The Los Angeles Pen Show this February will be my seventh consecutive LA Show. Always a pleasure to attend this well managed and publicised show, and a bonus in that this, and the San Francisco Show, are the closest International pen shows I can attend.

At this stage we are planning to attend Chicago, Washington DC and San Francisco Shows later this year. We didn't go to the San Francisco show in 2004, we went to the New York show on the way to the London show instead.

Vastly underrated (and therefore underpriced), probably because they are "plain Janes". These pens have excellent nibs, better than average gold plating, and the later models (Aerometric fillers) have pli-glass sacs like the "51", making them virtually everlasting.

The first versions were the BF, NS and AF Duofolds which were button fillers, employing the same method as their 1920's counterparts. Black, Grey and Brown were the predominant colours in these models. As these were largely War Time and immediately Post-War productions, coloured and patterned stock was rare, making models hard to find, and therefore very collectable.

The later Aerometric filling Duofolds came in the basic colours of (ink) black, blue, red and green, and were available in a number of sizes (Lady Duofold, Slimfold, Junior Duofold, Demi-Duofold, Duofold and Maxima Duofold).