After the First World War Conway Stewart pens were selling well in Belgium and France.  This encouraged Rene Kintz to start his own company selling Conway Stewart pens essentially rebadged as Le Tigre.  For over 40 years this company sold pens only marginally different from the Conway Stewart equivalents.

Take this Le Tigre 286; from a distance it would be assumed to be a Conway Stewart 286.  There are one or two differences on this pen that are probably not original – I think the lever has been replaced, as has the nib, the original being a 14 carat gold nib stamped either Conway Stewart or Le Tigre.  Originally the only real difference would have been the barrel imprint.

So close are they that the parts are interchangeable.  This pen had lost its pressure bar and I was able to salvage a perfectly fitting replacement from a Conway Stewart 286 in the spares box.

As company logos go, this is the coolest!  It kicks sand in the faces of Swan’s swan, National Security’s lion, Pelikans pelican and all the other animals of the pen world.

I think my assistant took it all wrong for she had a look at the Le Tigre logo and ran away crying, “Les Tigres? Non! Non! Je me cache sous la serviette!”

I didn’t even know that she spoke schoolgirl French!