What Should I Get Her?

You might have noticed that Christmas is fast approaching, it was the mince pies I saw in August that gave it away for me...

Anyway, we'd thought we'd give you some pointers as to some suitable things for people of the female persuasion, or maybe you could add them to your Christmas list and leave some subtle hints...


First up is the Omas Arte Italiana Milady Ballpoint,  using exotic mother of pearl cotton resin, a natural product, and semi precious stones, Omas have crafted a luxurious pen of real quality. Dedicated to the beauty of women, the Milady is a classic piece of jewellery to be admired and envied by all who see it, and loved by those who use it. Is it going on your Christmas list?

The Omas Milady also comes in this
rather swish suede wrap.

Moving a little down the price list now and onto the Diplomat Excellence B Fountain Pen in White Pearl, this features all-metal casing and superb polished chrome fittings the high quality, multi-layered brilliant lacquer finish makes it a joy to hold. It also a finely chiselled and polished 14 carat bi-colour available in Medium or stainless steel nib available in Fine, Medium or Bold sizes.




The Conway Stewart Silver Duro fountain pen is crafted from solid silver, with a sumptuous resin overlay giving depth and beauty to the pen.

Under the bright glowing acrylic overlays, the Silver Duro pen is a carefully constructed fine writing instrument. Cap and barrel are crafted from solid sterling silver rod stock, adding perfectly balanced weight to the pen itself. The cap top, cap band, and barrel end are left in gleaming bright polished silver, further accented by a silver pocket clip in the classic and stately design that has graced Conway Stewart writing instruments since the 1930s.

Conway Stewart produce the Silver Duro Pen in Classic Green, Blue Stardust, Red Stardust, Honey Noire, Graphite, Meteor, Nebula, Sapphire Blue. The images to the left show Sapphire Blue, Meteor and Graphite.

 



So these are what we recommend, but what's on your Christmas list?

How we are celebrating Fountain Pen Day

This Friday, 2^nd November, is Fountain Pen Day.  It is being celebrated around the world – look at http://www.fountainpenday.org/. 

We like fountain pens a lot, and to celebrate this important day we’re giving away one of the best and most interesting pens we’ve seen recently – the Omas Arte Italiana Art Deco.  It’s a resin pen, piston filler, and with a Titanium nib offering an introduction to the joy of flex.  It is worth £330.00.

For details, look at our Facebook page or our website.

All you have to do is tell us what you’re going to do to celebrate Fountain Pen Day.  Be sincere, witty, imaginative, artistic, factual, fantastic, whatever you like!  The best reply, in our opinion, will win!

The winner will be announced on Friday at 4.00  - get your entry in by midday, Shrewsbury time.

The Pen Room Museum, Birmingham

A few weeks ago I came across this rather interesting website of a museum in Birmingham called The Pen Room.

The museum itself is situated in the old pen factory of Victorian writing instrument maker, W.E. Wiley. The building, Grade II* listed is located in Frederick Street, part of Birmingham’s historic Jewellery Quarter. It's run by the Birmingham Pen Trade Heritage Association and staffed entirely by volunteers and enthusiasts. Inside there are more displays than you can shake a pen at, showing 100,000 varieties of pen nibs made by a some of the most prolific Birmingham manufacturers at the height of the industry.

There are also extensive collections of memorabilia and ephemera, including display material, ink wells and ink bottles, Braille embossers, pen making machines, and of course fountain pens. Will have to take a trip there sometime and give you a more in depth report!



This is when it's open where you can find it...

Open every day (Free Entry)
(Except 25th and 26th December)
Monday to Saturday 11am to 4pm
Sunday 1pm to 4pm

Unit 3, The Argent Centre
60 Frederick Street
Hockley
Birmingham
West Midlands
B1 3HS
Telephone: 0121 236 9834

If one just isn't enough...

This post introduces you to the set of 12 Visconti Van Gogh, if one just isn't enough then you can get your hands on the entire range in either Fountain or Rollerball Pen. Here's the run down of what each of the coloured pens are named and the colours which are incorporated into them.

1) Starry Night - blue with light blue, yellow and orange veins

2) Portrait Blue - light blue-turquoise, with reddish streaks

3) Dr. Gachet - gray and blue, melted with light blue and brown

4) Orchard in Blossom - view of Arles - pale blue lavender blue with rosy shadings

5) Irises - light bright green, with yellow and violet brushstrokes

6) Sunflowers - yellow with orange and green sprinkles

7) Pollard Willows - brown and green with multicolor streaks, from blue to rust red

8) Vincent Chair - acid yellow with greenish and bluish streaks

9) Room in Arles - brown with orange and rust red shades

10) Gauguin's Chair - dark blue-green with beige and burgundy veins

11) Van Gogh Shoes - beige with black and grey sprinkles

12) Pine Trees - mixed deep green orange and yellow


The range comes in a rather snazzy glass topped wooden case.

Sailor Profit Pens

The Sailor Special Calligraphy pen is a special script pen that allows the writer to alter the thickness of the written line by changing the angle of the nib on the paper. A steep angle produces fine strokes, whereas a shallower angle with produce broader strokes. This pen is fitted with the special Sailor gold plated calligraphy nib.










 




Sailor Profit Brush Pen. The Sailor Fountain pens begins with the nib, it has successfully maintained this heritage quality and technical. The Sailor Profit Brush pen is fitted with a very flexible brush tip that goes from narrow to sweeping broad strokes with just the lightest bit of pressure.

This model comes with the lovely rounded top seemingly more blending with the entire fountain pen and the weight balance is at it optimum.

Pen Evening Part II

A jolly old time was had by all at our latest Pen Evening, here's some pictures in case you missed it! Got to see some fantastic new pens, including the Dragon Vermeil from Visconti

The Visconti Dragon Vermeil

The Onoto Table

The Visconti Table

Diana Athill and Philip Hensher on the dying art of handwriting on Radio 4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n61s3

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18071830

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/07/missing-ink-handwriting-art-hensher-extract?INTCMP=SRCH 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2148579/The-fountain-pen-mightier-emails-texts-luxury-item-makes-comeback.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/9305365/Traditional-thank-you-letter-far-from-dead-in-age-of-Twitter-and-texting.html



Now, over the last few years, it seems that fountain pens are making somewhat of a revival, so we decided to bring all these resources and articles together to get the whole picture. So where did the whole resurgence begin? It was not long after Amazon, Rymans, John Lewis and the Parker Pens company announced the massive increase in sales that it came to the attention of the general public.

We all know that Fountain Pens used to be the bees knees in the writing world back in the day, but since the perfection of the ballpoint pen in the 1960's and then the dawn of the digital and more disposable age, the interest on fountain pens has been naturally and understandably on the wain.

But thankfully interest in fountain pens didn't die out, they just slid into a different niche, from a useful day to day item that more or less everyone used to write with, to a more specialist item that has spawned a whole new community of experts and enthusiasts.

If anyone has anymore sources of valuable information let let us know!

Should you get someone a Conway Stewart for Christmas?

If you want to buy a present that speaks volumes then you should really consider a Conway Stewart pen. Conway Stewart pens are one of the most prestigious pens on the market.  

On extra special occasions such as weddings many people find it really exceptionally difficult to find that extra special present to give that stands out from other peoples present. An important gift will be something that will provide the recipient with timeless joy and let them know how much they are thought of. Something that you may not have considered giving as that extra special gift is a pen. For those who are unfamiliar with this Conway Stewart pens be assured that they are probably one of the most beautiful pens that you can buy.

One reason why you should consider a Conway Stewart pen as a special gift is that they have such a marvellous heritage. The Conway Stewart pen company started up in London, England in 1905. The company’s main objective was to produce writing instruments that were beautiful, elegant and functional. It is a quite surprising fact to hear that the Conway Stewart company was not named after its founders. Conway Stewart pens were in fact named after a famous vaudeville comedy duo that performed in that era. Perhaps the name helped the company to grow rapidly into becoming of the country’s leading manufacturers of fountain pens.

For over a century the Conway Stewart pen company had produced many fine writing instruments, many of which are still produced to this day.  Quite a number of pens within the Conway Stewart collection have been named after very famous Britains. For example, when you view the Conway Stewart pens collection you will find names such as Nightingale, Churchill, Darwin, Nelson and Wellington. Many of these collections contain not just the prestigious fountain pen, but roller ball pens too. 

So what makes Conway Stewart pens stand out from the other luxury names that are on the market/ Well firstly because they are individually crafted. And then there are the materials which are used to make each pen. In fact you will find that their pens are crafted from a whole host of luxury materials such as gold, silver, casein and enamels. One thing you can be sure of is that each Conway Stewart pen is not only performs outstandingly, it is also wonderful to hold and a joy to look at.

Has this short description of Conway Stewart pen tempted you into considering as a worthwhile gift for that someone special? Who would not want to receive one with the famous names that are already owners of these luxurious writing instruments?  Proud Conway Stewart pen owners across the world include politicians such as Jacques Chirac, George Bush and Bill Clinton. The Queen and Prince Philip have their own too! Knowing all that will you give that Conway Stewart pen to someone special or perhaps keep it for yourself? View for yourself the beauty of Conway Stewart pens here

All about Visconti Pens

There are quite a few well know names in the top end of the pen market. Visconti, being a world leader, provides joy and wonder with a beautiful range of pens.

The luxury pen market still continues to grow and there are quite a few big name pen brands that you will see for sale across the world. A famous brand that is known world over is Visconti. Just mentioning the name Visconti and pen lovers will immediately identify pens of the highest quality and craftsmanship. But what makes a Visconti pen so special for both the first time buyer and pen collector alike?

Visconti was founded in Italy over 20 years ago and have grown to be one of the most prestigious purveyors of luxury writing instruments. Visconti is passionate about pens and continuously strives to produce even more beautiful writing instruments using cutting edge techniques. Each pen has been carefully designed to represent something important. This may be art, a moment in history, a city, some literature or even something from archaeology. Visconti even uses current day events as inspiration for its pen collections.
 
When you first see any of the Visconti pens you will amazed at how detail there is and the quality of the craftsmanship. The Visconti pen company uses a combination of traditional methods and state of the art technology in the manufacture of all its writing instruments. It goes without saying that the choice of materials used to make each and every Visconti pen is extremely important. Only the most beautiful materials are used for each writing instrument, which needs to not only look fabulous but be a pleasure to hold in the hand.. And as you can imagine, each Visconti writing instrument writes beautifully and is extremely functional. Items within the Visconti pen range can easily be obtained at pen specialists in towns and cities and their online stores as well.

Two beautiful and stunning collections in the Visconti pens range are the Venetia and the Divina Proporzione. These two collections contain writing pieces very different in look and style, but equally characterful and full of charm. The Divina Proporzione is a Visconti pen that has definite theme running through it, namely the Italian Renaissance and work by Leonardo Da Vinci. Curiously the pens in this collection also feature the number 1.618 which is often know as the golden number which is the key to knowledge. Divina Proporzione Visconti pens are highly luxurious in every aspect and are available in a combination of black lucite, silver, pink royale, crystals and celluloid. Within this range there are also a set number of limited edition writing instruments for the keen collector.
Similarly the Venetia collection in the Visconti range of writing instruments are equally fabulous. The name of this collection of course gives the game away. These Visconti pens are inspired by the Italian city of Venice. Venice is renowned for its magic and beauty. Pens in this collection have been designed to follow suit. Writing instruments in this collection are furnished with symbols and icons that are particular to the city of Venice. Luxurious materials used in the manufacture of these Visconti pens include resin, silver, metal filigree and acryloid.

Aside from the ranges we have talked about Visconti have a multitude of other designs to gaze in wonder at, take a look at them. http://www.writeherekitenow.co.uk/acatalog/Visconti-Pens.html

Many Lamy to choose from...

Lamy are different to others on the market because they combine style and functionality. Here are just a few examples of what you can find in the Lamy range.

Everyone should get themselves a decent pen at some point in their working career and not rely on those cheap disposable plastic monstrosities. If you are looking to do just that Lamy come highly recommended. Founded in the early 1950s the company is still going strong and has a keen following of pen lovers and collectors around the globe. Lamy pens are not ludicrously expensive either, so there will be a pen in their collection suitable for everyones budget. Here we look at just a few of the pens you can purchase in the Lamy Pen range.

If you like something stylish, but do not want to spend all your money, then a good bet would be to check out the writing instruments in the Lamy Safari collection. To tempt you further with these Lamy pens let's just mention this collection has won design awards. The pen itself is quite simple in appearance yet still extremely smart and stylish. The great thing about these pens is that they feel great in your hand. Because of their triangular barrel it is also easy to get a good grip. There are some really funky colours to choose from with this range, and comes in fountain pen, roller ball, ball point and pencil. Why not buy yourself a set?

For those who have a little more to spend then why not consider buying an item from the Lamy 2000 range of writing instruments. Again this pen is well established having been manufactured for close to fifty years. These types of Lamy pens are exceedingly popular because they again have great design and come in a variety of elegant finishes. Although a simple shape, this pen is wonderful in the hand is extremely well designed for writing. Lamy pens offer the 2000 in fountain pen, roller ball, ball point and pencil.

If you like something a bit more different than the normal pen then Lamy will not disappoint you with their Lamy Spirit writing instruments. This style of Lamy pen was first introduced in 1994. It is exceptionally thin only measuring about five millimeters in diameter. The most wonderful thing about this sleek pen is that is made from a single sheet of stamped stainless steel. It is minimalist in design and currently only available as a ball point or pencil. These types of pens are not over expensive either.

The Lamy pen series offers an incredible range of writing instruments that contain potentially perfect gifts for anyone. Take a look at the full range here... http://www.writeherekitenow.co.uk/acatalog/Lamy-Pens.html

Report from The London Writing Equipment Show 2012

Brought to you from Grandmia Pens at http://www.grandmiapens.com/

A fantastic day was had by all at the London Writing Equipment Show on Saturday, new and old friends were made and seen - as well as a plethora of pens ofcourse!

It was a very busy day, lots of familiar faces were there Henry Simpole, Onoto, Conway Stewart all showing us their latest writing instruments and paraphernalia.

John Hall was there flying the flag for Write Here as always! You can see him make a small appearance in the video above.

Upcoming Pen Evening - 12th October

It was mentioned in our last newsletter, but so quietly most people missed it.  So, our next Pen Evening is on Friday, 12th October from 6.30pm,  Do come!  

We'll have John Sorowka fixing nibs, Alastair form Onoto and Michael from Visconti, as well as the usual stuff.  And John Hall will be showcasing some special editions that Omas have sent us, as well as some of their new pens, together with Conway Stewart, Sailor, and enough ink to bath in.

What you might see...

Onoto Celebrate the Diamond Jubliee

The summer of 2012 will long be remembered for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, The London Olympics and the Paralympics – three extraordinary events that have hit the headlines around the world

Now, as Onoto’s tribute to this memorable summer, here is the Onoto Diamond Jubilee pen. Issued in a limited edition of just 60, one for each year of The Queen’s reign, the Onoto Diamond Jubilee is the perfect way for you to celebrate those memorable events.

It features a sterling silver cap which has been engine-turned in the traditional way with a distinctive diamond-shaped engraved pattern that shimmers as you turn the pen in your hand. The tri-colour barrel is made by diffusion-bonding black, white and pearlescent silver-grey acrylic to complement the sterling silver cap.

The 23 carat gold-plated Onoto chevron clip and the gold-plated Onoto cipher on top of the cap just add to the royal ‘feel’ - while the 18 carat gold Onoto nib confirms its importance as a pen that will find a special place in many pen collections around the world.

Look closely at the reverse of the cap and you’ll see the hallmarks, including the Diamond Jubilee mark which is only issued by the Assay Office until October 2012. In the photo (right) you can pick out our sponsor mark (OPC), the purity mark (925), the Jubilee mark (Queen's head), the Birmingham Assay mark (anchor) and the sterling silver mark (lion rampant).

If we manage to get are mits on one, we'll give you a more in depth critique of one. Take a closer look at the Onoto Diamond Jubliee on the Write Here Pens Website.

The London Writing Equipment Show 2012

The London Writing Equipment Show, organised by the Writing Equipment Society, will offer displays, repair workshops, valuations and seminars, besides dealers' stalls, it is a fantastic opportunity for new buyers to handle pens and question dealers about price trends. John will see you there!

Visconti Rembrandt Orange

The Visconti Rembrandt is made from variegated resin, with platinum plated trim. It is now available in a vibrant Orange Colour.

The painting technique, “chiaroscuro” which was inspired for this new collection Visconti,represented on its barrel by using a resin with different shades this time ranging from dark orange to bright tones.

Rembrandt's paintings are characterized by luxuriant brushwork, rich colour, and a mastery of chiaroscuro. He'd have liked this! The Rembrandt is a fantastic entry level pen to the Visconti range. The vibrant variegated resin captures the spirit of Rembrandt, whilst the appointments and finish suggest an opulence not usually found in this price range. It is not a big pen, but has satisfying weight and good balance.

The fountain pen has an excellent and responsive steel nib in fine, medium or broad, and comes with a converter. The cap attaches magnetically to the body of the pen - secure but amazingly convenient. Why hasn't anyone else thought of this? Overall, a pen that punches well above its weight. Well, price, anyway!

 

Lamy Scala?

With its Scala series, Lamy introduces a family of writing instruments that will fascinate the layman and connoisseur alike with its formal simplicity and emotive details. The Lamy Scala deliberately refrains from an excessive use of materials. It focuses instead on a look that is sophisticated, while remaining low-key and concealing perfectly executed technical details. Its high weight ensures that its owner is treated to a delightful sensory writing experience.

Made from stainless steel, this pen has balance and poise, it's available in both Fountain and Rollerball Pen. But Rollerball and Pencil are also on the way.

What are the Features?
-Made of stainless steel
-Matt black finish
-High-gloss, chrome-plated grip and clip
-Pleasantly high weight for a sensory feel
-Perfectly executed technical details
-Design: Sieger Design


 

Protecting your pens

Now, if you're a pen collector then you undoubtedly need some protection for your pens when they are in transit, and comes hand in hand with the appreciate of a unique writing instrument. 

Not only are they a important for stopping your pens getting damaged, lost or stolen, they are also a pleasing accessory to add to your collection.

The Classic Black Leather - If you want to go for the traditional, sleek design you can't go wrong with a black leather case, a variety of companies produce these, including, Diplomat and Lamy.




If you prefer a slightly more colourful leather then Atelier de laforet may be your case of choice.





























 Onoto cases up next, these are just for single pens, but are have a hardy leather exterior to keep your pens safe.

 




So what pen cases do you have or can recommend?