My Unpublished Article on Fountain Pen Hospital

[jchch1950]

Thank you Maurizio .The article is very good and brings back happy memories. I will only add a very personal comment about FPH: It has a perfect balance between service and advice with the possibility of looking around to see the many pens that are shown without any hurry. Sometimes you need time to see the real pens before you take a decision about which one you want to buy. Also FPH has a good selection of books and even old issues of magazines, so time to update the reading.😃

[Maurizio]

15 hours ago, jchch1950 said:

Thank you Maurizio .The article is very good and brings back happy memories. I will only add a very personal comment about FPH: It has a perfect balance between service and advice with the possibility of looking around to see the many pens that are shown without any hurry. Sometimes you need time to see the real pens before you take a decision about which one you want to buy. Also FPH has a good selection of books and even old issues of magazines, so time to update the reading.😃

Thanks JC. I’m glad it called up some happy memories. And yes, FPH never seems to have a problem with customers who linger and I’ve never seen them rush a customer. And  you’re also right, I neglected to mention that they do carry some books about fountain pens. 

[alexwi]

On 4/7/2022 at 9:04 PM, Maurizio said:

but I’ve decided to share it here for what it’s worth. 

 

Beautifully written. Thanks for sharing it!

 

Alex

[Bisquitlips]

Lovely article and merits publishing.  Thank you for posting here.

 

 

[Maurizio]

Thanks for your kind words Alex and Bisquit. 

 

I realized it will never be published and I’m pleased folks here are liking it. 

[Maurizio]

On 4/8/2022 at 8:56 PM, Keyless Works said:

Great article. Thank you for sharing it!

 

I've bought from them many times. They have great customer service. I will admit though despite typically going to NYC once or twice a year, I've never been to their store. The location is not that convenient and it seems like all of my errands and various appointments never take me further south than SoHo.

Thanks for your kind words Keyless. Maybe next time you’re in NYC you’ll venture down to where FPH for a look; I’m pretty sure you won’t regret it. One thing I will note, at the moment NYC is in a very bad retro to the 70’s phase, so if you do go, take a car service, not the subway. 

[Keyless Works]

6 hours ago, Maurizio said:

Thanks for your kind words Keyless. Maybe next time you’re in NYC you’ll venture down to where FPH for a look; I’m pretty sure you won’t regret it. One thing I will note, at the moment NYC is in a very bad retro to the 70’s phase, so if you do go, take a car service, not the subway. 

I appreciate the tip. Living in San Francisco, we too have a similar problem.

[kazoolaw]

Have visited FPH several times.  On my last visit Marilyn Brown was there and was kind enough to spend time chatting about pens and pen collectors.  Her story about the collector with a closet full of unopened MB limited editions was eye-opening.  She was gracious with her time, and steered me to a standard edition pen within the spending limit of the day.

[DrDebG]

Excellent article!  Thank you for giving us the pleasure of reading it.  

 

I must confess that I am a westerner and have never been to New York except to change planes.  As a result, I have never been to FPH.  I have always enjoyed their website and have purchased a few items from them over the years.  Your article makes me want to go there now and just "browse".  

 

Thank you again!

[vicpen123]

We were in NYC in 2016 and FPH was on my list of "must sees" along with the Statue of Liberty, the Met, Times Square, Empire State and other highlights.

 

Coming from Oz, NYC has so many attractions and being so far away who knows when we might ever get back. Do the most important things when we can.

[Maurizio]

11 hours ago, DrDebG said:

Excellent article!  Thank you for giving us the pleasure of reading it.  

 

I must confess that I am a westerner and have never been to New York except to change planes.  As a result, I have never been to FPH.  I have always enjoyed their website and have purchased a few items from them over the years.  Your article makes me want to go there now and just "browse".  

 

Thank you again!

 

Thanks for your appreciation DrDeb. 

[como]

@Maurizio Thank you for sharing your article. I have fond memories of FPH. More than 15 years ago, I think almost close to 20 years ago, I visited Joon and bought my first Omas and Montblanc there. Then I decided to see more so I went down to FPH. NYC has so many fun places to see... I also loved going to BH Photo Videos to look at cameras. Hope I revisit soon!

[Maurizio]

 

Thanks Como.

 

I almost forgot about Joon Pens. When I first arrived in NYC after professional graduation way back in 1994, there were many fountain pen shops and stationary stores in NYC; many of the stationary stores also carried fountain pens, even if they weren’t full blown fountain pen shops like FPH, Art Brown, or Joon.  Joon at the time had several locations as I recall, and they were the shop that had opened a satellite store in Grand Central Station. Sad that NYC is just down to one. Online ordering had made life convenient in many ways, but there are still things I want to visit a real store to buy, all things being equal: clothes, shoes & definitely fountain pens. 

[Parker51]

Thank you for reminding us of what a jewel there is in having such a retail store. 
 

I understand however the difficulties involved for the owners in keeping such a store given high retail space rents, especially given what they indicated was the high level of online sales. The temptation must be great to go online only and operate out of a much lower rent office park somewhere, perhaps in New Jersey.

 

My daughter related to me that she was unfortunately quite disappointed with NYC the last time she was there (pre-pandemic) precisely because of the lack of retail diversity she found, except for the food from grocers. 

 

It seems that that there is something going on in the USA in addition to the effect of internet sales and most recently the pandemic on traditional retailers which has changed much shopping from an interesting activity to a typically boring endeavor. Our local Krogers  (grocery store) was rebuilt well before the pandemic and changed from a pleasant and interesting place place to shop with an interesting variety of merchandise to a warehouse with limited selections.

[agentdaffy007]

I have been visiting a small jewelry shop in my city for 10 years. He happens to be an authorized dealer for many pen brands like ST Dupont, Dunhill, Montblanc, GVFC. I would say before the pandemic, his landlord decided to shut him down to expand the hotel. He managed to move to another location after being out for 1 year.

 

Since he moved to a location with many Montblanc stores around, he is no longer an AD for Montblanc. Really unfortunate that a place where I would shop might shut down at any moment.

 

[welch]

Splendid article, Maurizio!

 

For about twenty=-five years I worked in Midtown, an easy walk from Art Brown's. I used to hang around Art Brown's on my lunch hours, chatting with Warren, Marilyn, and their son, David. It was a good place to meet other fountain pen people, including visitors from outside NYC and pen company folks passing through the City. That was my pen place. After they closed in 2013, I began making the trip down to FPH, where the Pen Goddess Marilyn Brown has worked -- part time -- ever since. The Browns and the Wiederlights were good friends. 

 

As you mention, there is something special about having a store where you can just chit-chat with other pen people, hearing opinions about pens and inks. No on-line seller can replace that. And on-line is not so much cheaper.

 

Almost forgot: FPH has a good selection of books. That's where I bought my P-51 book (the Shepherds' book). I think FPH also carried the Vac book, back then. 

 

 

[Maurizio]

Thanks for the kind words Welch. 

 

Art Brown was a one-of-a kind place. It was such an elegant, well laid out and full of light shop. Staff, including, and especially Marilyn Brown, were welcoming and knowledgeable and never salesman-pushy. Its closure was a real loss for New York City in my opinion, dropping NYC’s uniqueness and sophistication down a notch. 

[inkstainedruth]

On 5/6/2022 at 3:28 PM, welch said:

Splendid article, Maurizio!

 

For about twenty=-five years I worked in Midtown, an easy walk from Art Brown's. I used to hang around Art Brown's on my lunch hours, chatting with Warren, Marilyn, and their son, David. It was a good place to meet other fountain pen people, including visitors from outside NYC and pen company folks passing through the City. That was my pen place. After they closed in 2013, I began making the trip down to FPH, where the Pen Goddess Marilyn Brown has worked -- part time -- ever since. The Browns and the Wiederlights were good friends. 

 

As you mention, there is something special about having a store where you can just chit-chat with other pen people, hearing opinions about pens and inks. No on-line seller can replace that. And on-line is not so much cheaper.

 

Almost forgot: FPH has a good selection of books. That's where I bought my P-51 book (the Shepherds' book). I think FPH also carried the Vac book, back then. 

 

 

FPH where I got my copy of the Vac book.  I should think about seeing about getting the book on 51s at some point as well....

I wasn't able to make my sort of annual pilgrimage there this year over Christmas, because my sister-in-law's husband has been having health issues and then my sister-in-law just had hip surgery recently -- so they weren't really up to houseguests.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth