36 PEN WORLD

Over the last several years, Glenn Curtis has been building

a luxury pen business from his headquarters in the town of

Bairnesdale (population 11,000), not far from Melbourne.

His solid silver and gold pens are carried by about 20 retail

stores in Australia—including Pen-Ultimate, The Pen

Shoppe and three Hardy Brothers Jewellers stores, which

are comparable to Tiffany & Co.—Curtis said in an inter-

view with PWI in May at the National Stationery Show in

New York. The company is finalizing agreements with dis-

tributors in the US and in the UK, and the Curtis Australia

lines are expected to be available in the US about the time

this issue of PWI hits the stands.

Curtis, a third-generation jeweler, says that he was look-

ing for ways to extend his business into other markets and

saw an opportunity in the pen industry. The jewelry market

in Australia is “a fiercely competitive, fashion-led market,

dominated by overseas manufacturers,” says Curtis. “To grow

as a company in this environment, we needed to develop a

niche product that allowed our jewelers to carry on, using the

time-honored skills we felt were lost in mass-produced work.

Pens were a natural fit with our existing abilities.”

Curtis also admits that he was driven by a wish to keep

manufacturing business in Australia at a time when much

of it is going to Asia, and also by the desire to create a dis-

Made in Australia

Kangaroos. Koala bears.

Charming people saying

“G’day, mate!” Australia is

known for a lot of things, but

when it comes to pens, the

world’s sixth-largest country

hasn’t been on the map. That

is, not until recently.

by Laura Chandler

tinctively Australian pen brand. The company’s name—

Curtis Australia—says it all. Curtis believes that his are the

only Australian-made luxury pens.

It is easy to see that a jeweler’s hand is behind the cre-

ation of the pens. Nearly all are made of solid silver or 14

or 18 karat gold, and the design motifs are hand-carved or

created with lost wax casting. Some of the designs are rec-

ognizably Australian, featuring native flora and fauna; oth-

ers are classic, and some designs are borrowed from other

cultures. Curtis, who began making and selling jewelry at

age 14, still uses his grandfather’s tools and the traditional

methods that go along with them. Each pen cap is married

to its barrel early in the manufacturing process; they are

hand-fitted together, and are never separated. As with all

products that depend heavily upon hand processes, there

are minor differences among the pens.

Visiting his website at , one

will see mostly pens. However, the site also features acces-

sories such as cuff links and brooches, an indication that

Curtis Australia hasn’t abandoned jewelry making alto-

gether. In fact, there is an extensive range of accessories that

match various pen designs, including brooches, cuff links,

key rings and letter openers. It was Curtis Australia’s jew-

elry-making capabilities that won the company a mutually

exclusive contract with the Australian Parliament. Curtis

Australia designs and makes gifts for the members of the

Parliament to give to visiting dignitaries—a pair of cuff

links for men, a brooch for women—both designs featuring

the golden wattle, Australia’s floral emblem. The designs for

Parliament’s use are available to no one else, and Curtis

Australia is the Parliament’s sole supplier of these gifts.

The prestigious contract can’t have hurt Curtis’s efforts

to get his pen products before the public. Nor does it hurt

that Curtis is the national secretary of the Gold and

Silversmiths Guild of Australia and an award-winning

designer and craftsman. But he is quick to say that it’s the

brilliant team around him that is to be credited for the

company’s success, including his wife Heather. “Heather is

a major figure in the success of Curtis Australia,” says

Curtis. “She keeps my feet on the ground while still letting

me fly, and supports and believes in everything we are try-

ing to achieve.”

A number of Curtis Australia employees and appren-

tices have, like their leader, won awards for design and

craftsmanship. The addition in 2002 of design manager

Trevor Brown to the Curtis Australia staff was a coup for

the fledgling company. Brown, an award-winning English

silverware designer, had worked for Garrard, the Crown

Jewelers, and later Asprey in London, racking up 20 years’

worth of experience in luxury goods. The company now

employs a total of 20 people; two new apprentices will join

the team later this year.

A stellar team makes a difficult job easier, but it doesn’t

make it easy. “It took two years of prototyping to develop

our first pens,” Curtis admits. He and Brown figured out

what should go into a pen and took it from there. There

were numerous mathematical calculations, and seemingly

endless adjustments, but Curtis and Brown are happy with

the results, especially in the light of their original goal: “We

this spread—Pens from Curtis Australia’s Classic Elegance and Luxury Classics Collections.

looked at penmaking from a different perspective,” says

Curtis. “We felt we could make metal pens that were

unique and more tactile than others on the market. We

wanted form to follow function, and we felt that in a lot of

existing pens, the form took over.”

Once the first pens were ready, others followed quickly,

and Curtis Australia now has several collections under its

belt. The first range to be developed was the Prestige collec-

tion, consisting of eight finely detailed designs in sterling

silver or 14 karat gold. Luxury-minded customers can have

their pens set with diamonds or other precious gems. The

pens are available in fountain or rollerball and can easily be

converted from one mode to the other. Prices range from

US$640 for the silver rollerball to $7,950 for the fountain

pen in gold with diamonds.

The Heritage line is simpler, with straight lines and a

subtly curved gripping section. The collection includes a

twist-action ballpoint pen and a mechanical pencil.

Available in sterling silver or 14 karat gold, these writing

instruments feature deeply carved designs displaying

Australian motifs. “We set out to produce a pen and pencil

that were simple in form with natural balance, but durable

and elegant as well,” says Curtis of the range, which is

priced at US$495 to $3,990.

The Renaissance range is dominated by classic designs,

and has proven popular because the motifs are found in

many cultures. These twist-action ballpoints are a little

slimmer than the Heritage range and are slightly lighter in

weight. They are lighter on the pocketbook as well, at

US$459 in silver and $3,650 in 14 karat gold.

The newest collection is the Classics range of richly col-

ored resin pens highlighted with solid sterling silver or solid

clockwise from top—Curtis Australia pens from the RenaissanceCollection; the Prestige Victorian Scroll in gold with diamonds; twoPrestige Collection pens in silver.

Some of the hand processes—from designing tofinishing—employed by Curtis Australia.

14 karat gold decorative panels, ranging in

price from US$275 to $2,295. The Classics

collection is subdivided into the Elegance and

Luxury groups, and there is also a Collector’s

Edition—the Musical Tribute pen, with a

sculptured sterling silver frieze depicting a

violin, saxophone, cello and trumpet overlay-

ing a musical score. The Musical Tribute is

limited to 200 pieces worldwide.

Limited editions can be commissioned

for other occasions as well, such as company

anniversaries. Curtis Australia is also willing

to customize existing designs.

These pens from Down Under are all

over the map in price, but they share one

important feature. Form follows function—

they are meant to be used. It’s only with reg-

ular use, after all, that pens made from

precious metals develop a patina—that pecu-

liarly beautiful sheen imparted by a loving

hand. Glenn Curtis expresses it best: “We

hope to design eloquently drawn pens that

are a joy to write with and that will become

treasured possessions—even heirlooms.”

Curtis Australia pens will be available at

Art Brown, New York; Jeffrey Stone, Houston;

and selected Paradise Pen locations. E-mail

.

From Pen World, Volume 19, No. 7. Copyright 2006, World Publications, Inc.