Has Anyone Heard Of Henry Simpole 2016

[Larry Barrieau]

Thanks Henry. I have felt that satisfaction too at a miniscule level. I can resac the easy pens. The first one I did though, made me feel like I had made the WWII Enigma machine. I was elated for days.

[Truffle Finder]

I have to report that the gentleman who owns the De la Rue silver pen, came to collect it this morning from my booth at Portobello Road. He was delighted with the results, and was happy to pay me for my efforts!

But.................. that was about all that happened all the rest of the day I'm afraid.

Thank goodness for the repairs side of the business!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

A very good 'pen collector friend' of mine called round yesterday to drop off a nearly mint condition Parker 61 pen, which needed a replacement 'connector', as the original one had lost it's 'integrity', [these pens really are one of the most awful examples of 'planned obsolescence' that I have ever had the misfortune to encounter!]

Anyway, fortunately I had the part to replace the connector that had been in the pen, so now I will take the pen back to him, and of course I will suggest that he doesn't buy any more of them in future!

Truffle Finder.

[esterbex]

Thanks for the morning chuckles!

[Truffle Finder]

Yesterday turned out to be a quite a busy day at Portobello.

I had actually arrived a little earlier than my usual time, hoping to pop up the road to the fruit and vegetable market [to buy my 'five a day'] before

things hopefully became busy! As it turned out, there was already someone waiting for me when when I opened the shutter to my booth! After he had looked over my recent purchases, [since he had last come to see me] he left, so I took the opportunity to go to buy my fruit further up the road, but I was stopped before I reached the door, by a friend who had asked me to repair a Conway Stewart pen for him, so we both went back to my booth!

The rest of the day was very similar to the way it had started, and it was indeed a very busy day.

I suppose the highlight of the day, was when a good friend of mine who deals in various different antiques, [but also buys and sells gold, as a sideline]. I had seen him last week, and I had left with him several plastic sealable envelopes with gold filings left over from my overlay work, as well as some scrap nibs. He had had the gold melted and analysed during the week, and he had the 'proceeds' with him, so we settled up! [Which is always a very satisfying experience!]

All in all, a very satisfying day!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

On Sunday, a good friend of mine came over to see me, with a view to him buying a few vintage fountain pens, and as usual we did a bit of 'horse-trading' while he was here!

It all ended up with him buying several fountain pens, and I traded a practically mint Swan pen for A Mabie Todd Chatelaine eye-dropper pen from about 1905. It is gold filled base metal, with a repose design of snail, and cable pattern on the cap and barrel. It required a bit of restoration, [which I have now done] and I am a very happy bunny as a result!

I really do love this business!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

Yesterday, up at Portobello Road was fairly good, which was better than I was expecting, as I hadn't had any indication of anyone coming to see me at my stand.

The weather was fairly mild, and thankfully dry, although it did look as though it would rain at any time, but it stayed dry thankfully!

There are several dealers who I like to 'touch-base with' when I first arrive at Portobello Road, who sometimes have fountain pens for me. Fortunately, one of them had found a Conway Stewart Cracked Ice No: 58, in very good condition, which I gladly bought.

Later on, another dealer offered me a small bag of about 8 pens, which included a British Senior Parker 'honey coloured' Pearl Duofold pen, and an early Black Hard Rubber Jack-knife Duofold [junior] Parker [circa: pre: 1920's]. Needless to say, that I bought the whole bagful of pens! Both the seller and the buyer parted very happy with the transaction!

A bit later on in the day, an Italian gentleman came up to my stand, and after looking over a few of my pens, decided to buy a 9Ct gold Parker 51 ball-point pen, [in a Garrard's box].

Quite a few people came and talked to me during the course of the day, including a few 'new collectors', to whom I handed application forms for the Writing Equipment Society.

It was a good day!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

The best pen amongst the 'bagful' of pens that I bought on Saturday, was the honey coloured Pearl Duofold Senior.

The usual discolouration was really quite minimal, which made this pen a very desirable pen, so it was very important that I took great care when it came to it's restoration.

Everything was fine until it came to removing the blind cap from the top of the cap. I tried everything, from the sonic cleaner, through to heat, but neither method helped, so I realised that someone must have used glue to bond the blind cap in place [it certainly wasn't just 'super-glue' holding it in there!] I then realised that I would have to cut the top of the blind cap off, and then drill the threaded tube out of the inside of the top part of the cap! [Are you still with me?]

The trick was to drill through the hard rubber tube, without damaging the threads of the plastic cap! But I did it eventually, and then went through my spares box of Parker blind caps, and found the correct sized one to replace the original one.

I reckon that all this must have taken me 3 hours to do, but it now looks absolutely fantastic!

Some people might be thinking that I really ought "to get out more!" But I am so pleased with the result, that I really don't care what people might think, as I am so pleased with the result!

Today, I will get started on the other pens that came my way on Saturday.

It could be a good week!

Truffle Finder.

[Ghost Plane]

[my63]

Nice work Henry if only you could work the camera..

[esterbex]

Nice work Henry if only you could work the camera..

If only, indeed....

[Truffle Finder]

I received an E-mail from a lady yesterday, who had obviously seen my web-site, asking me if I might have a suitable present for a surgeon who had recently treated her mother. She was thinking that it might be an appropriate present as she had noticed that he used a fountain pen, even to write up his notes!

She asked me if I had one of the Silver Snake Patterned overlaid pens in shock at the moment?

So, I am really looking forward to her arrival at my booth this morning!

Truffle Finder.

[esterbex]

That's some serious display of gratitude!

[Truffle Finder]

It is unusual for me not to report back here when I get back from Portobello Road, but yesterday, I got involved with the cooking for our supper!

I'm pleased to say that the Lady did turn up, and after spending quite a long time in consideration, decided to get one of the Plunger Filler Onoto silver overlaid pens, which meant that I had to explain exactly how the filling mechanism worked!

It's strange, but I have the feeling that at some point, I will see this lady again some time in the future. Maybe she will appear again needing another present for someone else!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

Over the last month, there has been a small team of electricians here, to re-wire the whole building! This has meant that floorboards have had to have been lifted, and walls have been drilled, and cables fed through ceilings, floors and walls!

During the course of all this work, two fairly large 'skips' have been filled with rubbish and taken away. I would like to be able to say that I discovered some treasures which I had completely forgotten all about, but surprisingly enough, not very much [in the way of 'treasures'] did turn up!

My workshop area has gained a degree of tidiness which it had not experienced in quite a while however, but the problem with that is that I sometimes have to spend extra time looking for things which I used to know the location of, but now things seem to have moved to different 'homes'! But like most changes in life, slowly but surely, things do get back to normal!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I have to make a slight correction to my last post on this thread, in that I came across one of the Dragon Patterned overlaid pens yesterday!

Unfortunately, the cap and barrel overlays have not been 'Hall-Marked', but everything was there, waiting to be assembled, so I spent some time yesterday afternoon, putting it together, and I must say, I'm very pleased with it!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

Yesterday was quite a busy day, [not a particularly good one from a monetary point of view] but I was kept fairly busy by virtue of the number of people who came to see me during the course of the day.

One of the customers was a chap who collects 'Unique' pens, [they were a small manufacturer of fountain pens for the student's market during the 1930's]. It had been a while since I had seen him, but following his last visit to see me, I had put a few of them in a small bag, which I kept with me until he returned. He seemed quite pleased with one of them, and he bought it.

Another person who came to see me, was a man from the far east [now living in London], who brought along a modern Conway Stewart fountain pen, which needed some repair work, so he left it with me, and as I write this, I am happy to say that I have done it, [if he is reading this] then he will be able to collect it next Saturday!

Sadly, there were no fountain pens offered to me for sale!

Truffle Finder.

Edited April 2, 2017 by Truffle Finder

[Truffle Finder]

It would appear that I will have at least two customers tomorrow at Portobello Road, one to collect three pens, and the other one will be coming to pick up his repaired fountain pen.

Hopefully, there will be a few vintage fountain pens to buy during the course of the day.

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

It all turned out to be a quite lively day up at Portobello Road today.

It started off with an Asian Lady who wanted a fountain pen for her brother as a gift for him. After looking and trying several pens, she decided to buy two of them!

Then my friend who had left his Conway Stewart Marlborough with me last week, to repair for him, came to collect it. He seemed very pleased with the result, and duly paid me. His visit coincided with another gentleman, who was talking to me about his vintage fountain pen collecting experiences, so, we continued 'chewing the fat' for some time!

While all this was going on, another gentleman came to collect three vintage fountain pens which he had already seen last Saturday.

Sadly, I was only offered one writing instrument during the course of the day, and that was a Mont Blanc [modern] propelling pencil, but it was 'mint', and in it's box, so I bought it, and now it is on display in the cabinet.

Truffle Finder.

[billydo]

Thanks for the report Henry.

 

Just to give everyone a flavour of a typical Saturday at the arcade, here's a few more of Rik Pennington's photos from a few weeks ago.