Vintage Conway Stewart

Newly unearthed CS leaflets from Christmas 1935 & 36

2006-06-04T07:40:00.000Z

Here are two more (unrestored) scans of leaflets that I have recently acquired and were previously unknown (to me, at least) . Top is from Christmas 1935 and bottom from Christmas 1936. Sorry, I have no plans to offer restored full size prints of these at present!!

The earliest known such Christmas leaflet is from 1928 (sadly, I only have a poor B&W copy of this so far) and the latest is from 1939. It would seem that there are likely to be leaflets still to be discovered from 1929, 1931, 1932 and 1933 - if YOU have one of these, please let me know!

Andy

Writing Set No 30

2006-02-19T11:52:00.000Z

Conway Stewart price lists of September 1924 and July 1925 both feature a 'Writing Set No 30', comprising of a 'Duro-Point Pencil and Penholder' and retailing at 3/6. The same lists have the cheapest Duro-Point at 2/6.

The No 30 set was no longer included in price lists from July 1926; The Duro-Point was, of course, still there at 2/6, but now a 'Metal Pen Pocket', at 7.5d has appeared.

Was the metal pocket incuded as the 'Penholder' in the original No 30 set, or was the penholder perhaps a steel-nib, dip-penholder in matching coloured casein to the Duro-Point? Although I've never seen even an illustration of a No 30 set, I favour the latter idea, not least because Conway Stewart rarely charged a premium for a (boxed) set over and above the prices of the individual items added together? [In the former this amounts to 4.5d, a premium of some 12%, if I've worked out my £sd correctly] I would also add that over the years I have seen unmarked dip-pen holders in multi-coloured casein identical to that used by CS, but never as a set.

Can anyone throw any light on this early set?

Dinkie Safety Retractable - more information?

2006-02-10T08:43:00.000Z

Being a collector of only pre-war Dinkies and Dandys, one pen that is of great interest to me but is also a real enigma is the Dinkie Safety Retractable no. 700. The only one I know about is pictured below

These pictures are borrowed (with permission) from Jonathan Donahaye's excellent website and you'll find additional pictures on this page

http://www.prog2kill.com/ConwayStewart/csbook/page1.htm#safety

From the general style (ivory coloured top, smooth black body), this does not look as though it was actually made by CS but, as the inscription seems absolutely right for a Dinkie of this period, I think it must be genuine. The number doesn't seem to feature in price lists, so this pen may have been 'bought in' only in small numbers and inscribed as marketing samples, without ever reaching the retailers. I'd like to know a number of things - who made the pen originally, are any other examples known, and does anybody have one to sell?!!

After trawling through many back auction catalogues, I concluded that it looks virtually identical to a Montblanc 0 (or possibly 00) safety - though not having seen either pen in the flesh puts me at a slight disadvantage! However, Steve Hull tells me that any collaboration between CS and Montblanc at this period would be extremely unlikely, and he suggests it would most likely be of American manufacture (though possibly copying the Montblanc).

I did try to make contact by e-mail with Antonio Berges, the person who originally sent the pictures to Jonathan, but received no reply. It may have been a language problem, an out of date e-mail address, or it may be that he just didn't want to be troubled by a mad pen collector!

So, if anybody can supply more information, please step forward!

Andy Russell

Conway Stewart Desk Pens

2006-02-09T20:33:00.000Z

Andy's adverts show several different Conway Stewart Desk Sets. I have five out of the six shown in the W H Smiths leaflet (Leaflet A). The text on this leaflet calls them Pen Stands rather than Desk Sets and has the following description:

"Holds the fountain pen at any convenient angle, ready for instant use. Comprising a "CONWAY STEWART" PEN in Black Vulcanite, mounted with two Rolled Gold Bands, tapered ends, matching base of Pen Stand."

"Nos. 1 and 2 are made in Black and Red Mottled, Red and Blue Mottled, Green - Onyx, Amber, Agate - Blue. No. 3, in Metallic Mottled effects - Red and Gold, Blue and Gold, Green and Gold, Red and Silver, Blue and Silver, Green and Silver."

"Nos. 4, 5 and 6, in super-polish Jet Black."

I have No.1 in Black and Red Mottled, No.2 in Black, No.3 in Blue and Silver, No.5 and No.6 in Jet Black. Anyone got a No.4 they are prepared to part with?

The pens in the No.2 and No.3 Pen Stands are marked "Dinkie" No.514 and the trumpets of the stand have a single narrarow rolled gold mount.

The pen in the No.1 Pen Stand is marked "The Conway Stewart" No.214 and the trumpet of the stand has two narrow rolled gold mounts.

The pen in the No.5 Pen Stand is marked "The Conway Stewart" No.214 and the trumpet of the stand has two narrow rolled gold mounts.

The pens in the No.6 Pen Stand are marked "The Conway Stewart" No. 414. These pens are slightly thicker than the No.214 and will not fit in the No.5 Pen Stand. The trumpets on the No.6 Pen Stand are a different shape and have a single wide rolled gold mount. However the W H Smith leaflet shows the No.6 Pen Stand with trumpets that match the No.1, No.4 and No.5 Pen Stands! So are there two differnet versions of the No.6 Pen Stand?

Futhermore, Barry Rose (Writetime) has a picture on his web site of a pair of No.1 Pen Stands, showing both types of trumpets, so this model was definitely made in both forms. http://www.writetime.co.uk/conway/personalcollection.htm. Does anyone have examples of the alternate trumpet and No.414 pen for the No.4 and No.5 Pen Stands?

Yet another quirk to the series of Conway Pen Stands has recently come to my attention. The No.1 Pen Stand to the fore in the picture has a desk pen lying on the base that does not match any of the other pens. This pen is the same size as the No.214 pens, but is nickel plated rather than rolled gold, and is marked "The Conway Stewart" No.215! So is there an additional range of Pen Stands that are nickel plated, and if so, what range of models were there? One would assume that there may well be "The Conway Stewart" No.415 and "The Dinkie" No.515 pens.

David Wells

Prints of original CS advertising from the 1920s and 30s

2006-02-08T15:47:00.000Z

Finally, I'm able to post images of the various prints I can supply, sorry for the delay!

Firstly there are prints from the Christmas issues of John O'London magazine between 1928 and 1933. 1928 is black and white, the others are in colour. Full size prints of these on 15" x 12" paper would be no more than £12 for each year. Identical advertisements also featured in 'The Humorist' and 'London Opinion' Christmas issues.

On the top row, from the left, the years are 1928, 1929 & 1930 and on the bottom row, 1931, 1932 & 1933.

Then there are three advertising leaflets. The originals are double sided and multi folded, and the images of the various portions have been flipped where necessary to create the composite images shown below. I don't have exact years for these but approximate dates (give or take a year) are shown. Full size prints of these, on 24" x 20" paper should be no more than £20 each. (The pictures below are not to scale)

Leaflet A is the largest at around 21" x 14". This shows that 'Jade green' (known to most of us as green measles), 'Lapis blue' (now known as blue measles) and 'Grey Jazz' were all colours 'officially named' by Conway Stewart. The date would be around 1930.

Leaflet B would date to around 1935. The size is around 16" square.

Leaflet C is the same size as leaflet B and I think dates to around 1937. Some of you may already have prints from me of the lower part of the image, which will give you an idea of the size and quality generally.

I do also have a print of a later leaflet dating to 1939, which is especially interesting as it is overprinted with new prices from October 2nd showing the increases that were brought in soon after war was declared. Unfortunately, I don't own the original of this and I promised the owner that I wouldn't distribute copies - sorry folks!

If you want something to display, or to refer to regularly for research, you should consider buying prints. Though it is great to have the originals (and all my JoL advertisements are in context, as part of the complete magazine), they are not printed on great quality paper and are usually fragile or have been folded, so not ideal for display especially where sun may cause them to fade.

Actual price will depend on the total number of prints ordered for each image size, so if you tell your friends and increase the numbers, you should save money! Postage will be extra. I suggest that we let the order book run for around 4 weeks (I'll post a week's warning when we are about to close) and that anybody who wants to order should contact me by e-mail (click on my name in the contributors list at the start of the Blog to make contact if you haven't already got my e-mail address). When all the orders are in, I'll mail everybody individually to let them know the final total - and then I'll need to get all payments in before I actually place the order with the printers! Paypal will be OK and I'm happy to send prints anywhere in the world. It normally takes about 10 days to get the finished prints back from the laboratory, so if all goes according to plan, prints would be posted around the end of March.

As far as I know, there are no different coloured advertisements to be found in the Christmas issues of other years or in other magazines, though there was a full colour insert in the 'British Stationer' of November 1928 which I'd love to get hold of - if anybody has one of these to sell, please let me know! I'd also be delighted to hear about any colour advertising from the colonies - I have one nice advertisement from the Times of India from 1929 showing two great Dinkie sets, but there must presumably have been others in magazines from Australia, Canada, New Zealand or South Africa over the years. Similarly, I think there were probably other colour leaflets apart from the four mentioned above. please let us know if you have anything different!

Finally, please do not rob these images for your websites without asking first! The pictures above have been watermarked visibly (prints will not show the watermark) and electronically by Digimarc, so they are traceable.

Andy Russell

Conway Stewart advertising reprints

2006-01-27T17:50:00.000Z

As David says, I've been persuaded to release prints of some of my collection of 20s and 30s Conway Stewart colour leaflets and magazine advertisements. The images are all Photoshopped from scans of the original to remove folds and blemishes (double sided leaflets have the images printed one above the other for ease of display) and the printing is carefully controlled to ensure the colour reproduction is accurate.

The cost of these will vary depending on size - 24" x 20" prints for the double sided leaflets would be no more than £20 each, 15" x 12" for the magazine advertisements would be no more than £12. Prices could come down if enough people were interested in obtaining copies. I'll try to post more information (including sample images) during the first week of February when I have a little more time.

Andy Russell

Conway Stewart adverts from 1931 and 1932

2006-01-24T16:13:00.000Z

A couple of Conway Stewart adverts from the early 1930's.

This colour advert is from December 1932. I guess colour was only worth it for the Christmas period, as most adverts seem to be black and white. Unfortunately, this is only a colour photocopy and not an original, but the quality is fairly good.

This black and white advert is from 1931, but I can not put a more exact date to it. I can date it from the infoormation on the reverse, which is asking for copy and adverts for a 1932 annual publication and gives a deadline of February 1932 for the submission of the material.

The WHS leaflet in the previous posting was a copy of the copy held in the WES archive. Unfortunately, because this is a copy of a copy, and maybe more, the quality and colour are very poor. I understand that Andy is the current owner of the original, and that he has several other original adverts. He has told me that he is prepared to make photographic copies of those adverts for those of us who would want to purchase them. He is able to get price breaks from the printers for quantity of any prints that are of the same size.

Either Andy or myself will post more details later.

Does anyone hve any adverts that are older than these?

David Wells

Welcome

2006-01-13T11:32:00.000Z

Hi

I'm David Wells and I'm a vintage Conway Stewart writing instrument collector.

I have created this blog for other collectors of Conway Stewart fountain pens, pencils and writing sets, so that we can exchange ideas, pictures and details of any vintage Conway Stewart writing instruments.

Please feel free to use this blog in any way which best suits your needs.

This blog is not limited exclusively to vintage Conway Stewart.

I personally have a sizeable collection of Le Tigre writing equipment, the majority of which was made by Conway Stewart but branded Le Tigre for the Benelux market.

There are many Conway Stewart collectors and each of us must have our own specialist expertise and requirements. So let's exchange those details and help each other in our collections.

If anyone has any original Conway Steawrt adverts, I would be very grateful for a scan or photocopy of them to add to my collection, as this material is key to identifying the age and stlye variations of different models.

Regards
David Wells
conway-stewart.old-pens.co.uk