Hello all, I have just bought a conway stewart on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=170185800770

My Grandfather had a few fountain pens, and when I first saw the green marbled pen he had, I really though it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I eventually inherited it, although the nib was damaged beyond repair, and while traipsing the streets of oxford trying to find someone in expensive pen shops (this was the late 1980's, no internet) who could point me in the direction of a new nib, I dropped it and lost it. Someone must have picked it up as I retraced my steps - was I gutted.

My recollection was that is was a Conway Stewart, and I thought it was a 75, but the pushbutton mechanism and the rounded end to clip now lead me to believe I have misremembered. Am I right in thinking I was wrong? Was it a swan maybe?

Anyway, I have long wanted a replacement vintage pen, and the pinks appealed to me more nowadays than the greens, but it has to be marbled, I love the look of these pens!

Hopefully my replacement will serve me well, I've just ordered some Herbin Scented ink to go with it

I've gleaned this much from the internet:
c1939-1955 - Peaked-top, diamond clip, 2 narrow bands surrounding 1 medium band; The Conway Stewart, number on 2nd line - early; Conway Stewart, number on 1st line - late, nib CS 5N. Dimensions - length: 12.5cm; barrel + section: 10cm; cap: 5.8cm. Matching pencil Conway 32 or 33.

Was it a good pen in its day? Any thought or tips? I intend to use it daily....and will try not to buy more.

Thanks so much,

Emma

Congratulations, emmak, you have a splendid pen.

There is a general thought that 'large means better', but the 388 shows this not to be the case. 'Small is appropriate' under certain circumstances and smaller hands, I would suggest, would represent one of those circumstances.

The 388 has three rings on the cap which are common on the upper end of the range (cf CS55, CS58 etc). Of course this is not a rule as there are plenty of exceptions and variations, but I consider the CS388 to be a small version of the premium CS55. It is similar in the two thinner bands surrounding a wider central band, has a high end nib (the Duro in the case of the 55, a CS5N in the case of the 388) and has a similar shape. The shape seems to be the last of the peaked tops before the more streamlined shape of the CS58/12/14 etc became the CS standard during the 50s (the yanks had been streamlining their pens since the 20s!).

So despite its size my opinion is that the 388 was not one of the cheaper CS pens, merely one of the smaller.

Yours looks to be in very good condition (especially considering it must be over 50 years old!) with good colour on the peak (which is made from hard rubber and looks to be only slightly fading with its natural oxidisation process. Keep the peak away from water!) and the nice black section (these were made from hard rubber too - although on later pens these were made from plastic - and can similarly fade. To check yours give the section a hard rub and then sniff it If you can smell rubber then rubber it is! Maybe someone can confirm this). The gold plating looks good too.

My only other comment would be that, in the light of the photography, the colour of the body and cap does not look as rich as I've seen. Its likely that it isn't faded as it looks pretty uniform and the rest is in such good nick. There were many variations of colour, even within a colour a batch made from different stock would show variation. Also the photography/screen reproduction may not represent the colour accurately.

You have a lovely pen, as far as practicalities are concerned the 388 I had (in rather less interesting black) was totally reliable, could (should?) certainly be used every day, had a gloriously smooth nib and wouldn't blob. They are straight forward designs with little to go wrong. Another point is that 388s are still relatively plentiful and so if it was lost or badly damaged it can be replaced without a huge sense of guilt for the pen world!

Now a nice blue one to match would allow a couple of ink colours ....!

Let us know how you get on with it.

Greg

Hello Emma and welcome to the forum. When your pen arrives I hope it turns out to be every bit as good as it looks in the auction photos. I've repeatedly looked at the 388s on various auctions and I really do like the look of them. One day I'm sure I'll get round to buying one.

Thanks for the responses. The (rubber by the smell) black section near the nib has a couple of dings, and the body has a couple of old scratches but considering its age its really good. It writes beautifully, ink flow is good and overall I'm very pleased. Thanks for the info, and I'll continue to lurk.

If you wanted to the dings in the section (normally occuring when someone tries to get the section off, in a less than careful manner, to replace the sac) can be removed by use of micromesh. There's plenty of advice on this in the other forums.

Hope you're able to use it regularly.

Greg