Conway Stewart 479s turn up with some of the best colours of the pre-war pens. This one is in the pattern that Jonathan Donahaye called “red amber marble”. That’s a pretty good description. I’m not sure that these photos quite manage to fully capture the glowing colour, but they give you an impression, at least.

I’m one of those dull people who think pens are things that you write with, and if a pen writes well I do tend not to notice what colour it is, but even I look at that pen and go, “Wow!” It writes more than adequately well, as it happens, with a consistent fine line, but my goodness, isn’t it pretty!

This is one of the few occasions where I would consider buying a pen purely for its looks.

Well, almost.