My first pen acquisition of 2013 arrived this morning, a nice black Canadian Duofold from the 1940s. That’s all I’ve bought this year so far because the prices have been nuts since Christmas. Pens that I would normally buy in at £30 have been going for £10 – £15 more. It must be everyone spending their Christmas present money. Next wee things will return to normal, I expect. Luckily I had quite a backlog of stock awaiting restoration. I had promised myself a month off but after about three days of bad television and overeating I was glad to get back to the workbench.

I’m working through about a dozen restored pens today in preparation for uploading to the website. I’ve write-tested them. Next is photography, followed by photo-editing and writing descriptions. With any luck I’ll get them uploaded on Monday, but I’ll announce it here in any case.