The 2014 London LWES Pen Show (Part 3)

Glenn Craig reports from the London 2014 LWES Pen Show.

London Pen Show - first day set up (Part 1)

I always divide the one day London Pen Show into 2 parts. The dealer set up part from 8am to 10:30am.and the public part from 10:30am to 5pm. 

As soon as Joanne and I reach our table and unzip our cases other dealers come around and start looking 
through our stuff. I do price my pens on the reasonable side, as Sarj put it , "it is like bees to honey"!

Jo is taking care of the table...

Everyone sets up and goes to the other dealers tables and snoops for an hour or so. Time also to chat and pick up a few items you have been searching for. Once the show opens.... there is not much time for most dealers to do much browsing. I sell well in that first hour .....but even better later on.

It was good to see many old dealer pen friends again and some that we just met. Sarj , Regina, Henry, just to picture a few. At 10:30 all hell breaks loose so you had better have had your washroom break or you may be in trouble. In part 2 .....you will see what I mean !

I couldn't resist this Platinum sterling silver pen at the show.
It was pricy but it is very nicey!

London Pen Show Part 2

When the doors open to the public .....hundreds nice, friendly, polite pen folk enter all  at once and away we go!

Never in my  all my previous 8 London Shows have I seen so many dealers, so many pens, and so many people interested in pens . It was a pure joy to behold! It was nice to see a few young collectors just starting out also. 

One father pictured here said his son has quite a large collection already...I added a few Lamys to his collection.

Amaya visited us for a while and bought a couple of our hand made pen kimonos ; she may wish to sell them in her store? We just about sold out of them. Our friend back in Chemainus who made the pen kimonos for me will be pleased.

My bamboo pens sold ok ,the dip pens being most popular. Over half of my other non bamboo vintage and new stock sold. My inventory is very low. I am glad I had two tables. Next time one table may do unless I can replenish my stock quickly? 

I always use lots of signage and everything item is priced, this I think ,greatly helps in sales. Many dealers don't price their pens instead they use a code system and look up prices individually for an interested customer. Most of these dealers have the most gorgeous pens you will ever see....outstanding!  My meagre collection is pure ordinary in comparison.

There can be lots of good finds to be had in terms of pen parts, nibs, sacs, inks ,books, magazines, you name it. Calligraphy demos, pen repairs, the WES table .....so much going on, to keep people interested for many hours!

Representatives from several pen companies were present also. Unfortunately not Conway Stewart. You could find a good selection of Conway Stewart though in both new and vintage. Same with Onoto and well .....so many other brands from all over Europe, North America, Japan , Asia.

This was a good show! I do hope many of you get a chance to attend a future London Pen Show and to visit the great London pen shops.....not to mention the Great London itself. I hope you enjoyed some of my postings.

Joanne and I will be here for another 6 weeks, so if we come across more pen related places I will post them....we haven't done Harrods yet!

Cheery bye from London! Glenn