Great Pen Stores - Stores of Note - Belgium
Antwerpen, Belgium
Kockx
Korte Gasthuisstraat 37
2000 Antwerpen
www.kockx.be
This store has been around since 1878, so it has realy history. A store that has received a high recommendation from a viewer of the site.
Bruxelles
La Maison du Porte Plume SA
Boulevard Adolphe Max 6
1000 Bruxelles
Telephone: +33-2-217 83 81
They carry the major lines. Web site also shows a good selection of pen cases/boxes.
Gent, Belgium
Timmermans
Kortemunt, 5 - B-9000
Gent, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0) 9-223.32.57
Fax: +32 (0) 9-223.82.71
e-mail
The company was founded in 1845 and started more as a publisher to become one of Belgium's pen-specialists. The shop, situated in the historic heart of Gent, is a building called "The Half Moon" and dates from 1794. The interior is a typical Interbellum interior and was restored in 1996. Here you will find the little pen for the first steps in the world of writing up to the limited editions for the demanding collector. Our pen-room gives the client a space to choose and test in comfort. More than 3,000 writing instruments are on display. Here's a nice touch... to complete your choice there are fine papers, inks or pen pouches.
Caron
Veldstraat 456
9000 Gent, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0) 9 225 35 44
Carrying cigars, leather goods and a very good selection of pens and writing inks, this is worth a visit when in the city of Gent. Philippe Cnops-Caron kindly provided me with some of this history of this pen shop.
The CARON-shop was created in 1880 by Gustave Caron, my great-great-Grandfather. The store has been in business for 128 years going from father to son over 5 generations, exception made for my Mum, Evelyne Caron, as my Grandfather had no sons ...
The Caron shop was originally located in a house which was build against the walls of the "St-Nicolas church" in the heart of Ghent. When the church was being renovated in the late 1800's and all adjacent buildings removed, my family purchased in the year 1900 the well-known "Hotel d'Alcantara", a historical building where on the 24th of December 1814 "the treaty of Ghent" was signed under the guidance of John Quincy Adams (6th. US-president from 1825 to 1829), which ended the 1812-war between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of England and Ireland. We are proud that this building, including its shop, still belongs to our Family. The plain wooden interior with Mezzanine floor was created in 1935 and has since been maintained in its original set-up.
Gustave Caron started as a pipe-manucturer and specialised in "fume-cigarettes" hand-made in amber. In the early 1900's his son, Philippe Caron extended the product-range with his home-made brand of cigars called "Baccarat", and both those product ranges have since been maintained as the core-business of the Caron-shop. Philippe Caron was one of the first to have direct imports of Cuban cigars, well before the Cuban tobacco-business became nationalised after the Cuban revolution. The Cigar-business brought us just before the war into the world of smoker's accessories, or in other words "men's accessories", with well-known brands as Dupont, Dunhill, Cartier and many more. Needless to say that Caron was one of the first shops in Nortnern Europe to sell Dupont, which was "the" brand that took us in to the pen-business.
Both my Grandfather, Jean Caron, as my mother were passioned by writing-instruments, and since pens have become next to exclusive cigars, the most important range of products in our shop. Throughout the years a wide variety of great brands have been added to our range with special focus on limited editions and top-quality models. I have myself become addicted to those products and I must admit that no pen will ever be sold in our shop before I have written with it myself for some time and convinced me of its quality ... I leave it to you to imagine how my desk looks like ...
"Caron" has always been a "men's gift shop" and this is what we are known for. With a considerable percentage of products directly imported from a variety of European origins, we have been throughout the 5 generations ever traveling and ever innovating. My mother, who retired 5 years ago still accompanies me on international purchase-trips and celebrated this year 50 consecutive years of business abroad. Needless to say that our strength is to be found in the suppliers- and product-knowledge that is being transferred from one generation to the other.
Managing a team of 7 people in a retail-business today I see myself more as a "successor" instead of a "businessman", and I strongly belief that this way of life is the correct attitude in a family-business.
Sounds like quite the place to visit.