My collection - a small sample

[andyr7]

Gary asked me to consider posting some pictures of my collection, so here is a small group of Dinkie 540 models dating from the late 1920s to the mid 1930s. They are special in that, apart from being all in mint or near mint condition, they have their original fancy boxes which are also in excellent condition. I think the individual pen boxes covered with the very fancy papers (as used in the boxed sets, see the lower three in the picture) are unique to the Dinkie range and they are quite hard to find these days. Everything looks large in the picture, in fact the length of each of the boxes is about 105mm to give you some idea of the scale! Sorry the picture is not of great artistic quality, the pens and boxes were just placed on my flatbed scanner to get a rapid result!

 

 

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-2/1151750/Dinkie540Groupreduced.jpg

Edited February 24, 2006 by andyr7

[J. John Harvey]

Placed on a flatbed scanner? And you got this result? That's amazing! Detail is excellent and those are excellent pens.

[Allan]

I really do not like Dinkies as they are entirely too small for my hand, these however are extremely nice looking and may have me paying a little more attention to these little pens.

 

Allan

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I would have loved a Dinkie, but I am saving up for 2 MB pens right now.

 

Dillon

[Greg]

Wonderful, andyr7. These are truly beautiful and those colours have lasted all these years as original. My favourite is the multi-colour with the lanyard loop.

 

I note the comments about the size of Dinkies, and I must admit regard them as for others myself as I'm not a lady. But if I was, and had half an interest in using a fountain pen, surely these are among the most desirable to be had.

 

Would love to see some more from your collection.

 

Do you have pens from other manufacturers too?

 

Greg

[andyr7]

Thank you Greg.

 

No, I'm just a collector of Conway Stewart Dinkies and Dandys (and associated ephemera) from the period 1922 to 1939, though a few of my Dinkies are probably post war.

 

Why Dinkies? They were obviously very important to Conway Stewart as they continually fought to maintain the copyright of the Dinkie name. They are also among the earliest coloured pens manufactured, vying for the title of the earliest with LeBoeuf, I think. It is difficult to date early Dinkies accurately but the first coloured versions would almost certainly have appeared in 1923 and quite possibly in 1922. I do have what is probably the earliest yellow pen ever manufactured, a plain un-numbered Dinkie dating to no later than 1923, which is undoubtedly the rarest in the whole collection (nearly 200 individual pens and over 50 boxed sets)! Finally, I can be fairly sure that no other range of pens has the same diversity of colours and model numbers as the Dinkie.

 

As for not being practical writing pens, or being ladies' pens, they were in fact initially launched as 'vest pocket pens' for men, though the early introduction of the full colour range meant that they soon understood the attraction of a small pen to the female purchasers. However the later (post 1932 but pre 1950) Dinkies are surprisingly practical to write with, especially if you want something a little different, and I currently have a few fully restored examples listed on ebay if anybody wants to test this!

 

Andy

[Slush99]

Nice little Dinkies.

[Carrie]

Those pens are lovely, I could happily sit and lust for the first and last ones. I've only got one Dinkie which I like to use if I'm in the right mood. Sadly it's sitting unusable at the moment because someone put drawing ink in it and I didn't find out until a good while later.

[wimg]

Hi Andy,

 

Thank you for sharing those! Very beautiful pens and boxes indeed, and I am very impressed with what you did with your scanner here!

 

Warm regards, Wim

[garythepenman]

Andy,

 

Thanks for following up and showing a few pens, they are superb indeed.

 

With such a diverse range offered by Conway Stewart I note you have specialised in two areas. Dinkies and Dandys and mostly pre war. Fabulous. You have a lovely collection and one that is quite historical and precious in the FP world. You no doubt feel like a guardian. If you don't send them to me and I'll do the guardian thing for you.

 

Thanks again Andy for sharing, brilliant stuff.

 

Gary

[Mary Burke]

Thanks for sharing. Conway Stewart is famous for offering their pens in so many different designs.

 

Thanks also for taking the time to include the colorful boxes.

 

Do you have more images? It is always pleasing to see collections as it is all too easy to get wrapped up in modern pens

 

Kind regards,

 

Mary Burke

[Elaine]

I love the way the boxes match the pens. The pens are great! Just my size.

[scottishtrout]

Gary asked me to consider posting some pictures of my collection, so here is a small group of Dinkie 540 models dating from the late 1920s to the mid 1930s. They are special in that, apart from being all in mint or near mint condition, they have their original fancy boxes which are also in excellent condition. I think the individual pen boxes covered with the very fancy papers (as used in the boxed sets, see the lower three in the picture) are unique to the Dinkie range and they are quite hard to find these days. Everything looks large in the picture, in fact the length of each of the boxes is about 105mm to give you some idea of the scale! Sorry the picture is not of great artistic quality, the pens and boxes were just placed on my flatbed scanner to get a rapid result!

 

 

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-2/1151750/Dinkie540Groupreduced.jpg

 

Hello - my first post on this forum, I have been reading for a few weeks, I'm new to the vintage fountain pen game. I have picked up a few pens over the last couple of months - I seem to be driven by nice bright colours or strange finishes. I have mostly gone for Parker, CS, Mabbie Todd (Lizard and snake skins- both away at the pen doctor!) and a Burnham. I have also made a couple of errors in judgment in some of my purchase - I AM a beginner!! Recently I have picked up a couple of Dinkies a blue marbled 550 and the one in the attached image (using the original ebay image here). I have a couple of questions about CS pens:

 

1. When you see a wildly coloured pen and the surface is crazed (as per a Le Tigre recently sold on ebay), is there anyway of restoring the surface - is the colour more than skin deep?

 

2. I love the colours of the Dinkies in this thread - but I want one in a larger size, I have seen some "Scribes" and a "Universal" whilst surfing - are there any other CS pens that feature the Jazzy colours - how much will I have to pay and how often do they turn up - As with all my pens I'm looking for one I can use and also a distraction during the many, many boring meetings I attend.

 

Best wishes

 

Colin

[andyr7]

Recently I have picked up a couple of Dinkies a blue marbled 550 and the one in the attached image (using the original ebay image here). I have a couple of questions about CS pens:

 

1. When you see a wildly coloured pen and the surface is crazed (as per a Le Tigre recently sold on ebay), is there anyway of restoring the surface - is the colour more than skin deep?

 

2. I love the colours of the Dinkies in this thread - but I want one in a larger size, I have seen some "Scribes" and a "Universal" whilst surfing - are there any other CS pens that feature the Jazzy colours - how much will I have to pay and how often do they turn up - As with all my pens I'm looking for one I can use and also a distraction during the many, many boring meetings I attend.

 

Hi Colin,

 

You did very well to dig up this topic from way back!

 

Firstly, crazing is a problem on vintage casein pens like these. The colour goes all the way through but polishing generally doesn't improve it, it just exposes more crazing. I think it is a symptom of surface drying of the casein over the years. You can coat the surface with a thin film of clear resin which helps the look but is not really going to help the value of the pen. If with your ebay example you mean the blue multi-coloured Dandy sized (probably, rather than Dinkie sized, as quoted in the listing), LeTigre, that's one reason I didn't go for it.

 

Different materials are known for ageing in different ways and the 526 in your picture looks rather yellowed which is very typical. I'm afraid this is terminal, you'll never restore the original brightness.

 

I think all the colours in my original picture are likely only to be available in Dinkie Majors or Dandys if you want a larger pen. These models were both made in the same colours as Dinkies, though they are also much rarer and hence generally more expensive. To go larger still, look at the Scribes and Internationals. I presume you have found Jonathan's website, look at the numbers in the 300s for some good pictures of those models. Some colours are the same as Dinkie colours, though a lot of them seem to be peculiar to those ranges. I guess for good coloured Dandys, Scribes and Internationals you'd be looking in the £100 - £250 range, depending on the rarity. They do turn up on ebay occasionally but your best bet for one of these is probably the London Pen Show next year. If you want to rush out and buy something now, Max Davis is probably your only port of call (enter Scribe or International in the lower search box). You can haggle over his prices, though you will still need deep pockets! One colour that you may be lucky with elsewhere is 'toffee swirl' which occurs in a number of unlikely models (286, for instance) but you need to be careful of condition, the spiral construction is prone to unwinding.

 

Other occasional spectacular colours do turn up in the even larger pens, for instance some of the 1930s Duros, but they command huge prices and are very rare. Even the very large Duro 1 was made in Jade, Lapis and Grey Jazz around the late 1920s but you are almost talking second mortgage money for these - if you could persuade someone to sell! The added disadvantage is that most of these rare coloured pens will get traded privately between collectors so you have to let it be known in the right circles that you want one, then wait very, very patiently!

 

Sorry my comments may seem a bit discouraging but the chase is part of the fun of collecting!

 

Andy

Edited November 7, 2007 by andyr7

[scottishtrout]

Thanks for the imformative reply Andy,

 

The Dinkie in the photo is much brighter/less yellowed when you see it for real. I have collected old fishing tackle for ages so have some experience of the "wait" for good items. Thanks for the steer to Jonathans Web site - I had found it but didn't realise that there were pictures attached. So I think I now know what I want - I've attached the picture...I don't need the pencil, just the pen I suppose this will be a long wait with a bit of expense at the end - is this the sort of pen that trades between collectors rather than appearing on a stall at the pen fair?

 

Cheers

 

Colin

[andyr7]

Hi Colin,

 

That is I think a Scribe 336 in Grey Jazz, and it looks to be in mint condition which is the key to it. Grey Jazz can look a bit dowdy once it has aged and it commands quite a premium when mint and shiny. It seems to have been used between about 1927 and 1932.

 

As it happens, I have a duplicate Grey Jazz Dandy 720 that I'm presently working on which will ultimately be for sale if it works out OK. It's 4.25" long when capped, just over 5.5" long with the cap posted, not quite as long as a Scribe but it is about the same diameter. I doubt it will ever be as bright as the one pictured, so it may not be of interest if you are minded to hold out for a mint example!

 

Good luck anyway with your quest.

 

Andy

[dreg]

So Andy, can I send my wife to you when she wants to kill me for what it's likely to cost to get my hands on one of those blue swirled Dinkies?

 

Hopefully some larger models turn up someday in that material too - or better that I missed it when I scanned Jonathan's site looking for it.

[andyr7]

Not sure which ones you mean by blue swirled - from the top down, numbers 3 & 5 are in a casein material known nowadays as 'peacock' or 'butterfly wings' and it is one of the most sought materials. Absolutely fantastic when in mint condition and a picture can't do it justice. As you rotate the pen in the light, the colours suddenly brighten in a strange way. As I mentioned in another post many moons ago, if you ever see a bird called a 'glossy starling', its plumage is coloured in the same way and shows the same intensity change as the bird moves. The colour is not likely to turn up in any pen larger than a Dandy - though never say never, in CS history.

 

The top pen is what I would call a swirled material though that is definitely purple, not blue. Same applies - probably not found in a pen larger than a Dandy.

 

Wives and the cost of pens should always be kept strictly apart. I operate on a 'need to know' basis. If she 'needs to know', I generally divide the actual cost by 5 or 10 times, depending.......

 

Mind you, I expect she employs similar tactics when we discuss how much it costs for her to keep her horse......

 

Andy

Edited November 7, 2007 by andyr7

[dreg]

The top pen is what I would call a swirled material though that is definitely purple, not blue. Same applies - probably not found in a pen larger than a Dandy.

 

Wives and the cost of pens should always be kept strictly apart. I operate on a 'need to know' basis. If she 'needs to know', I generally divide the actual cost by 5 or 10 times, depending.......

 

Mind you, I expect she employs similar tactics when we discuss how much it costs for her to keep her horse......

 

Andy

Hmm... I must have my colors off on my monitors, it looks extremely blue! Or perhaps I am as color blind (or dumb) as my wife implies when she looks at the shirts I wear. Nevertheless, it's close enough for me!

 

I gave up on trying to keep that information privileged - I taught her too much about how to search with Google. Thankfully she doesn't have a horse yet, though I know the instant we're in a position in life to have one she will. For now we have a deal worked out where she gets camera equipment (a digital Rebel is in her very near future) and I get to keep up with the pens, albeit at a slower pace.

[andyr7]

I love the colours of the Dinkies in this thread - but I want one in a larger size, I have seen some "Scribes" and a "Universal" whilst surfing - are there any other CS pens that feature the Jazzy colours - how much will I have to pay and how often do they turn up - As with all my pens I'm looking for one I can use and also a distraction during the many, many boring meetings I attend.

 

Well done Colin, I see you ultimately settled for the more affordable Dandy in peacock - a sensible choice! It looked to be in good condition and, as long as there are no nasty surprises when you receive it, it was a decent price as well.

 

Andy