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In the 19th century, around three-quarters of the world’s pens and ballpoint pens were made in Birmingham. At its peak, the city was exporting writing instruments at the rate of billions of pens a year, with factory workers expected to produce 18,000 a day. Then came the ballpoint pen, marking the decline of British pen manufacturing – more than 100 billion have been sold since the introduction of the Bic in 1950. Add to this the impact of computers and other technology, and the number of pen makers in Birmingham has dwindled from hundreds to just one.
Now that creator, Patio O Ledis experiencing a revival. Earlier this year, owner Emma Field sold a two-thirds stake to Nick and Giles English, brothers and co-founders of Brémont Watches. The pair helped revive British watchmaking 22 years ago with Bremont, and with this move they are looking to do the same for the fountain pen industry. If you were to compare Yard O Led (named after an early pencil design that held 12 3-inch leads) to a watch brand, “it would be Breguet,” says Giles, sitting in a spacious room at the company’s workshop in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. “Yard O Led hasn’t been on the high street in any real capacity for many years, but it’s very well known in the fountain pen market. It deserves to be one of the big fountain pen brands.”
“People are starting to look for nicer writing instruments, not just for their beauty, but because they are more environmentally friendly,” Field adds. “You don’t want to throw them away, you want to keep them – people are coming back to that idea.”
To mark the new shared ownership, the company is releasing the Lucky pen and pencil, a design selected from the Yard O Led archive for its remarkable history. The Lucky is a new version of a pencil originally released in 1934, one of which saved the life of Lieutenant Leslie March of the Cameron Highlanders in 1942 during World War II. It was a wedding gift from his wife Margot that he kept in his breast pocket, where it stopped a bullet that would have pierced his heart. He carried the dented pencil everywhere as his lucky charm; but two years later, arriving on the beaches of Normandy after D-Day in 1944, he died, hit by a shell, aged 23. The pencil’s story only came to light in recent years when March’s half-brother, who had taken it into his care after March died, contacted Yard O Led and donated it to their archives. Field shows me the pencil, its barrel bent where the bullet struck.
“We did all the drawings based on the ball-point pencil because that’s the only one we have,” he explains. The Lucky reissue, done in silver and gold vermeil, is a slim, four-sided instrument with delicate art deco stripes etched on each face, tapering gently to the tip. “It will be the first gold plating we’ve done in a good 30 years, and it’s done by Pete, the polisher who works next door,” says Field.
Yard O Led will also continue to make its classic line of pens. Field gives me a box full of silver pens lined up like swords. Each one is hand-made to order in the Birmingham workshop from start to finish, often by people whose parents worked for the company before them. In the hand, the silver is warm to the touch, and its pleasing heaviness allows it to balance perfectly in the crook of the thumb and forefinger. The ink flow and weight mean that no force needs to be exerted on the nib. Many surface details, such as the swirling design on the ostentatious Grand Victorian fountain pen, are hand-carved, a process that, unlike engraving, does not remove metal but reshapes it.
“We want Yard O Led to be in jewellery shops alongside Montblanc,” says Giles English. “We are keen to grow,” agrees his brother. Field, for his part, believes that these pens will become popular again. “People will take out their fountain pen as a talisman and they will have a story to tell.”
Perfect word
Choosing Keeping x Steve Harrison No. 8 Ceramic Pen, £1,800
Salt-glazed potter Steve Harrison has collaborated with London-based cult stationery collection Choosing Keeping. Featuring Harrison’s signature coloured speckled glaze, this rose-gold-plated silver and ceramic calligrapher’s pen can be paired with a ceramic inkwell. choosemaintenance.com
Conway Stewart Series 58 Seamus Heaney Fountain Pen, from £399
Seamus Heaney wrote a poem in his last collection about a Conway Stewart fountain pen, with its “three gold bands on the clip-on screw cap.” The manufacturer has faithfully reproduced that design in an edition of 250, finished in a workshop in Emsworth, Hampshire. conwaystewart.com
Cartier Santos de Cartier Ballpoint Pen, £1,080
The classic ballpoint pen is enhanced by an engraved deep blue lacquer. The cap is inlaid with a palladium-finished moon phase motif reminiscent of the brand’s watch dials. cartier.com
Onoto Flying Scotsman Fountain Pen, from £625
To mark the centenary of the Flying Scotsman steam locomotive last year, historic goods manufacturer Onoto produced a trio of pens inspired by the locomotive’s livery. This apple-green design features brass fittings made from metal taken from the Scotsman’s brass axle housings and a clip shaped like a locomotive’s connecting rod. onoto.com
Namiki Okita Geisha and Art of Tea Urushi fountain pen, £655
The barrel of this pen is adorned with a portrait of an 18th-century Kansei geisha. Each pen is hand-finished with traditional Japanese lacquer and sprinkled with gold dust. It comes with a large, thick inkwell. abask.com
Montblanc Writers Edition Homage To Jane Austen fountain pen, on sale
Only eight models of this pen have been made, each one as finely crafted as Jane Austen’s dissections of Georgian society. It features a lace and feather design, a turquoise-inlaid cone engraved with a set of dance steps, and Austen’s silhouette at the tip. montblanc.com
Breguet Tradition fountain pen for sale
This matte titanium and polished rose gold fountain pen was designed as a tribute to Breguet watches. The manufacturer has included some clever aesthetic cues in its timepieces, from the watch-hand-shaped clip to the guilloché edge that runs along the barrel and cap. breguet.es
Gilbert House Pens Homerton fountain pen in Kenworth Truck Fordite, £325
Layers of dried paint collected from car factories are suspended in the red acrylic of this handmade pen. They are made by Cambridge-based Gilbert House and can be bought at the All Saints craft market, held every week in the city. gilberthousepens.co.uk
Dunhill Sidecar Pen, £625
A glossy black ballpoint pen inspired by the curves of a 1930s Steib sidecar, with a domed cap and a sleek embossed “AD” logo. Its mid-century lines would look good with a green-shaded banker’s lamp on a Pierre Jeanneret desk. en.dunhill.com
Ajoto The Pen, from £150
Designed by minimalist stationery designer Ajoto, this sleek cylindrical pen features a four-piece twist mechanism, all handcrafted in Manchester. Finishes range from brushed aluminium to matte anodised black. ajoto.com