Great Pen Stores: Visit to New Orleans and Papier Plume (2018 Update).

March 17, 2018

Whenever I'm in New Orleans, I make time to walk down Royal Street in the French Quarter and visit Papier Plume, one of my favorite pen shops. On this trip, the store was quite busy, though everyone was kind enough to take some time to talk and make me feel welcome! They even sent me home with some samples of upcoming inks (which I had to promise not to reveal until I get the all-clear later this spring). Stay tuned!

One thing I love about Papier Plume, in addition to their excellent house-made inks, is that they stock many European pen brands that are difficult to find anywhere else in the United States, including Cleo Skribent, Faivet, and Faggionato. More on the Faggionato pens to come, since I picked up this gorgeous Petrarque fountain pen in Translucent Blue Tortoise Cellulose Acetate.

Faggionato fountain pens from France. The four pens on the right are made from cellulose acetate, a celluloid variant. I purchased the Translucent Blue Tortoise pen on the right.

Many thanks to Renso and everyone in the store for their hospitality, and I look forward to seeing the Papier Plume team at pen shows this year. If you're at the Arkansas Pen Show this weekend, visit their table, and l hear that they'll be attending the Atlanta and Chicago pen shows as well!

You can check out my haul from last year's visit to Papier Plume here.

Disclaimer: Any pens featured in this post were purchased with my own funds, for my own use.

Just a portion of the Vanness Ink Selection!

Great Pen Stores: My Visit to Vanness Pens

January 3, 2018

The greater Nashville, Tennessee area has a lot to recommend it, but one thing it doesn’t have is a great pen store. Sure, there are a couple places that carry a limited selection of fountain pens and a few bottled inks, but if you want a richer, pen show-like experience, and to be able to speak with someone who is highly knowledgeable about the various brands (or just fountain pens in general), you’re looking at a bit of a drive.

But not too far. The two largest brick-and-mortar stores close to me are Artlite Pens in Atlanta and Vanness Pens in Little Rock, Arkansas. (Both are within a 5-6 hr drive, which if you live in the South counts as “relatively close.” We’re used to driving down here.)

This display is ALL De Atramentis inks, though it's not even the full line!

Family-owned since 1938, Vanness is getting ready to celebrate its 80th anniversary this year. Vanness has become known in the online pen community primarily for their absolutely massive ink selection, which they maintain is the largest in-store selection anywhere. They’ve been at the forefront of importing “house brand” inks from other pens shops around the world: Vanness was the first U.S. retailer to stock the full range of Akkerman (the Netherlands), Bungubox (Japan), Kobe (Japan), Kyoto TAG (Japan), KWZ, and Pen BBS. I can easily say that I’ve never seen that much ink in one place, even at a pen show, since vendors don’t bring their entire stock on the road.

Pineider Pens (by Dante Delvecchio, formerly of Visconti) were a pleasant surprise. I'm looking forward to testing one of these out at some point.

What I wasn’t prepared for was Vanness's large pen selection. Brands include Lamy, Pilot, Platinum, Conway Stewart, Faber-Castell, Kaweco, Pineider, and more. Mike, Lisa, and their staff are highly knowledgeable about older and vintage pens as well, and may even have some new old stock in the back. Just ask if there's something particular you are looking for.

Faber-Castell Loom in Shiny Gunmetal. This pen comes in a wide range of colors. Vanness also carries paper from brands including Life and Rollbahn.

Don’t get me wrong, online retail is great. It allows those of us without a local pen shop to have access to all of these great products that we know and love, but for things like pens, inks, and stationery, all of which have a strong tactile/visual component, there’s no true substitute for a great brick-and-mortar pen store. Being able to “try before you buy” has a lot of value, and it’s a much more relaxed experience than the sometimes rushed, pressured atmosphere at a crowded pen show. Vanness even has a long table in the middle of the store for testing pens and inks, or just socializing.

In short, I’m coming back to Little Rock to visit Vanness again, probably for the Arkansas Pen Show in March unless my work schedule interferes. While Arkansas is a smaller show with fewer vendors than a larger event like the L.A. Pen Show or the D.C. Fountain Pen “Supershow”, you shouldn’t miss an opportunity to visit the Vanness store and take advantage of their selection and expertise.

A bit beyond the scope of this blog, but Vanness also carries a wide range of shaving supplies, including double-edged safety razors and blades.

So what did I pick up on my trip? A few things. I’ve previously posted pictures of my Conway Stewart Series 100 in Honey Noire, but I also took home a Faber-Castell Loom in Gunmetal (a pen that I’ve heard a lot about but never reviewed), a new old stock Sheaffer Legacy II, a Kaweco Perkeo, and a Platinum Preppy. Lisa also sent me back with some ink and paper samples, of course, so look for many more reviews to come on the blog in 2018.

Disclaimer: Vanness is a paid sponsor of this blog, though this post is not a paid advertisement and reflects my honest opinion about Vanness and my experience in the store. A huge thanks to Lisa and Mike for hosting me this past weekend!

Great Pen Stores: Papier Plume in New Orleans, Louisiana

April 1, 2017

As you may have seen on my Instagram, I've spent the past few days at a conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, and my regular posting schedule been a bit "off track" (as should be expected). But that doesn't mean that I didn't take at least some time to visit one of my favorite pen stores around, Papier Plume on Royal Street in the French Quarter. If you ever make it to New Orleans, this carefully curated stationery store is a must-visit. Papier Plume has their own house brand of ink, and they also carry some smaller brands of fountain pens and stationery goods that aren't easily found elsewhere.

I passed on the black and yellow dip pen last time I was in the store.  Not so much this time. — I passed on the black and yellow dip pen last time I was in the store. Not so much this time.

On this trip, I picked up a pair of Cleo-Skribent fountain pens, a Murano glass-nib dip pen, a couple bottles of Papier Plume ink (Midnight Blue and the limited edition Streetcar Green), and a leather portfolio by Orna 916, which I plan on using to replace my current worn out U.S. Senate Portfolio that was a farewell gift from an internship long ago.

So far I've been impressed by the steel nibs on these pens from Cleo-Skribent, a smaller German brand that you don't see much in the States.

I'll definitely be writing more about all of these things in the future, so stay tuned!

Great Pen Stores: Kinokuniya Books

November 10, 2014

Whenever I find myself in New York City, one of my favorite places to visit is always Kinokuniya Books on the West Side of Bryant Park (1073 Avenue of the Americas). Rather than try to describe to you why I love this store, I offer this:

The Kinokuniya gel/ballpoint display.  I'm not sure there's another B&M retail store that stocks this kind of variety in the United States (with the possible exception of Maido Stationery in San Francisco, which I understand to be affiliate… — The Kinokuniya gel/ballpoint display. I'm not sure there's another B&M retail store that stocks this kind of variety in the United States (with the possible exception of Maido Stationery in San Francisco, which I understand to be affiliated with Kinokuniya).

This display is just one of their pen/pencil/stationery racks. In this picture, across the top, from left to right, are displays of jetstreams/acroballs, Pilot Hi-Tec-Cs, Signo DXs, and Sarasa Clips. Mixed in among them you will find Energels, Sliccis, Frixions, the entire range of Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens, and various other gems.

While I was in the store, they had just received a massive shipment from Japan and were in the process of restocking their inventory. The store itself is pretty small, so I couldn't get in a position to take pictures of the pencil display (which is just as large as the pen display) featuring pretty much any kind of mechanical pencil, japanese woodcase pencil, erasers, and leads you would want to get your hands on.

Under glass, in a display case, Kinokuniya has a more-than-respectable selection of Pilot and Sailor fountain pens, as well more expensive gel pens and multipens such as the Pilot Cavalier Hi-Tec-C and the Zebra Sharbo DX. I have bought Sailor ink here before, and I believe they also carry Iroshizuku, but I didn't ask because I wasn't in the market for ink this trip. (All fountain pen ink is kept behind the counter and not on display.)

Kinokuniya also devotes the entire back wall to notebooks and paper. Again, it was a bit of a mess with employees pulling things down and rearranging the display racks, so no pictures this time, but they have notebooks from Figurare, Apica, Midori, Rhodia, Campus, and other Japanese brands I had never seen before. If you are looking for refills for your Midori Traveller's notebook (or to pick one up), they stock the full range of refills and accessories in both sizes.

My purchases this trip:

I picked up a couple of unbranded pocket notebooks, a Pilot Hi-Tec-C Slim Knock, a .38mm Jetstream in blue, a .25 mm Pentel Slicci in black, and a .38mm Zebra Sarasa Clip in blue black.

Kinokuniya is a great pen store. They also carry both Japanese and English language books and periodicals, Japanese stationery items such as Washi tape, paper clips, and art supplies, as well as a full range of calendars and planners. (No Hobonichi Techo, I asked.) If you live in the NYC area, or are just passing through, I highly recommend stopping in and picking something up. After Art Brown closed down last year, I always make it a point to support these stores and do my part to keep them around.

Here is a link to their website, although they don't sell stationery online, to my knowledge.

Happy Fountain Pen Day! (One day in advance)

November 6, 2014

Happy Fountain Pen Day to all you pen enthusiasts out there. I'm on the road today, so I won't be able to post tomorrow. This is just a reminder that the Gentleman Stationer's Fountain Pen Day giveaway ends at Midnight on Friday, November 7 (tomorrow). I will announce a winner on Saturday, and the winner will have until Midnight, CST Monday to claim his or her prize. Here's a link to the post in case you missed it the first time around. The usual giveaway rules apply: leave a comment in the giveaway post, and I will number each comment received and randomly draw a winner. If the first winner doesn't claim the prize, I will draw another, and repeat until someone claims the pen!

So how will I be spending Fountain Pen Day? I'm in New York City all weekend, a great place for pen, stationery and book shopping. Granted, it's not as good as it used to be (R.I.P. Art Brown), and every day it seems that stores we used to think of as "institutions" are closing to make way for generic chains, but compared to what we have available here in the Nashville, Tennessee area, there are more than enough to keep me busy for two days. What's on my list?

Fountain Pen Hospital: Unfortunately the last independent brick and mortar dedicated pen store left in NYC. I'm going to try to make it down to FPH, but since I'm in a conference for most of the day on Friday, and they're closed on the weekend, it may not be in the cards this trip.
Kinokuniya Bookstore: THE place to go in NYC (if not the entire United States) to buy your Hi-Tec-C's, Signo DXs, Sharbo's, .5mm Jetstreams and Acroballs, Sarasas, Coletos, etc. Did I mention they stock the entire line of Midori Traveler's Notebook refills?
Sam Flax: Harry Marks reminded me of this one, which I had completely forgotten about. They have a great selection of paper and notebooks, including Quo Vadis and Rhodia.
Muji: This trip will be my first in which I'm going to try to visit Muji. They have a wide array of gel pens and paper, which I've seen reviewed favorably.

If I'm missing anything, give me a shout. I'm always looking for new places to visit and new products to try.