I bought this pen from Jonathan Donahaye on eBay, during my vintage Conway Stewart phase. I took it out today, toying with the idea of selling it, and decided to rinse and ink it. As usual, I convinced myself to keep the pen.
Jonathan’s Book of Numbers is THE vintage Conway Stewart resource, and here he lists the variations on the CS 28. Even though he’s passed on, his Book of Numbers lives in all its ancient Javascript glory. (I miss his eBay auctions. He used lines from classic English poetry as writing exemplars.)
Based on the imprint and the shape of the clip, this is a late 28.
There’s always a surprise in every pen that makes me like it even more. This pen drew me for the beauty of its material. I didn’t know I could make the nib do flexy tricks – and it’s been more than a year since it arrived.
It could have been waiting for the right ink. Noodler’s Golden Brown matches the mid-to-light tones of the pen’s body. Such a disproportionately large thrill from such a small thing: but isn’t that why we love what we love?