Pen Pioneers Cliff and Judy Lawrence - The Pen Fancier's Club
In appreciation to pen pioneers Cliff and Judy Lawrence, Founders of The Pen Fancier’s Club. Written in 2006 for The Pennant.
The Pen Fancier’s Club was founded by Cliff and Judy Lawrence in October, 1977 and is qualified to be considered the watershed of the pen collecting community as we know it today. The P.F.C. has inspired the creation of several international pen magazines, pen clubs, pen shows on at least five continents I know of, hundreds of modern and vintage pen dealers, literally thousand of pen related web sites and is directly responsible for the creation of the Pen Collectors of America and this Pennant magazine you are reading today.
Cliff Lawrence himself best states his mission and how he was inspired in the early “Dark Ages” of pen collecting.
“From it’s beginnings right up to the late 1970’s, the hobby of collecting old fountain pens was an obscure and virtually unknown activity. There were so few active pen enthusiasts in those “Dark Ages” that most pen fanciers thought they were alone in their interest in vintage fountain pens. It was an almost universal practice among dealers in those times to pull all gold nibs from quality pens for their scrap value and then toss the remains into the trash. This ignorance caused thousands, possibly millions of beautiful writing instruments to be lost forever to those who would have treasured them. Pen collectors were almost always either laughed at or ignored they inquired about vintage pens and pencils. There were no newsletters, magazines, mail order catalogs, price guides, repair manuals, or any other publications available to pen fanciers in those bleak days. After five years of this frustration, Cliff and Judy founded The Pen Fancier’s Club in October, 1977.
In order to find other pen collectors and with a desire to build his Pen Club, Cliff started to advertise “Buying and Selling Fountain Pens” in the Antique Trader magazine. He also created more interest by writing articles on repair and collecting. Eventually he gathered 80 names and started his mailing own newsletter The Pen Fancier’s Club based in Dunedin, FL.
The Pen Fancier’s Magazine was the very first hobby magazine to print vintage advertising reproductions, repair suggestions and articles written by himself on the history of pen companies. Cliff recalls that he had to sacrifice many hard rubber pens as he learned how to repair, salvage and identify parts and also to write his books on repair for the members. Some of Cliff’s notable publications were An Illustrated Fountain Pen History containing pen history and advertising from 1809 to the 1960’s, The Official P.F.C. Pen Guide which at the time was the most authoritative reference of its kind illustrating over 800 pens and pencils in actual size, dated, described and priced.
Other publications were Fountain Pens – History, Repair and Current Values, The PFC Nib Handbook with instructions to repair and smooth nibs complete with polishing paper, Parker, Eversharp and Sheaffer repair and service manuals. Cliff had a massive collection of vintage advertising which was the basis for many of his articles which was literally a fountain of information to information-starved pen collectors. Word spread quickly of this new source of historical information and also as a source for restored fountain pens. As the membership expanded, so did the number of pages, color pages were added, the size of the magazine and the number of pens offered for sale.
To fund The Pen Fancier’s Club and magazine, Cliff started to sell pens from his own collection in complete working condition. At one point the magazine had as many as 384 pens for sale in a single issue in 1984. Membership eventually reached over 1,700 subscribers with 350 Lifetime Members. In the early days of pen selling the pricing of vintage pens was at best a guess. Cliff would offer a pen at his best guess price and if it did not sell he would automatically reduce the price by 10% with each subsequent issue.
Chicago collector Don Lavin recalls ….” It has been one great ride thus far. I give my vote to Cliff Lawrence as the most important influence in the history of the hobby - hands down, bar none. We all learned from Cliff. The hobby as we know it today may not exist had it not been for his efforts. And how did I discover him? Through a small ad in Hobby's magazine, a Chicago based publication. It was like I had been hit with lightening. Here I had been collecting for years and just now I was discovering that there were other collectors out there. It has never been the same.”
Vintage pen expert David Nishimura recently wrote, “. . . the fact remains that pen collecting as we know it came into existence in the pre-Internet era. Developments since have been noteworthy, but are not really comparable to those that founded and gave shape to the field in the first place. And it's particularly sad to see the founders and shapers so overlooked given that the field is so young. . .”
“Cliff Lawrence was undoubtedly the founding father of organized pen collecting. One cannot emphasize too strongly the degree to which he left his stamp on the field. For repair information, Cliff published regular, detailed repair articles in his magazine (and a series of repair booklets) years before Frank Dubiel's first manual. For pen history his articles were mined for years after they were published, usually without credit or attribution or correction, but that's another story. . .”
“Whatever you may say about the man, do not belittle what Cliff Lawrence did in the way of research. Keep in mind that he was working in nearly totally uncharted territory. Where does one start under such circumstances? Finding and reprinting ads was a pretty good beginning, as simple as it may seem now in hindsight. He extracted quite a bit of information out of those ads and catalogs he found, framing the first basic chronologies and tracing lines of influence and innovation. Pioneers in any field are fated to have much of their work quickly superseded; considering that he wasn't a trained historian, Cliff Lawrence did a remarkable job.”
Some of the very first members of the PFC were vintage pen dealers such as Fred Krinke and collectors Bob Tefft who formed the California Pen Collectors Club, the Los Angeles Pen Show and was one of the founders of what is now the Pen Collectors of America. Glen Bowen eventually started to publish Pen World magazine in 1990, Dan Zazove, Don Lavin and L. Michael Fultz organized the first national pen show in the U.S. at Chicago. Other earliest members were Ed Fingerman, Andy Lambrou, Masa Sunami from Japan, Boris Rice and Johnny Cuevas . Soon others created local Pen Fancier Clubs and helped to generate even more interest in the hobby.
The Pen Fancier’s Club ceased operations several years ago, however vintage issues of The Pen Fancier’s Magazine appear at auctions and pen shows. The old magazines are still considered a time capsule of what the pen collecting community was 30 years ago and the contents are just as desirable as the day they were printed. Today, Cliff is in his prime at age 72 and still enjoys using some of his favorite fountain pens. He runs 3 miles in 25 to 30 minutes every other day and works at staying in shape. In speaking with Cliff he has enjoyed recalling his many friends and customers over the years and spoke with great pleasure of his pioneer pen days. Cliff sends this message to his many friends...”my best advice is to eat right and keep moving!”
Our gratitude and best wishes are extended to Cliff and Judy Lawrence.