By Bill Riepl
The Chicago Pen show has been known as being among the "must see" shows for collectors. Witha very strong grounding in the roots of the hobby, this grand old show really does offer something for everyone. While you will find modern pens and limited editions for sale in a wide variety, Chicago really shines as a premier show for locating the unusual, the interesting, or even the downright impossible to find in vintage pens.
More
than pens, in fact. There's almost always a great deal of associated
ephemera to be found at the Chicago show. While often not given the
same attention as the pens themselves, good ephemera is very hard to
find, and good pieces often attract a lot of rapt attention from serious
collectors. As you can see from the shot to the left, this ephemera
can take the shape of everything from display cases, salesman samples,
and posters, to original ad artwork. You can also see in that shot one
of the founders of the Chicago Pen Show, Don Lavin. Hard at work, as
always... It's the eternal lot of a show organizer!
The work more than paid off once again, however. Don Lavin, Dan Zazove, and Mike Fultz put a lot of effort into making the show happen at all, much less as smoothly and efficiently as it does. The show was on the same "official" schedule as in years past, with the upstairs trading rooms slated to be open on Thursday afternoon. Whith the large numbers of collectors who were arriveing as early as Wednsday, however, the show organizers decided to open the trading rooms early, on Thursday morning.
This made for a full day of activity on Thursday, and then Friday's set up in the half of the main ballroom downstairs, followed by Saturday and Sunday, with the full ballroom opened up. That's quite alot of pen show!
Attendence looked to me to be fairly brisk on all three days I was there. We didn't arrive until Thursday late afternoon, and decided to settle for dinner in the lounge. That turned out to be a nice choice, as we soon met up with several collectors, including Tom Levien, Jim Rouse, Ann Marie Hautenami, David Isaacson, and Ray Okoniewski who had to miss the remainder of the show as he was off to participate in a bicycle race in New York for the remainder of the weekend. One of the first things you lean when you attend a show is that the pen stuff doesn't end when you leave the trading room. It carries on through dinner, and in the bar afterwards! This goes on for all three or four days of the pen show. It's a saturation experience!
Once upon a time, several of us made a plan to try a dinner with no talk of pens allowed.
If I recall correctly, it lasted about halfway through trying to decide which appetizers to order. (And it only went that long thanks to a four page menu!)
In
other words, count on it being an all pen weekend! You will get quite
a lot out of it, however. With a show like Chicago, there's the opportunity
to examine up close and personal, just about anything you could possably
be looking for in the way of a vintage pen. In fact, you can usually
manage to compare and contrast several examples of whatever it might
be that you're searching for. You may not get as cheap a price as you
might on Ebay, but on the other hand, you're spared the thousands of
fuzzy pictures of "RARE L@@K!!!! Antique old Shieffer Ink Pin 24K
Gold Nip!!!"
If it's modern that lights your fire, there was plenty to be found at Chicago as well. In addition to having several large retailers, including Fountain Pen Hospital, Total Office Products, Bertrams Inkwell, and Bittners among others, there were also several manufacturers represented at the show. Aurora, Conway Stewart, Taccia, and Visconti all had representatives on hand to show the latest lines. In the latter case, we all had the pleasure of welcoming a "new face" to the rep business as this was the first show at which Ken Jones, (formerly on the other side of the table for Bertrams Inkwell) was representing Visconti. He picked a good time for a first show, with the new Divina Proporzione making a big splash at this show. It only took two or three days before we all became used to seeing Ken in a suit and tie....
The high point of the show came when one of the hobby's "original greats" was honored in an impromptu ceremony on Saturday morning. Mike Fultz has been deeply involved with the hobby of fountain pen collecting since it's very begining. Unbeknownst to him, a small group of his friends got together and commissioned a painting in his honor, and they presented it to him when he arrived at the show Saturday.
As always, the show seemed to end too soon, and despite the fact that you might feel as though there's not possibly enough time to actually see everything, before you know it, it's Sunday afternoon, and closing time approaches. Time enough for one last stroll around the room to make sure you get to say goodbye to everyone, and then it's off to pack up. As always, the Chicago show proved to be thoroughly enjoyable, and thanks to the work and effort from the organizers, a generally stress free weekend for us showgoers. I'm already looking forward to next year's show!
copyright 2006 William Riepl
Images copyright 2005 William Riepl