The Conway Stewart Tradition
One-hundred years ago, two former employees of the De La Rue company-Thomas Garner and Frank Jarvis, founded Conway Stewart.
Drawing from knowledge and experience gained while working for De La Rue, Garner, and Jarvis, two entrepreneurs took a great risk in leaving secured jobs to start a new enterprise reselling fountain pens made by other manufacturers. Initially, they focused on importing pens to England from America.
After an arduous month of persistent selling, the company reaped the rewards of a rather healthy turnover of more than £13 and 9 shillings. This was a great accomplishment considering the rent for their business premises was only five shillings a week. Even though this turnover would be pleasing to many new ventures, the strength of De La Rue made it difficult for the company to succeed
in selling no-name fountain pens. In the same year, De La Rue reportedly invested £50,000 in a promotion campaign for its new launch the Onoto.
However, Garner and Jarvis soon recognized there was an audience desiring reliable writing instruments that were also affordable. This is when Conway Stewart began to capture a market among the English.
The 1920s was an excellent decade for ambitious owners. Not only did the duo trademark the name of the business, Conway Stewart, but also the list of filling mechanisms grew to include eye-droppers, lever fillers, pump fillers, and safety pens. While the first of these pens were almost indistinguishable from others of that period, by 1925 Conway Stewart was coming into its own in terms of design. A trademark for the name Dinkie was registered in 1924 along with a patent for a new locking lever mechanism. Conway Stewart was rapidly growing in popularity and demand. So much so that it was taking away market share from other dominant pen manufacturers. Another introduction around this time was the use of brightly colored celluloid. In the 1920s, Conway Stewart offered dozens of colors in its various lines, and the customer could choose from either the simple and conservative, or the newest trendsetting styles. The pens of this period were of high quality yet remained affordable.
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