Don’t forget to pencil in the L.A. Pen Show

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We know you have lots of important events to keep you busy: The Grammys, the Super Bowl, the Oscars. But you would only be filled with regret if you let your busy social calendar keep you from the 21st Annual L.A. Pen show, which takes place Valentine’s Day weekend in Manhattan Beach.

‘This is a great opportunity to bring your Valentine to a pen show!’ the website says. ‘For some reason, pens bring people closer together.’

Is this truly the ‘write’ place to bring your Valentine? Well, Saturday the 14th features nine separate seminars on pens, writing and calligraphy, including ‘Get to the Point’ and ‘So you want your pen to write properly.’

As if that were not enough amusement for you, on Feb. 17, Part I of the Clavius Collection of exceptional writing instruments goes on sale. Although this phrase probably makes you think of your clavicle, which is a very important bone, or a clavichord, which apparently is an instrument, the Clavius Collection is in fact ‘the finest single owner collection of modern writing instruments to be publicly offered in more than a decade’ (they clearly don’t count crayons).

How much can one expect to pay for such exceptional writing instruments? If you’re set on buying a Grayson Tighe pen crafted of intergalactic matter from a section of the Gibeon meteorite, you’ll have to shell over $3,000 to $5,000. A Dragon Series pen, crafted of titanium, diamonds, sapphires and/or emeralds, will cost $2,000 to $4,000. We hope that thing is mightier than the sword.

You can buy the whole Dragon Series, or save your money for the Dunhill-Namiki Sakura Rose, which sounds like a toddler with a terrible name, but is in fact a $50,000 pen that has lots of lacquer work. Or the Mont Blanc ‘White House’ pen, which depending on your taste (or lack thereof) can feature white gold columns, an eagle with sapphire eyes or an American flag rendered in diamonds and rubies ($10,000 and up).

The pens, being sold by Bonhams & Butterfields, are part of the collection of an unidentified California entrepreneur, who named the assemblage for Christopher Clavius, who designed the Gregorian calendar and standardized modern time (why couldn’t you give us more weekends, Christopher?). They’ll be on display at the Pen Show (as if you needed another reason to go) and for sale in Bonhams’ L.A. showroom after that.

-- Alana Semuels