By ERIC C. RODENBERG
AntiqueWeek Associate Editor

NEW YORK, N.Y. — To write in longhand, with just pen (or pencil) on paper is an experience that cannot be displaced by technology.
It’s a slower, perhaps more methodical, process that gives the writer more time to think as he writes.

To a writer, the choice of a tool is not a capricious event. When Nobel Prize author John Steinbeck complained hexagonal pencils cut into his fingers after a long day, his editor supplied him with boxes of round pencils. Novelist Truman Capote wrote with the Blackwin No. 602, an intensely black lead pencil made by Faber Castell.

Some modern writers have eschewed the computer and typewriter for the immediate, visceral connection, of longhand writing. Who can argue with the successes of horror writer Stephen King, Norman Mailer, Thomas Wolfe or even cult cyberpunk novelist Neal Stephenson? The late-great Civil War historian and novelist Shelby Foote insisted, right up to his 88th birthday, on writing with an old-fashioned dip pen and ink bottle.

“This causes all kinds of problems,” he is said to have admitted, “everything from finding blotters to pen points.”

For those of a like mind, the 10th annual New York City Pen Show could be subtitled “The Tools of Our Trade.” The show opens Oct. 15 at the Park Central Hotel at 870 Seventh Ave. in Manhattan, and runs through Oct. 17.

Although trading, buying and selling is a large part of any such trade show, the New York City show will showcase some amazing works of art – not for sale, but as part of an unprecedented showing of vintage pens and Victorian pencils.

A display of “dip pens,” dating from the 1880s to the 1920s, features the care and craftsmanship valued in these earlier pens. Included in the collection are 15 sterling silver Tiffany pens.
Initially, the recharging of a dip pen was accomplished by dipping the nib into an inkwell; however, today the pens, which are still used by illustrators and cartoonists, are more likely to be charged with an eyedropper or syringe.

Also, in the 1880s, the era of the mass-produced fountain pen began; however, the filling of the pens was often a slow and messy procedure. Another, big problem was that the pens tended to leak.
It wasn’t until the advent of a self-filling pen, a lever-induced operation, introduced in the early 1900s that the dual problems of inconvenience and leakage were solved.

Thus from the early 1900s up through the 1940s, a Golden Age of Pens began for collectors.

But, there are more than pens in this collecting field. The mechanical pencil is also collected, and a special exhibit of these pencils will also be featured at the show. The earliest extant example of a mechanical pencil was found aboard the wreckage of HMS Pandora, which sank in 1791. However, the challenge of producing the mechanical pencil fell to the Victorians who had a fascination, inspired by an Industrial Revolution, to new designs and inventions.

That spirit of creativity is revealed in the Joe Nemecek Victorian Mechanical Collection, numbering some 300 pencils ranging from 1825-1925.

Primarily, sterling silver, silver-plated, gold-filled or ivory, the pencils come in a variety of categories – and ingenuity. There are pencils with animal, architectural and Egyptian (another Victorian obsession) themes. Some of the pencils, referred to as “magic pencils,” were hidden inside the figural pieces and activated by using a pulley or slide device.

“Joe has some very important pieces and many of these pieces have never been seen before,” says Maryann Zucker, show owner and a collector of writing instruments for the past 40 years. “Joe doesn’t see himself as a collector, but more as a caretaker. He says the pens, themselves, are ‘free spirits.’”

Another “free spirit” at the show is Barry Gross, who “turns” ink pens on wood lathes, often using recycled – and oft-times – historical pieces in creating his writing instruments. As a scuba diver, Gross has salvaged parts from 17th and 18th sailing ships and incorporating them into his pens.  So far, he has been able to create pens with parts of a French ship that sunk in 1725 and an English ship that went down in 1711. He’s worked in several different mediums, including pens fashioned from the oosik (the penile bone of a walrus).

In addition, he has published more than 50 articles in several woodworking magazines and is an author of three books.
“I’ve been doing these shows for years,” he says, “and the reception has been great … mine are all one-of-a-kind pieces, none are ever the same. To think, someday, after I’m gone, that people will seek out a “Gross pen” somewhat humbling thought.”
Today, Steven Spielberg, Jimmy Buffet and Greg Norman number among Gross pen owners.

 Pen and pencil collectors, like any other antique collectors are obsessed with condition.

“I remember one of my first shows, this gentleman came by, picked up a pen and examined it through a loupe he had hanging around his neck,” Gross recalled. “He picked up the pen, looked at it, and said, ‘nice, put it down and walked away. I was somewhat taken aback, and I caught up with him and asked what he really thought of the pen. He said it was a “nice pen,” but he didn’t buy anything that had “scratches” on it. He said he was willing to pay handsomely for a pen, but not one with scratches. I learned, right then, I had to know more … I sought out a company that produced good ink pens, and had a long conversation with them … I had a lot of things to still learn.”

You’ll see many customers at any serious pen show walking around with loupes and lights draped on a cord around their neck.
“There’s never enough light at the show,” Promoter Zucker says. “Even if we had ours outside, there wouldn’t be enough light. Collectors are very particular, very detailed. Now, there’s no mass produced fountain pen that can even compare with the vintage pens. I have loved to write since I was in high school (about 40 years ago), and I have always loved calligraphy.”

Zucker, who not only produces the New York Pen Show, has a collection of around 800 pens. To her, the written ink on pen mode of communication has had a more lasting effect.

“I’m not a calligrapher, but I’m very particular about my writing. And there’s no pen made now that can do what the vintage pens do. In the earlier ones, the nibs were thinner, they were tempered and they were just better made.”

It was after the early 1940s, and the late 1930s, that fountain pens began to change – began to limit the writer.

“You can’t get the variation of style from the newer nib,” she says. “It’s just a completely different animal now. There’s not a lot of flexibility to the newer nibs; they had a lot more bounce.

“It may sound stupid, but I still have all the letters my sons sent me years ago from summer camp,” she says. “To me, those letters are a vital part of my life. Now, if they had been e-mailed – I wouldn’t have had them anymore. What can you do with an e-mail … I think we’re losing something that is important.”