(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
I reviewed a beautiful Peppered White Conway Stewart Churchill awhile back for Pen Addict. Because I was so impressed with that pen I’ve kept an eye out for another Churchill in a different color scheme with a more interesting nib. I constantly monitor Fountain Pen Hospital’s “The Back Room,” and I’ve gotten some really great pens at terrific prices from them. When I saw this Conway Stewart, I snapped it up.
My first Conway Stewart came in a rather simple box, so I was quite surprised when I received an enormous package from FPH. Inside was a large, green, hinged box with clasps.
A tiny book about Winston Churchill, a cigar (!), the pen, and a bottle of Conway Stewart orange ink were tucked inside the white sateen interior. I wasn’t expecting such a fine tribute to Winston Churchill! However, I’m not quite sure what to do with these items other than store them in the box. I guess I have a cigar handy for some special occasion . . . when people smoke cigars . . . which is basically never?
The pen is exquisite. Lustrous Burgundy is a good name for this acrylic with deep burgundy and lighter pink swirls exhibiting lots of chatoyance. The luminescent color only appears in two vertical swaths down the barrel. The other sides of the pen are dark burgundy. I’d prefer more consistent color over the entire surface, but the dark and light contrast is beautiful, nonetheless.
The barrel is engraved with “Conway Stewart ‘Churchill’ Made in England” along with the limited edition number out of 500.
The Churchill model is distinctive with its slightly rounded top finial, bold lines, and tapered bottom finial. It’s definitely a large pen, measuring 5.71 inches/145mm capped, 5.4 inches/137mm uncapped, and 7.1 inches/180mm posted (as if!).
Deep grooves encircle the cap finial, and the 18K gold clip is engraved with the Conway Stewart logo.
A total of five 18K gold rings adorn the pen: two on the cap and three on the body. This is one classy looking pen.
I wish a pen of this size and price was a piston filler, but it’s a cartridge/converter. That’s not the end of the world, because a converter is a bit easier to clean than a piston filler. However, a pen this large could do with greater ink capacity.
The 18 karat fine, semi-flex nib is adorned with the Conway Stewart logo and name. I prefer this nib design to the more recent version that has the British flag on it--not that I have any problems with the British flag, mind you! I just prefer this simpler design.
When I first started to write with the nib, I was quite pleased with how smooth and bouncy it was. As a fine semi-flex, it doesn’t have a huge amount of line variation, but there’s enough to enhance my writing. I inked the pen with Iroshizuku Yama-Budo, which is a well-behaved ink and a good match for this pen.
Unfortunately, the more I wrote, the more frustrated I became. The nib writes beautifully for about one page, and then it exhibits skipping and hard starts. I have to unscrew the barrel and push more ink down into the converter, which is unpleasant and interrupts my writing. I don’t know if this is a converter problem or an issue with the feed, but it’s disappointing.
This limited edition Conway Stewart was produced in 2007 and is not readily available for purchase. In fact, my Google search resulted in one hit--an eBay listing for this pen (without the ink) for $1,800! “Holy &##@!” said I. I’m happy to report that I did not pay anywhere near that much, thank goodness. I realized that I got a Churchill Burgundy Pearl at a super price from FPH! Now I just need a nibmeister to work some wonders with the ink flow.
(I purchased this pen with my own funds.)
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