The PENguin Blog

These days too busy is good, right? If so, I'm good, but no time to recount my adventures major and minor. But I have been buying a ton of pens. Many are on the site, many are not. Here's a listing of some of the new arrivals as noted on the webiste. If anything interests you, give me a shout at rickpropas@comcast.net: ***************** The last few weeks have brought us a ton of pens, from new Pelikans (including a couple of black 100s) to a whole trove of Parkers, mostly not yet up on the site. Heading the list is a first year Parker 51set double jewel (of course) in black with the really uncommon wavy lined caps. Next is an extraordinary full size burgundy Parker Vacuum Filler, complete and correct with excellent colour. Not far behind is a sterling silver lined capped Nassau double jewel 51, along with a double jewel dove gray and alloy 51, and a gold filled black double jewel. The same lot of pens brought aerometric 51s in forest and plum as well as regular colours. ...

"> The Washington Pen Show usually comes toward the end of my pen show year, after Portland and before Columbus. This year, because of our stay in England, it kicked off a short, modified year for me. Along with Los Angeles, Washington is arguably the largest show in the world. If you are unfamiliar with it and/or interested in learning more, just follow this link to the show’s wildly eclectic website: http://www.pencentral.com/ This was my first show in nine months and it was great to see old friends and meet some new people, most notably Brian and Andrea Gray of Edison Pens, with whom I placed an order. The show, itself was most excellent in every respect. I was able to put quite a few excellent pens into peoples’ hands and got to meet a couple of people whom I have been selling pens to, in person. I found more good pens, both for myself and for the website than I ever recall at any single show, and I had a great time. My Washington show ...

Just another tease. We will also be offering a matching skeleton watch.

We're in the middle of another update on the site and to break the boredom, I'm playing around with some images that will shortly go up on the Gallery feature of the website. Thought I'd post them here first, with captions for those for whom they are not immediately recogniseable. (Does anyone but pen folk still read this?) Pelikan 400NN, this took heavy photoshopping to come out even as well as it did. Maybe it was the black background, since I've had it easier shooting other transparent pens. The 1964 Parker 75 Spanish Treasure Fleet started the mania for Limited Editions. The pen is made from salvaged Spanish silver, taken from the Anocha, an unfortunate Spanish Galleon caught and sunk by the Brits off Florida. The OMAS Nishiji-Nuri, sprinkled with gold dust, another challenge to depict. These Parker Senior Duofolds in the rare Mandarin colour are one of the highlights of the collection. Not only are they rare, but they are flawless, even the imprints are crisp an...

As many of you know, my daughter Anna (also known as research assistant and web designer) and I are writing the catalogue for the next big Bonhams Pen Auction in New York City tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, October 13, 2009, just following this year's blockbuster New York Pen Show. Just to tantalise, here is an advance peek at two of the pens that will be among approximately two hundred lots. Part of OMAS's Exploration series, this 18 K white gold overlay pen celebrates the moon exploration. Only 69 of these were made, and the packaging is almost as spectacular as the pen. In 1997 OMAS offered a series they called Legni Pregiati (precious woods), made of a series of rare and beautiful woods. I have one of them in my collection. Some lucky bidder will walk away with the entire series, number 8 of 500. And here are a few more: You can find out a bit more about the sale at The New York Pen Show website Stay tuned for more information.

It seems like the roses this summer have been even more spectacular than usual.

Happened to look over at the corner of my desk while packing up some pens to go out to clients and noticed what I had been writing and playing with over the holiday weekend. This is not to be boastful, but grateful.

Those of you who read the blog regularly know that last fall Anna and I were involved in researching and writing the catalogue for a big sale of of about three hundred lots, comprising four hundred pens, mostly modern, ultra high-end, limited edition pens that took place in Los Angeles in February. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend as I was just starting the semester in England. But the sale was a big success, especially in these difficult economic times. Well, to cut the long story short, what we offered was just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. We still have another six hundred or more pens, including a number of the Chinese lacquer and very limited edition pens from large makers and small. And, the sale was enough of a success that we are now planning and working on a sale to be held in New York in the fall. So I thought that folks might like to see what we do to prepare for the sale and how we do it, basically following the process along from start to finish. I won’t be ...

In the course of my wanderings through pendom I have seen a number of workshops, from the exquisite workspaces created by Richard Binder and David Parisi to the creative caverns of Victor Chen, Jim Marshall and Osman Sümer. My own space cannot compare to any of them. We like in a small house at the northeasternmost reaches of California’s Silicon Valley, where even in these hard times the smallest house can approach seven figures in cost. Moreover, my small office must also do its duty to my academic work, such as it is. Therefore, pens, tools, parts, shipping supplies all vie for space with books, papers and the like. Thus all my pen stuff must be storable. This includes my “photo studio,” which lives in a nether corner of the office tucked between bookshelf, inventory box, and file cabinet; and when it comes out it gets set up in the dining room, often to Sharon’s patient dismay. Recently, I undertook the largest update ever to the site, one which is still going on. Despite the fa...

As many of you know we have been closed for the past five months while I have been teaching and travelling abroad. I’m back, and I brought with me more than one hundred new pens. We now have our largest inventory of pens ever. To celebrate, we are re-opening with our biggest sale ever. For the rest of June and July there will be neither shipping nor handling charges on any pens shipped to the United States. Buyers outside the US will enjoy savings similar to those at home. Purchases over $400.00 will enjoy a 10% discount. Or if you buy two pens at any price, the pen of lesser value will be discounted 20%. Also, watch for our new specials of the week, marked by a gold star. These pens, often, but not always, premium or limited editions, will be at significant discount. But only for a week. The pen of your dreams may become more affordable, but only if you visit often.

So, what did I get in England and Germany? In truth some interesting stuff, most of it as you will see, for the website. It will be a few days before I can get all this stuff checked, restored as necessary, listed and photographed. But for now, here are some teaser photos, not very good ones, yesterday was my worst day for jet lag, but here they are: And, so what did I get for myself? Less than I did for you guys, but at least two were spectacular Pelikan finds, the short captop tortoise 101 and the three piece M/K/D tortoise 800 set. Before this one, which has a great backstory, there were no known tortoise pencils. So I am stoked. And there were a few English pens most notably an antique (read rmhr) Onoto 1850, a massive pen with a super nib. I also fed my interest in large German safeties with a RicLei number 6 and my fondness for Italian celluloid with a rosso verde large faceted “Duchessa,” which I think was one of many OMAS sub-brands. The array of pens for the website The ...