Madrid Pen Show 2024
It’s always a pleasure hunting down new pens, and I enjoy chatting and socialising with fellow collectors who share my enthusiasm for fountain pens. If I can combine both of those with a trip to a warmer climate then I am going to find it hard to say no - hence why I am a regular attendee at the Madrid Pen Show.
Madrid is a fantastic city, with lots to see and do. it also has cafes, bars and restaurants in abundance selling great coffee, fantastic food and a cold beer. In addition, it tends to be dry and a lot warmer than in the UK. A good start!
Madrid Pen Show is one of my favourite shows.. It spans 2.5 days (All day Friday and Saturday and the Sunday morning) and dealers from the U.K., the U.S., India (Magna Carta were there this year), Japan (Toyooka Craft were there as were Nagasawa) and Europe gather together to sell, trade and talk pens. It also has a great social side to it, with many opportunities to have coffee, lunch, dinner or a drink with friends and other attendees. I tend to arrive on the Thursday to get my bearings and to catch up with friends for dinner on Thursday evening. It also means that I can be at the show first thing Friday without stress!
Normally, the show is held in a nice hotel, but this year I think due to Madrid hosting a lot of events in November, suitable available space was limited and the shows organisers opted for a conference centre at Centro de Negocios MEEU. This was rather unusual, and a slightly less luxiouous space than I have been used to in previous years. Nevertheless, there were good, reasonably priced hotels very close by, and the venue actually worked extremely well on the whole, with plenty of space to be able to move around. The Madrid Pen Show instagram account posted a very helpful video by one of the organisers (Alfonso Mur) showing how to get to the show. An excellent idea! My only very minor issue was, there was no drinking water available to the attendees. This wasn’t a problem as there were shops close by, however, this has been provided in previous years, and of course is readily available at the London Pen Show.
The selection of pens was awesome. Of particular note for me were:
- deals on offer from Cruzalt Pens
- Eboya and Ohashido, plus many notebook varieties from Ink Traveler
- Deals on offer from Iguana Sell
- Nib work by Jose Munuera
- Japan only editions from Nagasawa
- Vintage pens galore! There are many great vendors at this show who do not come to shows in the UK
- Great U.K. contingent, with Sarj Minhas, Ray of Vintage and Modern Pens, Graham Jasper and Shabbir all having a great selection of pens on offer
I have added some photographs below to give you a sense of the show. I highly recommend viewing the excellent pen show videos done by my friend Miro of Penkala Pens and shown on his you tube channel for a much better insight to this fantastic show.
I’d like to add a note of thanks and best wishes to my friends Sarj and Jas, Graham and Donna, Ray, Jose Luis, Francesco and Giacomo, Shabbir, Miro, Letizia, Giuseppe, David Nishimura and Tsatchi for their company at various times through the weekend. I had a great time, and learnt a lot.
Finally, on a sad note, whilst at the show I heard that David Parisi had passed away suddenly. I didn’t know David well, he was from the U.K. but resided in Germany. He specialised in pencils, but was very knowledgable about pens and repairs, and I throughly enjoyed his company when we met at pen shows. RIP David, you will be missed.
