Monday, October 27, 2025

Protracted Negotiations

Yes, it took five months for David Nishimura and I to finally do our deal with the Standard Pencil Company dropper from the other day. That reminded me . . . as far as our transactions go, that one wasn’t the longest. Not by far.

For I don’t know how many years, David has always brought his single case of show and tell and (maybe) sell stuff to shows, and for several years he had a Triad set in that little case. He wanted to sell it as a set, and I don’t blame him . . . but show after show, he’d open that case for me with a dramatic flourish and let me know the set could be mine . . . 

I never bit on the set, but after a few years I did manage to buy a pair of Triads from David at the 2024 Ohio Show. He encountered a customer who was wild for the fountain pen, but who felt the same way about buying pencils as I do about buying pens. His other customer took the pen, I took the pencil, and then for good measure, I took another of the pencils that David had.


The smaller of the two here is the one I’ve eyed for five years or more; these smaller ones with clips are even harder to find than the big ones, although that blue streaked celluloid is just killer.


These two join a ringtop I ran across back in 2021 – I don’t remember how or where – in an exquisitely preserved jade.


Triads are found with either a flat top or with a triangular angled top reminiscent of the triangular barrels – this is the first smaller Triad I’ve found with the triangular treatment.


These two additions have really rounded out the Triad wing at the museum, from the full sized models . . . 


To the smaller size, both in their side clip and ringtop configurations.



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