Author Archives: Nathaniel Cerf

About Nathaniel Cerf

Nathaniel Cerf is the owner of ThePenMarket.com. He has been a fountain pen junkie since the age of 9, but his addiction got out of control around 2004, when he began to learn the art of fountain pen repair.

In addition to his pen activities, Nathaniel is a professional writer with a master’s degree in journalism from The University of Montana. A former Gannett newspaper editor, he has also been published in magazines as diverse as Montana Journalism Review, Nostalgia Digest, American Fencing (that’s swords not barb wire or picket) and True Confessions. His photography has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Argus Leader and American Fencing.

The blogosphere knows Mr. Cerf from “The Hat Chronicals” at www.hats-plus.com, where he created and currently maintains a blog committed to fedoras, pork pies and the history of headwear. He also originated a movie review blog for DVDPlanet.com.

Nathaniel is currently shopping an expose novel he has written about the children’s mental health industry. (Yep, he has a bachelor’s degree in psychology, too.)

If that isn’t enough to keep him busy, he coaches and competes in fencing. He maintains a national rating in foil, but he also dabbles in epee. (That’s the weird sword crossword puzzles always use.) He also continues perfecting the formula for peanut butter and mustard sandwiches and Flaming Hot Orgasmic Tacos from Hell.

Arkansas, Atlanta and Chicago, Oh My!

By on April 24, 2019
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It has been far too long since last writing in November. To say I’ve been a little busy is a bit of an understatement. In addition to running this business, I’ve taken a job learning…and hopefully mastering…the art of clock repair! It has been a passion for some time, and an opportunity arose in December that I just couldn’t say no to.

The trick is remembering not to stick nibs in clocks and gears in fountain pens.

I’ve also met a special someone you’ll meet in just a moment.

A rare quiet moment at the Arkansas Pen Show in Little Rock.

Annnd, there are the pen shows. Dawn and I met at the Ohio Pen Show in November, and we just had to escape the cold of March in the upper Midwest with a trip down to Little Rock for the Arkansas Pen Show. Springtime in the South never fails to impress. And the hospitality in the South is second to none.

The Arkansas Pen Show was a stunner, again, this year. Soooo many friendly faces. Plus, this year added free lunches for the vendors! The Vaness family hosted another great party at their shop…of course with crispy bacon coated in chocolate. Our hottest item at the show was “Frau Tinte’s Medieval Inks: Toxic Walnut.” I know an ink historian who recreates ancient ink recipes, and we thought we’d try a few samples out on the public to see what the reaction was. The sepia-colored walnut ink is far too harsh (and unfiltered) for regular pens; it can only be used in glass and gold dip pens. Hence the name Toxic Walnut.

Clock repair has become a new interest of mine. Here is a Junghans movement I recently repaired.

Afterward we spent a day in Memphis exploring Beale Street and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. It is a somber but breath-taking museum experience.

Just a couple short weeks later, and I was off to the Atlanta Pen Show. Jimmy and Suzanne keep doing a great job with that show, and it remains a real highlight of my year. The afterhours pen parties have really taken on a whole new life of their own in Atlanta. Tons of fun with people geeking out over their pen and ink treasures.

I also caught my first baseball game of the year in Atlanta. The Cubs took on the Braves on a rainy Thursday night. The highlight for me was getting to join a parade of fans walking around the warning track before the game! I have always wanted to set foot on the field at a pro park. Sadly, the Braves romped the Cubs, but I was still pretty high from walking on the field.

Ebenezer Baptist Church is where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a great deal of the civil rights movement.

Completing my trip to Atlanta was a visit to Ebenezer Baptist Church, which was where MLK was pastor. (Sensing a theme this year?) It was impressive to see in all of its humble glory. Hard to believe a large segment of the civil rights movement was led from such an unassuming church.

And now, I’m bracing for the Chicago Pen Show. Lots of great new pens to fix for the show. Then, hopefully, I’ll be able to start settling back into the normal blog posting routine again.

An ink historian recreated a medieval walnut ink recipe for glass and gold-only dip pens. It is far too corrosive for modern fountain pens, but it is cool to write like a king or queen of the 14th century.

How Do I Start Collecting Pens? Investing

By on November 15, 2018
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“How do I collect pens for investment?” is probably one of the most difficult questions I have to answer. Like all the investment prospectuses out there state, “Investing requires a degree of risk with no guarantee of success.”

There are several strategies that can help an investor looking to profit on pens, but it is important to understand several key facts before investing.

• The market for pens is constantly changing.
• Cashing out for a profit can be difficult.
• Even the most reputable retailers on earth don’t pay full retail for pens they are going to resell.
• Like every good drug dealer knows: “Don’t get addicted to your own product.”

RULE #1: Buy low, sell high. Sounds easy enough, but it doesn’t always work that way.

MINIMIZE SELLING COSTS: Most people love the collecting side of this wonderful hobby. They love the hunt, or they love using the pens. Yet, the first thing any investor-collector should think about is how they are going to offload their pens while getting their money out of them.

All of the major retailers online, such as myself, are looking for deals like any investor. If you have a rare pen that sells for $2,000, retailers like me aren’t going to pay you $2,000 for it, just so we can turn around and sell it for $2,000. Clearly, that is all risk and no reward for the retailer. And unless you found this pen for $50, you might be really upset if the retailer only offers you $1,500 or less for a $2,000 pen.

Auction sites and payment-receiving companies such as PayPal and Square charge any number of fees and commissions. These can quickly add up and dig into a substantial part of your profits.

Your best bet might be to sell your pens one-on-one at pen shows, in free social media listing pages or some place such as our Trading Post. We charge a one-time $5 fee for a single posting. You keep your pen and handle the transaction as you see fit. There are no other fees or commissions when you sell the pen. Just tell us it is sold, and we’ll delist it.

RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH: If you are serious about investing in pens, knowledge is power. There are huge differences between why one pen might get an astronomical amount of money and why another pen that looks nearly identical wouldn’t. There are so many nuances that affect values. Plus, if you like modern pens…and even some vintage ones…you need to learn how to spot the fakes. Furthermore, it is critical to also research the trends in what is selling and at what prices it is selling.

Flexible vintage Waterman nibs such as these from the 1920s are in exceptionally high demand in 2018.

DAY TRADING: Okay. The market for pens doesn’t move nearly as fast as it does for “day traders” on Wall Street. However, if you know what is really hot on the market right now and know you can quickly find a customer who will pay full price for it, you can make a lot of money. The trick is to know the market really well and not hold on to the pen for too long.

For example: As of this writing in November 2018, really flexible Waterman nibs from the 1920s are in peak demand. Everybody wants a flexi nib! So if you can find a Waterman 52 with a “wet noodle nib” in an antique store or flea market for $25, fix it up and sell it in a few days for $150 to $200, you’ll have made a great investment.

The trouble is that what is popular can seemingly shift overnight. About 10 years ago, everybody had to have an impossibly extra-fine nib on their vintage pens. If the line was so fine that you couldn’t even see it, that was perfect. Modern Japanese nibs can get that fine, but most vintage nibs were made for fine to medium writing. Thus those vintage extra-fine nibs were hard to find. Then one day I showed up at a pen show loaded with extra fines and nobody wanted them. The fad was over.

THE LONG GAME: Most people want a blue-chip stock they can buy at age 30, hold for 30 years and cash out at 60 for a tidy profit. They exist, of course, but they are less obvious than most people might assume. Take a Montblanc 149 fountain pen. They retail brand new for around $1,000. People who aren’t into pens might assume it will only hold that price and appreciate with time…but it won’t. Gently used 149s from the 1970s through ’90s are retailing for around $400 to $450. However, if you bought it in 1979 for $150…you’re doing okay. Yet, given how little has changed about them during the past 40 years, it isn’t likely you’ll make a profit on a new one sold from an MB boutique today. Nevertheless, an early 1950s’ 149 is resurgent on the market and attracting serious money that isn’t likely to subside for some time.

Hand-painted Montblanc Mythical Creatures series pens are genuinely rare pens that might appreciate in value, as they only made 1,500 of each…unlike the Writers’ Series pens which are made by the 10s of thousands.

A lot of people invest heavily in “limited edition” pens, but I am beginning to question how long those prices will last. With the exception of the Montblanc Writers’ Series Hemingway, Poe and Agatha Christie, most of those pens aren’t holding their original retail value. The trouble is that they aren’t really limited. MB makes tens of thousands of them every year. Everybody who wants one gets one. Most people treat them gently or don’t use them at all. There will come a time in the next 10 to 20 years when everybody either starts selling them off to cash in or passing them down to their children who don’t want them and sell them. When that happens, there will be a glut on the market. Frankly, I’m already seeing signs of that now.

Yet, maybe genuinely limited pens of say 1,500 or fewer, like the hand-painted Montblanc Mythical Creatures series, will appreciate more because so few were made…and they were more handmade than the more common pens. (Although even these pens are a little down in price at the moment.)

LeBoeuf #8 fountain pens are among the rarest grail pens for vintage pen collectors. These were among the first celluloid pens ever made…and are stunningly beautiful.

Vintage pens are a different matter. Blue chips might include an oversized #8 LeBoeuf, senior-sized mandarin yellow Parker Duofolds, Nassau green Parker 51s with double jewels and vermillion Sheaffer Snorkels. Each is a rare color variant on a popular pen. Prices might fluctuate over time, but their values ought to hold.

Playing Devil’s advocate to myself, nearly impossible to find grail pens spanning 1900 to 1925ish are once again becoming much more available as the original collectors are beginning to pass on. Younger, newer collectors are not as familiar with those pens and likely haven’t the money at this stage in their careers to purchase them…and so those prices are actually crashing a bit. It is unclear at the moment if new generation collectors will ever have much interest in the earliest fountain pens. Speculators might be wise to let the prices keep coming down and snatch a few up at “bargain” prices to hold for another 20 years or so. BUT, there’s no guarantee it will pay off.

Younger collectors were laughing at me the 2018 Ohio Pen Show when I said they should hold on to their TWSBI Ecos. These are $15 pens that are a scorching hot fad in affordable fountain pens. But who is to say that these new pen users and collectors in their early 20s and early 30s won’t get nostalgic for them in another 30 years, when they start looking back on how they got into pen collecting. Who knew those 1970s and ’80s Star Wars action figures and spaceships I played with all the time would now be worth a fortune? If only I hadn’t sold them all in a garage sale at age 12.

In closing, you can make a lot of money by investing in pens if you carefully research what it is you are investing in, know well the market and trends in collecting, buy low and sell high and have an inexpensive way to sell your investments. Good luck!

Ohio Pen Show Bound!

By on October 25, 2018
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Wow! What a whirlwind year! I can’t believe it is already time to go to Columbus for what will likely be our last pen show for the year. The Ohio Pen Show is always a great one.

These are just the repairs we’re delivering to customers at this year’s Ohio Pen Show. Just imagine the goodies you haven’t yet seen on this site that will be coming!

Look how busy we’ve been. These pens are just the repairs we’ve done to deliver to customers at the show!

Terry and his sons always put on a helluva good show, and I cannot wait to see them and all of my many other friends in Columbus. If you are going this year, please keep a look out for me. My table is in the main hallway, just outside the main entrance to the big room at the show. Be sure to stop by and say “Howdy.”

Well, I best get to fixin’ some more pens for you at this year’s show. See ya in a week!

Meet the Ink Test Guru

By on October 10, 2018
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Several years ago I met Donn D. at the Chicago Pen Show. We got to talking outside of the main room afterhours, and he was the one who introduced me to Ink-Fast Tests. He had a binder of very organized ink swatches that showed what an ink looked like when protected from the light, what it looked like after it had been left in the sun for 3 months and after it had been left in the sun for 6 months.

As I was on a quest for the perfect replacement blue for my beloved Waterman Florida Blue, I began making ink tests for this site. I figured you would be as curious as I am about how ink holds up to UV light.

Donn and I got together at this year’s Washington DC Pen Show and resumed our inky discussions. I asked if he would be so kind as to share some of his tests on the blog, and he said, “Yes.”

Included in this post are 4 pages of his tests of Pilot ink, Diamine ink, Noodler’s ink, Waterman ink, Parker ink and Pelikan ink…among others.

Donn described his methodology as such: “I exposed fountain pen ink samples to ultraviolet light from the sun for 3 months and 6 months.  The exposure method involved simply taping them to the inside of a patio door, which does not block UV very well.  I exposed all samples in the same manner, but not at the same time, and have no record of the number of cloudy vs. sunny days for each test.  The paper was standard office copy bond.

The inks in this test happen to be colors I like, rather than a general test of a manufacturer’s entire product line.

What surprised me most was how well green inks held up, and a chemist friend speculates a copper compound may be involved.

Note: Test sheet #1 shows 6-month results only.”

Thank you, Donn, for sharing so many of these ink tests. Everybody else, I hope these help you in your quest for the perfect inks.

Click on any of the images to see a larger, clearer representation of the inks tested. Please also note that these are not performance tests of the ink inside a fountain pen. Some of these inks are not as well suited to vintage pens as others. This is strictly to showcase how an ink will hold up to time and light. (For example, Noodler’s Ink often clogs the hell out of vintage pens. Beautiful inks but a pain to deal with unless you love spending hours cleaning pens.)

2018 Dallas Pen Show Round-up

By on October 3, 2018
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Sometimes the biggest part of an adventure is just arriving safely. My trusty car, Penelope Apocalypse, was debating existential issues with herself, as her starter was giving out. A quick trip to the dealership the day I was scheduled to drive south turned into a prolonged exploration of the starter system. After 5 hours of delay, the dealership determined that her starter was dying and it had no spares to replace it. Thus, I hit the road with no guarantee of getting to Dallas…but I really wanted to go!

In one of our few sober moments, Three-Finger Frank and I visit at my table during the Dallas Pen Show.

Stopping only for gas near St. Louis, I made it to Muskogee, Oklahoma, by 4 a.m. the following day. Penelope graced me with a fresh start in the morning, and we made it to Dallas on a wing and an exhausted prayer.

Thank goodness for great friends. The awesome pen dealer Joe Lowe was waiting for me in Dallas, and he found a dealership just a mile from the pen show hotel! I unloaded Penelope at the hotel, and we took her to the dealer for a new starter. One classic Luby’s dinner experience later, Joe and I were fortified for the show starting the next morning.

Pete Kirby and Mike Walker did a fantastic job advertising the daylights out of the Dallas Pen Show this year. It was packed nearly shoulder to shoulder all day Friday and Saturday! They sure run a good show.

I was on the back wall, where I was last year and stacked more than 4 boxes worth of goods on a single table. It is a great location, and I was visited by tons of friends all day Friday and Saturday. Charles S. and his buddy Murray came to visit from Ft. Worth. We had fun shootin’ the breeze. Then came Three-Finger Frank and his lovely wife Kelly. We’d eventually get a great dinner together, catching up on a year’s worth of conversation and puns.

The show was so busy, I barely got a chance to see any other tables other than the ones next to me. It looked like a vintage heavy show, and from what I could see there were some really amazing offerings. The oversized orange hard rubber Watermans with sterling silver filigree had me drooling the most.

Friday night ran late. After dinner, Frank and I continued on in the hotel bar, joking and swapping philosophical musings. We were soon joined by Nik Pang, and the laughs and bull session continued. It was like being in college all over again. I’m surprised our livers didn’t explode.

Saturday started way too early, but it was another fun day of friends and pens. My favorite new friend is Miss Targa Slim. Mysterious, beautiful and hilarious. We met the day before and had a delightful time swapping stories for a second day. She said she’d keep in touch, and I sure hope she does.

Saturday night the pressure was off, knowing I’d have a starter that worked. Another dinner at Luby’s with Joe and a few other friends, and then it was off to Muskogee. The long ride home was way more relaxing and uneventful. Although Penelope seems like a new car to me, she crossed the great 100,000-mile mark somewhere in Oklahoma! She’s the first car I ever drove 100,000 miles on, and she feels powerful enough to go another 100k…now that she has a new starter for the task.

Dallas Pen Show Here We Come…I Hope

By on September 26, 2018
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We’ve got four boxes and a whole lot more filled with vintage and preowned modern luxury pens to tempt you with at this weekend’s Dallas Pen Show!

Do you think I have enough pens for the Dallas Pen Show? We’ve got a tower of swag to bring to our southernmost pen show. A new cache of Omas, Parker, Namiki/Pilot, vintage pens and factory-fresh Lamy pens.

There’s only one snag. The car won’t start! We are headed to the shop the first thing in the A.M. to hopefully get this show on the road. The hotels and the tables are already paid for. We just gotta get the ol’ jalopy firing on all 4 cylinders. Last week she required $1,200 in repairs. We hope this week is easier going.

In the meantime, if you live anywhere near Dallas, be sure to check out this huge show on Friday and Saturday. There will be two rooms filled to the rafters with pens and some of the friendliest folks you’ve ever met.

We’re keeping our shoelaces crossed (it’s too difficult to type with crossed fingers) that we’ll see you in a couple days!

James Bond’s Montblanc from Octopussy: The Sequel

By on September 20, 2018
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Two years ago we identified the sterling silver Montblanc 146 used in the 1983 James Bond film “Octopussy.” The film starred Roger Moore, Maud Adams and Louis Jordan…and a certain fountain pen that was modified by Q. The pen in the film holds a very potent acid ANNND a secret listening device.

A sterling silver with a barley design Montblanc 146 fountain pen that was used in the movie Octopussy rests on a table.

This is one of two pens used in the James Bond film “Octopussy.” In the movie the pen holds acid and a secret listening device. More recently, this one looks as if it held blue ink.

Among the pen’s other notable features is that it does not have the traditional Montblanc branded black dome with the 6-point star or snowy mountain top at the top of the pen. Montblanc got credit for the pen, it just seemed weird it branded the pen differently for the movie.

As fate would have it, the current owner of that pen read our blog post recently and sent us a photo of the original pen.

Jeremy F. is the pen’s owner, and he said there were two made for the film—his and one that has since gone missing. (Perhaps they shouldn’t have filled a plastic pen with potent acid.)

Jeremy got it from the one-time head of Dunhill, who got it from someone at Montblanc. He has since had it authenticated by Jens Rösler, grandson of Montblanc’s founder.

Man Saves a Life Using Pen

By on September 6, 2018
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We’ve all heard the cliché that the pen in mightier than the sword. Typically it refers to truth, ideologies, satire and propaganda changing the world. Rarely is the pen thought of as a tool for physical action and derring do.

Buuuuut, today’s heroes are one tough pen and the man who wields it to save lives. Meet Colin M. a paramedic with a passion for pens. A longtime customer of ThePenMarket.com, we’ve struck up a friendship via e-mail, and when he told me what you’re about to read I couldn’t keep it a secret.

TPM: Hi, Colin. Welcome to “Drippy Musings.” I know that confidentiality prevents you from saying anything that would identify your patient, but please tell us about how you used a pen to save somebody’s life.

Our friend and customer Colin M. is a paramedic and used this trusty brass Delike Alpha fountain pen to save a woman’s life.

CM: A few months ago, my partner and I were responding to a 911 call about a car that had ran off the freeway and crashed into a tree. We arrived before the fire engine, so I decided to head in and assess the scene while waiting for fire and rescue. I approached the car down a fairly steep embankment. It was not heavily damaged, but it was wedged tightly into the brush and the doors would not open. I attempted to contact the driver and noticed that the patient, a woman in her mid 40’s, was not conscious. I banged on the window, hoping to rouse her, but when it was clear that she was unconscious, I checked to see if she was breathing and did not notice any chest rise. I reached for my spring glass breaker (We try to avoid popping glass, as it goes everywhere and can injure a patient, but when the patient isn’t breathing or conscious, the decision was made for me) but when I brought it to the window, the mechanism jammed and I could not get it to fire. There were no large rocks nearby, and we do not carry heavy rescue tools in our ambulance. I was down a steep embankment, my pocket knife was not a safe tool for the job, so I grabbed for the only thing I had available, the brass Delike Alpha in my pocket. I didn’t know if it would work, but I had to try. I pulled it out and placed the diamond tipped dome shape in the lower corner of the window and struck it several times as hard as I could with my hand. (Wearing duty gloves, this still hurt like hell.) On the eighth or ninth hit, the glass gave and the window shattered. I was able to climb in through the window, and when I opened the patient’s airway, she began breathing on her own. I held her airway open until heavy rescue arrived, and we were able to extricate her by cutting the doors, themselves, off. We wound up transporting her to the local hospital, and so far as I know, she survived the accident. I did not expect my pen to even work, much less survive, but much to my amazement, the thing still caps and uncaps just like normal and writes just fine!

TPM: Why did you originally get that pen? How did it become your daily work pen?

CM: Originally, I got it because I saw Chris on his youtube channel, Chrisrap42, showing it off. I liked the “bent nib” it had and was curious. I had a Kaweco Sport and really hated how short it was when unposted, also didn’t like the nibs much. I wound up really loving how hefty it was, the quick cap/uncap, the smooth pseudo-architect nib, it could take a proper converter and that it could be used posted or not. That extra centimeter of length really improved on the design that was obviously stolen from Kaweco, and the fact that it was rounded made slipping it into my uniform pocket very easy. I drop my pens from time to time on duty. I get into wrestling matches with crazy patients and have been kicked squarely on the breast pocket pen before, which resulted in a ballpoint ruining a shirt. The Delike really took the beating and kept coming back for more. It’s got a plastic insert for the threads, but it’s smooth and has proven to be able to survive multiple full-force strikes when held against glass, so I genuinely can’t think of a better pen for the job.

TPM: What was it that first got you into pen collecting?

CM: I remember being 8 or 9 years old at an office supply store, seeing a row of Waterman Phileas’s in the case. I begged my dad to buy one for my mom’s birthday (They were around $80 back then.), and she used it for years. I used dip pens in art during high school but never really got into fountain pens myself. I started making pens in my dad’s wood shop and selling them, and kept a nice little one I made from some thuya burl and would use it on occasion, always growing frustrated with the fact that it would dry out and skip constantly. But when I started back in school, I was bored one day browsing Amazon and noticed that I could get a Pilot Penmanship for about $5. So I bought one. And it didn’t skip. It didn’t dry out. It wrote amazingly. Then I bought a Pilot Metro and shortly after bought my first two vintage pens from you, a 50’s Sheaffer Craftsman and an American Pencil Co. Venus. I’ve been spending more money than I should ever since.

TPM: Off duty, what are your favorite pens? Why?

CM: The pen I reach for on a daily basis more than other is probably a heavily customized TWSBI VAC700R made by Pablo at FPnibs.com. It’s got a monster flex XXF 14k nib and custom feed, and I love using it. Also like to take my Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age around. When it comes time for a final exam, my “good luck” charm is my mom’s old Waterman Phileas. It’s battered. It’s brassed. It needs restoring. But it writes like hell after over 20 years in her purse (I’ve since upgraded her to a Pilot Custom 74 with a 14k music nib). If I am going somwehere and need to show off a little, the Mont Blanc 149 I purchased from you.

TPM: What do you like to write about? Why?

CM: Right now, most of my writing is either in patient charts or writing extensive notes in class. I find it a good experience to help practice my handwriting and cement concepts from class. Right now I’m reviewing EKG interpretation over the summer. I also practice learning Spencerian and more ornamental penmanship using dip nibs and my monster flex TWSBI. This thing is genuinely about as soft as a Comic G nib.

TPM: Tell us some of your favorite inks. What do you like about them?

CM: I like inks that don’t smudge. Smudging drives me nuts. My favorite is hands-down Noodler’s Black Swan in Australian Roses. It was my first bottle of ink. It’s both vibrant yet professional, and the black component to it is Bulletproof. I’ve got about 120 bottles of ink these days, not including samples, and it’s hard to choose favorites. I love Noodler’s Dark Matter because of its historical roots. I love Pilot Blue/Black because it’s 350mL for $20 and just always behaves, and I love good old Waterman Blue because it’s a lot more vibrant than people believe. Lastly, there’s the Goulet exclusive, Liberty’s Elysium, a permanent ink that I don’t think could possibly be more blue. I am honestly more into inks than pens themselves, I use them in all sorts of projects and recently used three to stain some shelves for my wife.

TPM: Thank you for sharing your story with us and for keeping us safe with your pen collection!

Vive la France! The Eisenhower Pen Mystery … Solved!

By on August 23, 2018
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Five year ago I wrote a story about the pens used to end World War II. Two years later, some historians came to add more details to the piece. Through it all one mystery remained…

Geoff Parker took this photo of the actual Parker 51 his grandfather gave to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower that was used to sign the armistice with Germany ending World War II in Europe. It is preserved in Abilene, Kan., at the Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum.

While visiting the Musee de l’ Armee in Paris of 2010, I spotted a Parker 51 that once belonged to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. At the time, I presumed it was the pen he used while signing Germany’s surrender to the Allies. Several long blog posts later, we know that Eisenhower didn’t want to be in the same room with the Germans and gave his staff several Parker 51s to sign the surrender documents. These 51s were given to him directly by Kenneth Parker, and Eisenhower in turn presumably gave them to Truman, Churchill and Parker as the instruments that ended WWII. We have a picture of the pen he gave Truman that now rests in Eisenhower’s Presidential Library.

Yet…what about that Parker 51 I saw in the museum? Even the museum’s staff wrote me claiming no knowledge of the pen, and I didn’t have the presence of mind in 2010 to get a photo.

Loyal reader Pascal L. found the Parker 51 in the Musee de l’Armee in Paris that I discussed in my earlier blog posts.

Enter my new favorite Frenchman: Pascal L. Pascal read my post, visited the museum and found the pen I saw in the museum’s collection dedicated to the French Resistance! He sent me photos!

The Parker 51 is green (Technically, it is the teal model but it looks green to me and my memory from 8 years ago.) and gold. It is displayed with an autographed photo of Ike that is dedicated: “For the companions of the Liberation.”

The plot thickens!

Look closely at the pen. Pascal was quick to point out that it is an aerometric-filler. Clearly, this pen could not have been at the signing in 1945. This style of Parker 51 wasn’t released until 1949.

Pascal reached out to the museum again and finally solved the mystery! It is really important to note that the pen was in the section dedicated to the French Resistance. This is what Pascal wrote me: “On March 6, 1972, Mrs. [Mamie] Eisenhower asked General Robert L. Schulz, General Eisenhower’s personal assistant from 1947 to 1969 to send the Parker 51 to Chancelier  Claude Hettier de Boislambert. (This man is the creator of the Museum of the Order of Liberation.) The fountain pen has been placed in the collection.”

Thus, the pen was actually given away 3 years after President Eisenhower’s death. The pen doesn’t have the pointed tail of a 1972 Parker 51 and looks as if it could have once been in Ike’s possession, as he was known to have been replete with Parker 51 fountain pens for various giveaways and special presentations.

I want to give a very special merci beaucoup to Pascal L. for all of his very hard work in finally bringing this story to a close with a mystery solved.

Here is a closer look at the Eisenhower Parker 51.

2018 DC Pen Show Proves a Success

By on August 9, 2018
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To be honest, a lot of us had our doubts about the 2018 DC Pen Show. Last year’s show was a near train wreck at the start. So, we waited with baited breath to see if it was a harbinger for a disaster for this year’s show. It was NOT.

Here’s ThePenMarket.com table in action at the 2018 DC Pen Show. Check out our killer location on the wall by the side doors to the ballroom!

The 2018 DC Pen Show was a fun, well-oiled machine! Well organized and well advertised, this year’s show dazzled. Members of the pen community, old and new, hobnobbed and shared in 4 full days of inky geek love.

But, I’m getting head of myself.

The drive was actually uneventful for a change. No blowouts, thunderstorms or tornados. It was really challenging driving in dry, sunny conditions.

As no show would be complete without a battlefield visit, I returned to Manassas/Bull Run for the first time in more than 30 years. It seemed much bigger when I was a kid. While the first land battle of the Civil War did range over several miles, the park focused on the epicenter of the battle. The gently hilly terrain really played a significant part of the battle…as did inconsistently colored uniforms. I remember marveling up at the big bronze statue of Gen. Stonewall Jackson as a kid. It really commands the view of the battlefield, but as an adult the statue looked comical, as Jackson’s biceps are seemingly 3 times larger than his head. Not even Superman is that out of proportion.

Overlooked is the battle of 2nd Manassas, which took place a little more than a year after the first. Just down the road from the original battle site, the second battle was another victory for Jackson and the South, setting up the battle of Antietam a short while later. A little more isolated that first Manassas, the battlefield seems better preserved and very soothing to visit on a sunny afternoon with all of the cicadas and grasshoppers warming up for the evening, as tall grasses and wildflowers sway in the breeze. Hallowed ground for certain.

I love these chandeliers hanging in the ballrooms of the hotel at the DC Pen Show. It has a certain jellyfish quality to it.

The pen show was great. My friends and I arrived to be among the first to set up Thursday morning on the free-for-all no table assignments day. As the day sped by, more vendors set up temporary shop and weekend pass holders got first crack at some phenomenal pens. This is the day to be there for vintage pen fans. About 2 hours before tear down, it was like a huge family reunion, as I met with and talked to friends from all over the U.S., Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic and Russia. It is quite possible I left out a few countries, but it is unintentional.

Friday got an early jump. My fellow vendors started arriving around 8:30 in the morning, AND we already had table assignments waiting for us. It was great to set up before the crowds rushed us. But, rush us, they did. I got so busy setting up and helping early customers that I totally forgot to move my car from under the portico to a real parking space! Thank goodness the hotel didn’t have my car towed! My roommates and friends gave me well-deserved hell for it for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday was a blur, but, at one point, I got to host my first repair seminar with pen tool genius Dale Bebe. We had an hour to explain the fundamentals of restoring a lever-filler pen and what tools to achieve our goals.

How busy does the DC show get? This is how full it was before it officially opened for the day!

As I did that my friend Neal S. watched my table with stunning success, really helping me while I was away. That night, I made my annual pilgrimage to the Black Pen Society meeting. Yay, scotch and cigars.

Sunday was a busy morning, and then–just like that–it was all over. It was time to say farewell and pack up all my troubles in my old kit bag.

Monday, I finally got to play tourist in our nation’s capitol. I took my first Metro ride downtown to the National Mall. (The Metro is way cleaner than the El in Chicago…smoother riding, too.) My destination was a 30-year bucket-list museum: The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.

Howard Hughes broke both speed and distance records with this graceful, slick art deco wonder with wings.

FIRST, it looks nothing like “A Night at the Museum” with Ben Stiller and Amy Adams. I was very disappointed about that…and no Amy Adams-portrayed Amelia Earhart flirting with me. Once I got over that, I enjoyed the surprisingly small museum. Impressive were the original Wright Flyer, Glamorous Glennis (the first plane to break the sound barrier), authentic V-1 and V-2 rockets and missiles from WWII and myriad other aircraft. Yet, what really spun my prop was Howard Hughes’ HB-1 plane circa 1935 that broke all of the then-known speed records. A precursor of the Bee-Gee, this plane was as fast and sleek looking as any plane on display! I loved it and a 1930s plane that was the first to fly across all of Antarctica.

To my greater surprise, my favorite exhibit looked at the history of navigation! I actually learned how to use a sextant and a chronometer to find my global position using stars at night! Now I kinda wanna roam around the country with a sextant and calculating my position on earth. The display moved through the years, also discussing how early pilots had to use the sun and a modernized sextant to navigate before radio beams could be used and then, ultimately, satellites.

Another great trip in the books.