The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Friday May 24th — —

“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Friday May 24th — —

I love listening. It is one of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time. — Nayyirah Waheed — Friday May 24th — —

Curated Nº 5 — Kaweco

We have been a fan of the German-made Kaweco Pens and started collecting these lovely vintage pens and pouches for many years now. For our current Curated we are super happy to send out a special matte black pen case with two pen’s: The Kaweco Classic Sport ball pen and the Classic Sport clutch pencil, both in black.
When digging the history you’ll find this rich heritage that goes back to the late 19th century in South-Western Germany.

The company has been manufacturing pens and pencils in Germany since 1883. In that year the Heidelberger Federhalterfabrik, translated as ‘dip pen factory’ was launched by Luce Koch and Enßlen Weber in Heidelberg, Germany, as Federhalter-Fabrik, Koch Weber & Co. In the South-Western German town they produced their wooden dip pens. The fountain pens and golden nibs that were sold under the Kaweco brand were imported from the nowadays mysteriously renowned A. Morton & Co. that produced in New York City. The name Kaweco occurs in the directory of Heidelberg not until 1889, nevertheless 1883 is seen as the founding year of Kaweco and the introduction of Heidelberg as the German capital of the dip pen industry.

Pelikan patented their piston filler, Kaweco filed for bankruptcy. A considerably smaller fountain pen company known as Aurumia, bought the factory, and decided to use the name, as it already had a strong and distinct identity and was admired by the people. The brand Kaweco blossomed again. In the 1930’s Kaweco created the now famous Sport Classic line of chunky hexagonal pens.

Several months after the Second World War’s end, on 30th of October 1945, permission was given for continuation of the production of Kaweco pens. By the end of the 1940’s under the management of Friedrich Grube and his sons, Kaweco had at least one major retail store in all larger cities of Europe. In this period Kaweco was unparalleled the most renowned luxury pen producer worldwide. When Grube died in 1960 the position of the company slowly shifted. Despite the fact that the product range was redesigned to a more streamlined aesthetic with the feathers being partially obscured, according to the taste of the time, the company became to rely more and more on the sale of the Sport model from the mid-price segment. In 1981 the company was forced to cease production. In 1995 however, h & m gutberlet GmbH acquired the licence to produce pens under the Kaweco brand once again. Simultaneously, the Sports range was redeveloped in the style of the originals from the 1930’s. After the company joined forces with Diplomat as a partner for worldwide distribution the Kaweco pens were sold in Europe, the USA, Australia and Asia once again.

The Kaweco Sport range now a days extends to translucent plastic or solid aluminium versions; and from fountain pens to clutch pencils via ballpoint, rollerball and ink roller versions. Another beautiful selection of pens the company offers is the Kaweco Sketch Up range which is a lovely line-up of clutch pencils in 2mm and 5.6mm versions with a broad selection of styles.

The pens are available offline at Tenue de Nîmes and online at Miscellaneous Store.
Find the complete collection and more information on Kaweco here >

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