Good pens can come by way of good pen friends, and this set would not be here without the kindness of Andy Russell. In my little pen world, he’s the Conway Stewart-and-other-English-pens encyclopedia. Students who struggled through Shakespeare might catch the allusion. Ophelia said, “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance” in Hamlet. My Rosemary set came …
I don’t have too many matching sets. There’s a Waterman 100-year in red, and there’s this, a Conway Stewart Dinkie No. 526 with a matching No. 2R Â pencil. That’s about it. I imagine a lady carried these in a matching purse – oh, or even a reticule (I like that word, no one uses it …
I love red rubber. Mottled, woodgrain, ripple, it makes me think of bikers in flames. It’s a classic material in pens, like vinyl in bondage wear. The earliest hard rubber pens came in any color you wanted, as long as it was black. Then manufacturers brought on the bling – repoussé bands, filigree overlays, full …