every table seemed to have something a little out of the ordinary.

There also seemed to be a good number of dealers bringing in European vintage pens. Conway Stewarts, Pelikans, Mont Blancs and many others were well represented this year. I picked up a great little Pelikan 140 from Regina Martini that sports an oblique fine nib. Great prices on many of these pens as well.

The Chicago Pen Show is a must attend for any serious collector. The vintage pens on display there rival any you'll see at all of the other pen shows combined. The long hours, casual atmosphere and sheer number of dealers makes this show a must. For those into newer pens, Chicago seems to be growing stronger in that area as well. Many of the best dealers in the nation make this show one of their "must attend" events.

The Fun Behind the Scenes

By Bill Riepl

Thursday evening was a pleasant and quiet start to the show's events. The trading takes place in a hospitality suite, a couple of connected hotel rooms, small enough to feel crowded, but with a smaller number of dealers present, a very convivial setting for trading and talking. You find yourself thinking that this is what the first few Chicago Pen Shows must have been like. Very low key and friendly. There is a lot of buying and selling going on, but in a very different environment than the "big room" days. Even the cash deals seem more like trades than anything so crass as an outright purchase.

Dean and I were invited to dine with Don Lavin and Dan Zazove Thursday night, in addition to the Seattle contingent, Don also managed to wedge Ed Fingerman and his wife into the Jeep and off we went, to Mortons. (With Dan meeting us at the restaurant)

I suppose I should mention right up front, that if you have any thoughts of weight loss, skip the Chicago Pen Show. Or at least, bring a couple of granola bars and lock yourself in the hotel room after leaving the trading floor! This is not a town that is friendly towards the waistline.

Mortons is famous for it's wonderful steaks, and I think it's safe to say that they lived up to the reputation on Thursday. The Lobster was also well received. The salads, and Chocolate Souf... Suof....Suff... The Chocolate puffy thingies went over well, too. Dean was kind enough to offer his assistance with the wine list, explaining the differences between the "light red" and the "darker red" wine. He preferred the darker red, and you know? He was right. Much better with the steaks! Not that this fact kept him from being the butt of wine jokes the entire weekend.

The best part of Thursday, aside from seeing folks that we hadn't seen in a long while, was just getting the chance to sit and chat over dinner with two of the founding members of the Chicago show. Hearing the stories of the "old days" made today's show seem that much more interesting. Things have changed, no doubt about it, the hobby has grown, matured, even, and of course, the economy has gone up and down, and sadly, some of the "greats" have passed away. All of which affect the hobby as a whole, and pen shows in particular.

One constant, however, remains the quality of the people involved with the hobby. I know of few other hobbies where you can be as assured of getting a uniformly high level of conversation at the dinner table! Our conversation meandered through art, music, food, and wine. Of course we also managed to fit in a bit of talk about pens, but surprisingly little, considering the folks at the table. All in all, a very relaxing evening, and a perfect start to the show.

Friday was an interesting day, with an entire day of buying, selling, and trading to look forward to. The range of pens on the floor was good, as always. If you were searching for something vintage, you would find it. That's true no matter whether you wanted a common black Balance, or a high end Parker eyedropper. Of course, some of the high end pieces were kept out of sight, traded privately, this seems to be common at most shows.

It was also interesting to see the pricing on many of the more common vintage pens. For a while the price structure for vintage had held steady, despite a general decline in prices for modern pens. For the first time in a while, I noticed some relaxing of the prices on vintage pens, not enough to indicate a collapsing market or anything, just enough to make bargaining for a good deal a bit easier. Of course, if you were after the ultra-rare pieces, prices remained steady.

I managed to return home with a couple of pens, actually one pen really. The other doesn't count, since it was really purchased at the LA show, and left with Victor Chen of Penopoly for repair. Of course he delivered it in better than perfect condition, an amazing resurrection! Both pens are Waterman's, sterling silver overlays. One for my small collection of sterling pens, and another that is on the way to a new home elsewhere. Two pens, even if one wasn't technically a purchase proved to be enough to control my purchasing urges for the weekend.

Friday night was a bit more interesting. Of course, given that Friday was the first "full day" of trading on the show floor, dinner started later. Late enough, in fact, that we decided to simply eat in the hotel restaurant. The Westin O'Hare has two choices for those wishing to dine in, the Benchmark restaurant, and the Benchmark Pub. Either of which will do, but the restaurant itself is actually quite nice. Not cheap, mind you, but the food is very good. If you're on a tight budget after spending all your available cash and then some on that irresistible Waterman's 456 hand engraved vine pattern, the pub offers a nice burger and fries at a bit more reasonable price.

Friday was a relatively boring evening at our table, although the folks sitting next to us looked to be having fun. Lisa Hanes, David Isaacson, Richard Binder, Richard Jarvis, and a bunch of other folks I'm unable to recall had pushed a couple of tables together and were busily chatting away. In true pen show fashion, they insisted that we add another table onto the end and join them, so we did. Although, given the length of the new table it was next to impossible to keep up with the conversation.

Dinner over, we adjourned to the hotel bar, where the "real fun" began. Friday night was darts, and let me tell you.... It's humiliating to take on three English folks at this game. I think it's something genetic. In any case, despite the liberal application of Fosters, I was unable to even come close to finishing in the top three. Since there were only four of us playing that should give you an idea of my skill level! Mary Burke of Classic pens ended the winner.

One of the players in our little tournament was Dave Ruderman, form Parker UK. In town for other business, he decided to drop in on the show. Good news for those of us who got the chance to talk with him. In addition to having a lot of skill in front of the dart board, he has been with Parker for many years, beginning his work with the Parker 61 Cirrus series pens.

The opportunity to speak to a person connected with the inception, development, and production of a pen model, from start to finish is extremely interesting. An opportunity for which the collectors of pens like the Vacumatic or Patrician would give up limbs! Dave was kind enough to explain some of the thoughts behind the inception and development of pens like the Duofold Centennial and the new 51, putting a whole new light on the way I looked at the pens. Interesting, and this evening alone was well worth the entire cost of getting to the show in my book! (OK, except for being humiliated at darts. That I could have done without...)

Saturday was a busy day at the show. Of course the auction is always a big part of the Chicago show, this year was no exception. The show organizers decided to return to the practice of a few years ago, and close the main room during the auction, so the dealers were able to take a bit of a break during the later afternoon. The auction this year offered a wide variety of lots, everything from your basic classic pens to some very high end vintage items.

Settling up after the auction, and maybe another hour or two after the show floor reopened, and most folks were thinking of dinner. Saturday proved to be that most common of events during the show: The "business dinner". This is when you pretend that you're simply going out to eat, but in reality you're conducting "serious" business. Not just picking on Dean for his taste in wine! We strolled across the street to a very nice Italian restaurant, well worth the short walk.

In this case, it was at least interesting for me to see a pair of professionals in action as Dean and a client designed a web site right in front of us. On the tablecloth. Using, I might add, rollerballs. Not fountain pens. I was disappointed! But the site sounds like it's going to be a winner, and looked good as well, from what I could tell from the tablecloth. It was interesting watching a high tech website being developed using low tech pen and paper.

A return to the hotel left us with the task of deciding on entertainment for the evening. Darts was out after my humiliation of the evening prior, so pool was decided upon. Not that I didn't expect to be humiliated here as well, mind you! As it turns out, I wasn't the only one... Enter Don Yendle, the president of Conway Stewart pens.

Now, the pens themselves are great, and as those of you who have purchased the latest offering, the hard rubber Churchill know, they seem to be getting better and better with each new model released. What you might not know is that this company is run by a certified, grade-A pool shark! Fortunately for the rest of us, there was no money on the table. Rob Cole from Sailor USA joined the party, as well as Andy Lambrou and Mary Burke. Given that Sunday was the "big day" the evening broke up relatively early.

Sunday got off to a flying start, with a good flow of people through the doors. Many of the dealers I spoke to said that they felt that attendance was not as high as in years past, but that they were making good sales despite this. It's hard to judge the number of people in such a large room, but throughout most of the day, the floor was quite crowded.

Despite the crowds, however, there was only a single reported case of theft, while tragic, and a disappointment to us all, that's still pretty good, considering the number of people in the room, and the way in which most tables are laid out, with pens right out in the open. This says quite a lot about the hobby, and the kind of people who are drawn to it. Just visit a large antique show, for example, and see how many booths have trays and trays of very expensive items laying around for folks to pick up and examine as they see fit! Not many....

The big event for Sunday was the grand prize drawing. The British Counsel General was in town, and arrived to make the presentation, along with Don Yendle of Conway Stewart. A Churchill in red and black hard rubber, and a sailor Maki-e were awarded to a pair of very lucky showgoers. At the Chicago show, everyone goes home happy, some just go home happier than others!

As Sunday wound down, and the packing up began, it was time to wander the room, making sure that you said goodbye to everyone who was heading out that night. Those of us who had arranged for flights on Monday were beginning to cast our thoughts towards dinner. If a dealer, and it had been a good day, maybe towards a quick drink or three before dinner! Pen shows can be very stressful events for the folks behind the tables. There's a lot of fun yes, but also the responsibility of making a living at this. Throw in the travel, the set up and tear down and...

This year's Chicago show was four days of nonstop activity, and while without a doubt every minute full of fun, it was time to wind down. After all, it's only eleven months and a few days until the next one! We'd like to take this opportunity to extend thanks to Don Lavin, Dan Zazove, and Michael Fultz, the trio who expend way more energy than seems sane getting the show up and running each year. A great job guys!

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