Has Anyone Heard Of Henry Simpole 2016

[da vinci]

I had the pleasure of meeting Henry aka Trufflefinder today. I throughly enjoyed myself and Henry was generous with time and chat. A black Simpini pen came away with me, a wonderful pen. Thanks Henry

[esterbex]

I had the pleasure of meeting Henry aka Trufflefinder today. I throughly enjoyed myself and Henry was generous with time and chat. A black Simpini pen came away with me, a wonderful pen. Thanks Henry

Welcome to the Simpini club! Congratulations!

[Kenlowe]

I had the pleasure of meeting Henry aka Trufflefinder today. I throughly enjoyed myself and Henry was generous with time and chat. A black Simpini pen came away with me, a wonderful pen. Thanks Henry

 

 

We had an in depth talk on Mandarin Duofolds, the man is a mine of information and generous with it too.

[da vinci]

Welcome to the Simpini club! Congratulations!

Thank you!

[Truffle Finder]

I'm slowly recovering from the Pen Show, and sorting out the two big cases of 'stuff' that Tim and I took there to display on Sunday.

I think that it was better than last year, in that I got the impression that there were more people walking around during the day, and it seemed to continue to be busy until about 3.00pm.

I certainly sold more vintage pens during the day, plus I sold two of my overlaid pens, which is always nice, [not just to receive the money, but because it is confirmation that my work is appreciated by the people who buy them].

I received a surprising number of pen repairs during the day, and when I asked why they had come to me, they all told me that they were directed to me by other stand-holders, and one from the Writing Equipment Society stand, which was quite gratifying to know!

I only managed to 'browse around' a couple of times during the proceedings, and bought one vintage pen, but a gentleman offered me a bag of 6 vintage pens later in the day. They were only 'middle of the road' type of pens, but they were all in fairly good condition, so I was very happy to buy them all. Several have already been restored, so I'm hoping the others will be ready to take with me on Saturday.

As usual, it was good to see some old friends, and a few people who I had never spoken to before.

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I am pleased to say that I am up to date with the pen repairs that I received at the pen show on Sunday.

Today, I will be going up to my booth at Portobello, to return the stock which I had collected last Friday, in preparation for the show!

Hopefully, the Underground system will not cause any problems today, and the weather seems to be alright [so far!] so, with a bit of luck I should be back home by about 2.00pm.

Truffle Finder.

[RonLyke]

I recently saw a friend's collection of Simpole overlay pens. He has quite a bunch of them, including a special one commissioned by him of a violin overlay (he's a violinist). The violin reveals itself as you slowly rotate the pen. Magnificent work!

[Truffle Finder]

Many thanks Ron Lyke, for taking the time to write something about having been shown some of Steve Parson's overlaid pens which he owns!

He was one of earliest 'patrons' who admired my work right from the very start, in fact I think that the first one that he bought from me, was the silver Snake Patterned pen, and quite a few have followed on from there! He commissioned the Violin Pen quite a few years ago, and I put my heart and soul into it's design. It was quite tricky to depict the violin, without it looking 'out of proportion' with the rest of the items in the design, [i was worried that it might resemble a double-bass at one point!] The design of the cap overlay was probably one of the most delicate that I have ever done [to date!] but I felt that I had to do my very best for Steve, as he had shown so much faith in what I was doing from the start.

I think that it is pictured on my website, but I haven't looked for a while, and the images of course are as good as Neal produces!

Truffle Finder.

[esterbex]

This one....so lovely!

http://henrysimpole.com/photo5526419.html

 

http://images.on-this.website/1605_16652883864c362e8e6ccc3.jpg

[RonLyke]

Steve is very proud of that one!

(And all the others, as well.)

[Truffle Finder]

Understandably, yesterday at Portobello, was quite quiet, although I was offered four quite pretty 'lower-tier' vintage fountain pens during the course of the day, which I bought, and hopefully will restore later today, so that they will be ready to to put out on display next Saturday.

Recently, I have got into the habit of asking people who come to my stand at Portobello how they have found out about me, and I suppose it should not be a surprise to me to discover that most of them found out about me 'on the net'!

S'amazing really!!!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

Having been to the Fish Restaurant [the Ark] locally, with my sister yesterday was very enjoyable, as I hadn't been there for quite a while. But, it turns out that I will be going there again tomorrow, with GWP, [that's the guy who started this thread off originally].

On Tuesday next week, Alastair [of British Bespoke Pens] is coming over to see me for a business meeting, so we will be going to the same fish restaurant!

I certainly will be getting my fair share of Omega Vitamin!

Truffle Finder.

Edited October 13, 2016 by Truffle Finder

[esterbex]

You should be feeling youthful and able to cut a jig in Portobello by week's end!

[Ghost Plane]

Now I'm hungry

[Truffle Finder]

Usually at this time on Fridays, I am talking about not having any idea as regards to how things might turn out at my booth at Portobello Road Market on the Saturday, but this week I am very pleased to tell you that I can look forward to a quite busy day tomorrow.

Firstly I had a phone call from a chap, who wants to sell a selection of a 1980's Mont Blanc Ballpoint and a Roller ball, and a Boheme Fountain Pen, as well as a couple of MB leather pochettes!

Secondly, there is a gentleman from USA who wants to buy one or possibly more pens from me, [one of them being one of my silver overlaid pens!] so that bodes very well.

Lastly there is a very good friend of mine who has been collecting fountain pens for quite a while now, who I'm hoping will came along tomorrow. It will be great to 'chew the fat' with him, and talk about pens!

So, it looks really quite promising!

Truffle Finder.

[esterbex]

Well....finish the story! Did they show up? Were there any surprises? Did you buy anything noteworthy? Were any photos made? Enquiring minds need to know. 😉😋🤣

[Truffle Finder]

OK! OK! OK!

I didn't realise that anyone out there was waiting with bated breath for any 'follow-up' descriptions of the things going on up at Portobello Road!!!

The chap who wanted to sell his Mont Blanc pens arrived shortly after I had opened up my stand, and after a bit of discussion, we agreed on a price for the pens, and he seemed very happy with the deal.

Shortly after that I had a couple of customers who both bought 'user-pens' which had caught their attention, as they were passing my booth.

The American gentleman then appeared, and introduced himself and his wife, before she disappeared to look at things other than fountain pens elsewhere in the market! He had a good look at my overlaid pens, and we of course talked to each other about our recent purchases, and eventually he homed in on a red hard rubber Droplet Pattern Pen. We agreed on the price, and then we both walked up the road to see a fellow antiques dealer who deals with my credit card transactions when they occur from time to time!

Having sorted that side of things out, we parted company, and I carried on reading my book, back at my booth until it was time to return home, and I luckily missed the intermittent showers of rain as I walked back to the tube station!

Is that OK Esterbex?

Truffle Finder.

[esterbex]

Oui, oui Truffle. My curiosity has been satisfied. Was the red HR droplet pattern a Simpini?

 

[Truffle Finder]

The one that was chosen yesterday, was very similar, but there is a slight variation to the original 'Simpini' pen, in that the base-pen is slightly different. I call this one the Droplet Pattern pen.

Thanks for posting the picture Esterbex!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I had a parcel yesterday, from a good friend of mine in the West Country.

It was a little box, with an orange and black hard rubber baby eye-dropper, called 'The Tom Tit', made by Ormiston and Glass.

I don't actually know much about it, as I have never owned one before, but I am hoping to have a chat with Stephen Hull to find out more about it, as he is very often the font of all pen knowledge!

Has anyone on here seen one of these pens?

Truffle Finder.