Can anyone tell me what the numbers for Conway Stewart pens refer to? I.e., the differences beweeen say a 475 and a 388.

Cheers!

When you consider that Conway Stewart took their names from a few Vaudeville performers it is not hard to understand that their numbering system makes very little sense.

I do have a 28 and a 286 and see that they are remarkably similar pens that use the same section/nib with the 286 being a little longer.

The 388 is a thinner pen than the 286 which I would consider close to standard size while the 4 series CS pens are also a little larger if I recall correctly.

Funny, I have a 388 tagged on my e-bay watch list right now...

Keith thanks for that.

I have TWO 388s (plus a 15, a 27, a 28, a 58, a 73, and a 475) tagged. (Can anyone see my pen collecting technique yet?? ). Keith, perhaps you should PM me the auction of the one you're interested in so I avoid it. Also, a guide price would be handy!!

I might not have room in the budget for another pen this week as before bed I slipped in a low balled bid on a rhr mottled Waterman slip cap eyedropper and wouldn't you know it, I won.

Price guide, eh? Hmmm, I know you are relatively new to the obsess....erm, hobby but I would recommend Paul Erano's latest edition of "Fountain Pens Past and Present" (link to Amazon.co.uk page here). It is only £12.00 there now...It is a very good general fountain pen price guide. Other excellent books are "Fountain Pens and Pencils: Golden Age of Writing Instruments" by George Fischler & Stuart Schneider (also known as "The Blue Book") and Andreas Lambrou's " Fountain Pens of the World " but these excellent books are much more expensive. You can look on Ebay et al. and on the various pen boards for used copies...

Thanks very much, Maja. I'll definately keep an eye out for those (and probably just get the cheap one!). I just figured a book would be hopelessly out of date (for current prices) more or less as soon as it was published, but I guess they don't fluctuate that much ...

I'm not too sure about price fluctuations, Cam; I just started collecting in April 2002. Maybe a more "seasoned" collector like Rob can tell you about that I know sometimes a pen model will suddenly become popular again (eg. the Pilot Murex last year) and the prices will shoot up for a while.

Oh, if you do get the Erano book, make sure it's the 2004 edition (it has the more current data.. and more content, too).

There was a discussion on Conway some time back on PT where these sites were mentioned:

Wes

and there was a huge amount on prog2kill which appears to be down
A lot of cached info from the site is here: (NOTE it takes some time to open - be patient)

Cached Info

This info was provided by Victor Silva - my thanks Victor.

Ruaidhrí

There is little rhyme or reason within the CS numbering system. This is one of the joys of collecting vintage CS - you can never be sure that there is not a previously unknown model number out there still to find! However, there are a few 'general' rules (though I can only think of three at present). I say 'general' because there are still exceptions to these!

4 digit numbers (eg 1206) generally have at least one piece of precious metal trim, rather than plated brass.

500 - 599 reserved for Dinkies

640 - 649 reserved for Dinkie Majors

Numbers are only occasionally repeated (eg the 23 pre-war was a large Duro type pen, whereas post-war it was similar to a 58 for export to Australia and New Zealand).

The number suffixes (-L, -M, -S, -T, -A etc.) are even more confusing and not yet fully understood by collectors! In brief, in post-war pens, -L signifies a longer version than the standard (eg 85L), in pre-war pens, -M signifies mottled vulcanite, -T is plain tan (orange) vulcanite, -S refers to a 'toothpaste' stripe material found in Dinkies.

To confuse things further, pen / pencil sets were also given a range of numbers unrelated to the numbers of the pen included within! For instance, a number 10 set featured a Dinkie 540 with a Nippy pencil, a number 20 set featured a Dinkie 526 with a Duropoint 2 pencil. Again, there are a few exceptions, especially in exported sets!


Prices of the common vintage CS pens are reasonably predictable but prices of the rarer items are up and down like a bride's nightie depending on who is in the market at the time, because the number of hard-core vintage CS enthusiasts worldwide is fairly small.

Personally, I would suggest not investing in a book, use the money to buy more pens instead! If you visit Writetime CS page you will find a wide range of fully restored vintage CS pens offered at genuine market prices and I use this as my guide. I know of no other website that offers such a wide range of CS pens, accurately described and at sensible prices. Ebay prices will often be lower (but not always) and you can't always be sure of the condition. Obviously there are plenty of other sites selling vintage CS but they don't have such a good range or the prices posted are just not realistic.

Andy