The Pen of the Year 2008 by Graf von Faber-Castell bears a unique detail, the world's smallest parquet of finest Indian satinwood. The design was inspired by Countess Ottilie's private salon in the Faber-Castell castle, which has 100-year-old panelling in luxurious East Indies satinwood. The pen's herringbone pattern comes from the Countess's writing desk. There are no fewer than 84 Satinwood rectangles on the pen and they are all individually handcrafted The barrel is repeatedly polished and varnished. The numbered edition is crowned by a chessboard-facted citrine gemstone. It can be found for £1840 at Pens from Heaven.
Caran d'Ache has created a pen to honor Swiss watchmaking. The 1010 Limited Edition fountain pen takes its name from ten minutes past ten (10:10), the moment when the hands on a watch dial are perfectly balanced. The pen body is designed to resemble watch gears and is made of rhodium-coated silver. Two cages, one decorated with gear wheels, and the other with the bridges that link them, are fitted over a transparent body. The cap is inspired by watch crowns and the clip resembles a watch hand and is attached to a pinion. The piston pump set with a ruby and a sapphire crystal dome at the bottom tip of the pen containing a balance wheel poised between two rubies. The pen comes in a black lacquered box with a glass bottle containing blue-black ink and a palladium-plated silver stopper. The pen is a limited edition of 500 and sells for $19,000.
The Celestial Collection is definitely my favorite of the beautiful enamel pens by David Oscarson. The pens each have a sunburst design on the cap with a midnight blue enamel pen which is decorated with stars and the four phases of the moon. The pen cap comes in five different colors, white, blue, red, gold and white. Each pen is made of 18K gold and .925 sterling silver and enamel and is created in an intricate process that involves many hours of handcrafting. The pen's filling system accommodates a cartridge, converter or eyedropper fill and a roller ball version of the Celestial Pen is also available. There are 88 of each pen style created and they sell for $4,500 each.
Dedicated to actress and singer Marlene Dietrich, this beautiful Marlene Dietrich Commemoration Edition fountain pen from Montblanc is available in a limited edition of 1,901. The cap and barrel are made of 925 Sterling Silver with a fine barley guilloche. On the cap a blue mother-of-pearl inlay houses the Montblanc signet, as well as a single deep blue sapphire (reminiscent of Dietrich's eyes) and 22 brilliant cut diamonds. It also has a platinum-plated 18k gold nib with delicate engraving and a heart-shaped hole. And of course there's an engraving of Marlene Dietrich's signature on the barrel ring.
The 2007 pen in Montblanc's Patron of Art series is dedicated to the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. The pen is created of granadille, rare wood similar to ebony and found in the southern hemisphere, where Alexander von Humboldt did much of his scientific exploration. The pen is trimmed in sterling silver on the ends, clip, band and in the center in an abstract motif that references the art of the indigenous peoples von Humboldt studied during his expeditions. The pen has an 18K nib that is engraved with a sextant, another nod to von Humboldt's voyages of discovery. The pen is available in an edition of 4,810 pieces. The pen sells for 1,850 euros.
The latest limited edition pen from Conway Stewart celebrates Sir Isaac Newton. The pen features hand painting on the cap and barrel of Newton and one of his most famous mathematical theories. The barrel shows the laws of motion and universal gravitation on the barrel and the cap has a likeness of Newton himself, taken from a portrait by Godfrey Kneller in 1689. The pen has an 18-carat gold nib which is available in a choice of eight grades. The pen is 25 numbered pieces available in fountain pen or roller ball and sells $2,450.
Last year's pen of the year from Graf von Faber-Castell used mammoth ivory, this year's rare material is petrified wood. The fossilized wood is so hard that it is cut by gem cutters. Eight stone pieces are set into a fountain pen of platinized metal. The pen also has an 18-carat bicolored gold nib available in three different widths. It has a solid metal spring-loaded clip and the platinum-plated end cap operates the plunger mechanism for filling. The cap also features petrified wood including a small plate in the end cap. Each pen is individually numbered and comes in a wooden case with a limited edition certificate. It can be found at Pens From Heaven for £1840 (around $3,650).
The Custer pen is the latest in Krone's line of fountain pens that contain unique historical features. This pen dedicated to General George Armstrong Custer has a cap created of genuine horn topped with sterling silver that includes two Custer-related historical artifacts, a fragment of General George Armstrong Custer¹s personal powder horn and a fragment of a bead from one of Sitting Bull¹s camps. The artifacts represents both sides of the Battle of Little Big Horn. The fountain pen's barrel is decorated with a hand-painted scene of Custer¹s Last Stand. The pen is done in an edition of 388 fountain pens and 38 rollerballs with solid .925 sterling accents. It sells online for $3839.
The Shakespeare pen is the latest limited edition from Conway Stewart. The pen combines airbrushing and hand painting to show a scene from Romeo and Juliet on the barrel and the cap features the likeness of Shakespeare as shown in the engraving of him in the First Folio of Shakespeare works. The pen has a solid 18-carat gold nib available in a choice of eight grades, from Extra Fine to Extra Broad, Italic Fine, Italic Medium and Italic Broad and it uses a cartridge converter filling mechanism. There are 25 numbered pieces available in fountain pen or roller ball which sell for $2,450 each. Pretty, but the Romeo and Juliet look a bit old for teenage lovers in this version.
Bentley has joined the ranks of Ferrari and other luxury car makers with their own branded pens. The pens are from italian company Tibaldi and celebrate 60 years of production at their Crewe factory. The pens get their looks from the two limited edition cars produced for the Diamond Jubilee of the Crewe factory, the Arnage and the Continental GT Diamond Series and have the Bentley B on the top of the cap. The limited edition includes 400 silver fountain pens. 200 silver roller balls, 40 solid white gold fountain pens and 20 solid white gold roller balls.
Ancient architecture fans, this one is for you. This pen from Pelikan is based on the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus which was completed around 440 B.C. The temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The column-shaped pen comes in a stone cast presentation case and is palladium plated with ornament rings and a column crown which are fortified with 18K gold. The edition number is in the filling handle and the likeness of Artemis is engraved in the forepart. The pen is a limited edition of 400 and can be found online for $3,360.
The 2006 Montblanc Writers Edition pen celebrates Virginia Woolf. The pen, released 75 years after the publication of the novel "The Waves", features wave-like guilloche work on the pen's back resin body. The pen has an 18K gold nib with two engraved elm trees and a curved gold clip set with a ruby. Each pen comes in a book-shaped presentation box. There are 16,000 fountain pens, 18,000 ballpoint pens and 4,000 sets which include a fountain pen, ballpoint pen and a mechanical pencil.
Once in a while, we come across a writing instrument that is slightly more covet-worthy than others and this seems like one of them. The Vermeil Fountain Pen is made of solid silver and is covered in 18K gold. It has a vintage guilloche design, an 18K gold nib and a worldwide standard converter/cartridge refilling system that makes it convenient to use anywhere, not just at your desk. I'm not sold on the idea that it will make you "feel capable of drafting a treaty," but you just might enjoy writing checks a little bit more. Price: $350.
Just in time for Thanksgiving, Conway Stewart has created a pen honoring the Plymouth Pilgrims who migrated to America on the Mayflower. The Conway Stewart Pilgrim Limited Edition pen uses airbrush and hand painting to evoke scenes from the history of the First Pilgrim settlers. The pen shows the coastlines of both Plymouth, where the settlers first set sail, and the Massachusetts Bay, with an ocean scene of the Mayflower at sail on the cap and scenes of the colony painted on the barrel. The pen has an 18K gold nib in a choice of eight grades and sells for $2,450.
We've been covering a lot of cool astrology-related stuff lately. The simple, stylized glyphs work so well as design elements. Marlen's Astrologie fountain pen does more than display the zodicac signs; it also celebrates the history of astrology with a function that shows the planetary hours. A quick turn of the titanium sleeve shows off the planet glyphs associated with the day and hour. I'm not sure how useful this is in our modern age but it is certainly cool. The pen also has a blue titanium barrel and a sterling cap and 18K gold Astrologie fountain pen nib engraved with an strolabe design. The pen is limited to 488 pieces worldwide and has a list price of $3,000.
