What's Up At Christof's

[Dickkooty2]

No, but these guys have:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/182340-denmark-and-pens/

 

http://jkpens.com/prod/index.php?section=manu&id=81&view=detail&view2=all

[christof]

hello,

 

Have you heard of Penol FPs?

 

 

Yes, of course I have. They're from Denmark and had a close collaboration with Parker during the 1930's. I have a couple of Danish Duofolds.

This is a nice pen you have there.

C.

Edited February 11, 2017 by christof

[jmccarty3]

It's a pleasure to have you posting again here more often. I always enjoy your superb photographs of old pens.

[AL01]

In the US of A you will find a Montblanc in a Pawn shop at best. AND it will be a 149. Priced like there ain't no tommorow. Sir, I hope you enjoy your pen finds. (I'll enjoy my video game deals...)

[christof]

It's a pleasure to have you posting again here more often.

Thank you. But well, I never left FPN. I just was (and still am) a little bit frustrated about how the subforum of classifieds has developped.

I always told people that FPN would be one of the best places for buying and selling pens.

This is what I told, but today I am not that sure about....

But let's see what happens next...

C.

[christof]

In the US of A you will find a Montblanc in a Pawn shop at best.

This is hard to believe for me. I know some US collectors which have found and still find great pens in the wild. For me as a Swiss, America seems like a pen Eldorado for American pens.

But maybe times have changed and most of the pens were found in the meantime.

Hard times for collectors...also here in CH were ebay-sellers from whole Europe are coming over to buy every pen-like item at our thrift shops and fleamarkets.

Today, you will need good connections to get vintage quality pens.

C.

[farmdogfan]

hello,

 

Have you heard of Penol FPs?

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/b5gAAOSw-0xYl2z7/s-l1600.jpg

I have a few, they are nice well-built pens (as are Big Ben).

 

[AL01]

This is hard to believe for me. I know some US collectors which have found and still find great pens in the wild. For me as a Swiss, America seems like a pen Eldorado for American pens.

But maybe times have changed and most of the pens were found in the meantime.

Hard times for collectors...also here in CH were ebay-sellers from whole Europe are coming over to buy every pen-like item at our thrift shops and fleamarkets.

Today, you will need good connections to get vintage quality pens.

C.

 

In some states, yes - and in some states the best you can find is an Esterbrook or a Sheaffer School Pen.

 

I reccomend you shop up North for a nice FP. Unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of vintage pen finds where I am now. (I found a Wearever Pennant and a Sheaffer School Pen.)

[drrusso]

In some states, yes - and in some states the best you can find is an Esterbrook or a Sheaffer School Pen.

 

I reccomend you shop up North for a nice FP. Unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of vintage pen finds where I am now. (I found a Wearever Pennant and a Sheaffer School Pen.)

Indeed, its odd to hear that its hard to find vintage pens in the US.

Maybe, there have become a lot of novice pen collectors now-a-days, hence more sellers...

[AL01]

And there are some people who, err... Beat me to it.

[Ambien]

This is hard to believe for me. I know some US collectors which have found and still find great pens in the wild. For me as a Swiss, America seems like a pen Eldorado for American pens.

But maybe times have changed and most of the pens were found in the meantime.

Hard times for collectors...also here in CH were ebay-sellers from whole Europe are coming over to buy every pen-like item at our thrift shops and fleamarkets.

Today, you will need good connections to get vintage quality pens.

C.

 

I've only been to a few flea markets but rarely do I see anything FP-related but this is surrounding the east coast area. I imagine most collectors move to the large quarterly FP shows for interesting items. Meanwhile eBay still has the greatest variety of useful and useless items for USA.

Edited February 13, 2017 by Ambien

[MYU]

This is hard to believe for me. I know some US collectors which have found and still find great pens in the wild. For me as a Swiss, America seems like a pen Eldorado for American pens.

But maybe times have changed and most of the pens were found in the meantime.

Hard times for collectors...also here in CH were ebay-sellers from whole Europe are coming over to buy every pen-like item at our thrift shops and fleamarkets.

Today, you will need good connections to get vintage quality pens.

C.

Yes, the opportunists seek out high value items and then route them out wherever they can. The Internet enables this even more, as much of the plundering is happening on-line as well.

 

When I went through a period of selling off some of my fountain pen connection, I'd periodically get low ball offers from various buyers... who turned out to be "flippers" after looking into their feedback, discovering much pen selling in their auction histories. They were looking to see if I was a clueless idiot they could prey upon, getting a low price from me, then turning around and flipping their bargain for a much higher price. I understand the rationale, to find something for a good price and then sell it for more, but when you do it with the focus of financially "deceiving" someone else, I take exception to it. These sorts of people exemplify one of the more unsavory characteristics of humanity, to put it mildly.

 

I find those thrift shops having vintage pens to be far fewer than they used to be. The pain and time to spend traveling and searching offsets whatever value you find. The best case is to be out and about, where a thrift shop happens to be in easy reach to visit.

[AL01]

Unfortunately these days FPs have become "Calligraphy pens". With this notion that many people have in mind they automatically default to FPs as all being some valuable antiquated collector's item. Not all of them are but that's what the general public assumes...

 

In Europe FPs are still used, which is why they are more common to find over there.

[christof]

Short update about the Museum-Project*:

 

*(more about here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/220855-whats-up-at-christofs/?p=2652929)

 

We reached another milestone and the base for a representive Lamy collection is built. I finally finished one lot of important examples of LAMY pens and gave them to the curators of the Design Museum.

 

 

All the pens are photographed and described as good as posssible. Once they are added to the collection of the museum, all the informations and pens can be seen here, together with others:

 

http://www.emuseum.ch/view/objects/asimages/search$0040/0/title-asc?criteria=F$00fcllfederhalter&rg=Objects,,0&sm=[Objects,%20Exhibitions,%20Sites,%20People,%20MediaModule]

 

C.

Edited March 14, 2017 by christof

[Polanova]

Yes, the opportunists seek out high value items and then route them out wherever they can. The Internet enables this even more, as much of the plundering is happening on-line as well.

 

When I went through a period of selling off some of my fountain pen connection, I'd periodically get low ball offers from various buyers... who turned out to be "flippers" after looking into their feedback, discovering much pen selling in their auction histories. They were looking to see if I was a clueless idiot they could prey upon, getting a low price from me, then turning around and flipping their bargain for a much higher price. I understand the rationale, to find something for a good price and then sell it for more, but when you do it with the focus of financially "deceiving" someone else, I take exception to it. These sorts of people exemplify one of the more unsavory characteristics of humanity, to put it mildly.

 

 

While agreeing with you I have to add that this is capitalism in a nutshell - buy low, sell high. Why would this stop with old ink pens?

[drrusso]

Short update about the Museum-Project*:

 

*(more about here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/220855-whats-up-at-christofs/?p=2652929)

 

We reached another milestone and the base for a representive Lamy collection is built. I finally finished one lot of important examples of LAMY pens and gave them to the curators of the Design Museum.

 

 

All the pens are photographed and described as good as posssible. Once they are added to the collection of the museum, all the informations and pens can be seen here, together with others:

 

]http://www.emuseum.ch/view/objects/asimages/search$0040/0/title-asc?criteria=F$00fcllfederhalter&rg=Objects,,0&sm=[Objects,%20Exhibitions,%20Sites,%20People,%20MediaModule]

 

C.

Christof!

 

That's a great work to be done, as far as Lamy museum is concerned.

 

Well done!

 

By the way, how long did it take to find all these beautiful exponates ?

 

Regards,

Arvind.

[christof]

Thank you.

Don't know how long it took, it's not finished yet, the hunt goes on.

C.

[drrusso]

Thank you.

Don't know how long it took, it's not finished yet, the hunt goes on.

C.

Oh! Really ?

Keep updating then .

What ever you added to the collection for the museum is very interesting.

 

Keep it up!

 

Regards,

Arvind.

[christof]

It has been some time ago since I posted one of my pen finds here. There are several reasons for that (lots of work at the office, lots of work for the Msueum of Design, few new pens not so regular visits here on FPN anymore etc...)

 

But here is one that I thought it might worth to show:

 

 

Of course this is a common black Pelikan 100N with the piston mechanics of a later Pelikan 101N Tortoise. No prototype, no special series, just wrong parts put togehter to a nice pen. I actually found this pen on a local flea market this way and decided to keep it as it is because I really like the combination of the colors...

 

But the really amazing part is the nib. Have a look yourself:

 

 

Probably a BBB, writes like a brush...

 

 

 

C.

Edited March 20, 2017 by christof

[da vinci]

Christof thank you for posting. A nice pen, but I agree that nib is a great find!