I thought Day One of the Atlanta Pen Show, capped off with the party at the Nock Co. workshop, couldn’t be beat. I was wrong. Day Two (Saturday) is up there as one of the best, if not the best, pen show experiences I have ever had.
The crowd starts to get warmed up early Saturday morning in the second ballroom (the one without Anderson Pens and Nock Co, who conveniently were next to each other).
Saturday started off fast, like Friday, but this time it wasn’t just the PenAddict crowd. The vintage collectors showed up in force, and pens started getting picked over quickly. I didn’t purchase any fountain pens myself, abstaining in favor of a Nock Co. t-shirt and this beauty, which warranted a mention by Mr. Dowdy himself this week. As always, more coming soon.
Vintage Lamy 2000 Ballpoint (with modern Lamy refill). the Makrolon is worn smooth, and has a nice patina.
Legible barrel imprint reads "Lamy 2000 W. Germany." The oldest the pen could be is early 1990s.
The real fun started around 4, when several attendees organized a pen and ink swap/testing table out in the hotel bar that was heavily attended. I wish I could give you a blow-by-blow, but to be honest I tried out so many different pens and inks, from so many different people, over the course of five or six hours that they all started to run together. All agree, however, that the main highlight was Leigh Reyes and her traveling set of Nakayas, which included both selections from the standard line of pens as well as some rare editions and prototypes that you probably would not be able to see anywhere else in the world. Thomas Hall also brought two large cases full of pens, many of which had custom nibs.
Leigh's traveling Nakayas!
Leigh's Nakaya Piccolo in Titanium.
I cannot emphasize enough how incredibly generous Leigh and Thomas both were in allowing all of us noobs (because we are all noobs in comparison to them) handle their priceless pens. After mentally blowing my budget for the next two years, I “saved some money” by trading a few inks I wasn’t crazy about, and sold a few extra bottles of some inks that I had duplicates of.
Ana over at the Well-Appointed Desk was there as well, and she has a great writeup containing even more pictures. (For the full low-down, check out her flickr album!)
From what I hear, show-'n-tell continued into the wee hours of Sunday morning, but unfortunately I had to be back home by noon the next day. With a four hour drive staring me in the face, I chose to grab some sleep and leave everyone after an enjoyable dinner at the hotel that featured an all-star cast of Pendom. I will be back next year, and I hear plans are in the works for a repeat. . . . clear your calendars and stay tuned. As for other shows, Atlanta will probably be my last pen show until the 2015 D.C. SuperShow in August.
A bit of additional information on the Lamy 2000 Ballpoint/Multipen discussed in this week’s PenAddict podcast. Lamy still makes both pens, including the Multipen that takes D1 refills. The ballpoint runs about $55-60, with the Multipen ticking slightly higher into the $60-65 range. They are not incredibly easy to find, and Amazon indicates its stock is running low on the multipen. (Both are Prime-eligible, so you will save some on shipping, and obtain near-instant gratification). (Affiliate Links).