‘Art of the highest quality’: Seeking warmth and personality in the world of high-priced pens
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Customers view a selection of pens on display during the London Autumn Pen Show on Oct 13. For collectors and enthusiasts at the show, the finest writing instruments can cost thousands of dollars.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
LONDON – When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone by hand? As people entrust their laptops and mobile phones with more and more of their lives, the once-ubiquitous art of handwriting is seemingly in danger of going extinct.
But at a London hotel on a recent Sunday morning, thousands of people turned up to demonstrate that the humble pen may be far from meeting the fate of the dinosaurs.
At the London Autumn Pen Show, which is one of six planned events from UK Pen Shows in 2024, you could find yourself face to face with some of the most elegant and expensive pens on the planet – and people happy to pay through the nose for them.
Among the pen sellers was Mr John Sanderson, 72, who sells his handmade creations under the name Silverburl Pens. A retired engineer, Mr Sanderson made his first pen almost 50 years ago as a means of dealing with dyslexia.
“I can’t write and spell,” he said, “and it’s something that’s always fascinated me. So, I made a pen, thinking, ‘I’ll learn to read and write.’” Now, he makes pens for people all over the world.
A selection of pens on display at Mr Francesco Alfarano’s booth at the London Autumn Pen Show on Oct 13.
The attendees of the show were united by their love of pens.
In July, Ms Michaela Staton, 52, got a bonus at work and splurged on a new pen – a Laban 325 Sakura for about US$125 (S$165). This was her first pen show and she had her sights set on a specific model: an Esterbrook Estie Botanical Gardens fountain pen.
Ms Mareen Goebel, 49, on the other hand, was a veteran of three pen shows and she took along a case brimming with pens, including her favourite, a teal-coloured Pelikan M805 Ocean Swirl, for which she paid about US$485.
“I think I could get mugged for this pen,” she said, “because apparently, it’s really popular and nobody sells theirs.”
On this visit, she wanted to find a pen to celebrate her retirement and had set herself a budget of about US$1,300 – a huge price for an average consumer, but not an extreme one in the world of pen shows.
The consensus among these attendees was that putting pen to paper is more meaningful than typing on gadgets. “I feel more disconnected from the information that I’m trying to capture when I’m typing it versus when I’m writing it,” Ms Staton said.
Among the highest-priced pens at the show was an out-of-production Namiki Emperor “Hagi”, which was being sold by fountain pen enthusiast Sarj Minhas for almost US$20,000. It is a voluptuous fountain pen with gold autumn flower designs on black lacquer and an 18K gold nib.
Mr Sarj Minhas with his pens, including a Namiki Emperor “Hagi,” which he was selling for more than $25,000, at the London Autumn Pen Show on Oct 13.
Mr Minhas, 53, has been collecting pens for more than 25 years and owns so many, he is known by some in the international pen community as “the one-man pen show”.
He believes that some pens are meant to stay on display, preserved as heirlooms for the next generation. “Pens of this quality you don’t really write with,” he said. “This is art of the highest quality.”
The show was not limited to buyers and sellers.
Anyone struggling with getting his or her pens to write could enlist the help of a nibmeister like Mr Philip Landsiedel.
The 30-year-old, who wore a bow tie and a white laboratory coat, is one of only about 10 people who make a living by altering nibs. He worked for Montblanc for eight years before starting Landsiedel Fine Writing two years ago. Using a microscope, he will alter a nib however his customer likes.
It is a service designed for people like Mr Michael J. Fiedler, 57, who is so in love with handwriting that he created Working Journal, a book in which photographs of people at work sit opposite pages of their unique handwriting.
After he buys a fountain pen, Mr Fiedler typically would not use it until he has sent it off to have its nib altered by Japanese craftsmen like Mr Yukio Nagahara or Mr Mike Masuyama. However, at the show in London, he took along a 1930s Sheaffer Balance with a nib that was particularly flexible. “I may not have to have this one customised,” he said with excitement.
Another service offered, for those who do not have thousands of dollars to spare, was pen rentals.
Having seen the way people rent handbags, Mr Jon Rabbett, 53, thought there should be an equivalent for the pen world. Since 2018, his website, pensharing.com, has attracted around 500 members who pay between US$3 and US$13 a week to try out pens they might be curious about or unable to afford.
As for why it would appeal to someone, Mr Rabbett said: “I can’t afford a villa in the south of France, but I can afford to take a holiday there.”
A selection of pens on display during the London Autumn Pen Show in October. For collectors and enthusiasts at the show, the finest writing instruments can cost thousands of dollars.
Ms Goebel, who had been in search of a retirement pen, ended up buying three instead. She fell first for a blue shimmery Conway Stewart for about US$670 and then could not help buying two pens from Bob Nicolle, who uses a Japanese lacquering style known as “urushi”.
For those two pens – one mother-of-pearl and one a complex gold-leaf model – Ms Goebel paid about US$1,170.
As Mr Fiedler said: “You might have something in mind when you come to a pen show. But oftentimes, instead of you finding the pen, the pen finds you.” NYTIMES
