Visconti Homo Sapiens, Crystal Swirl Limited Edition

So there I am, in DC, dinner sunday morning just before we were leaving with a thought of a pen in my head. Having met another member and given a chance to play with his Visconti Rembrandt that he had just picked up, I decided I would like one as well on a hunt I ended up at the Bittner table who, not having one at the time, just walked over to the Visconti table let me pick out my colour and nib option, then back to the table for him to get his big calculator out (It was like a foot x foot and a half, you see the bigger the calculator the bigger the deals he says). I liked the pen, my first Italian pen, and not my last.

I added a second Visconti pen last week in the orange LE Rembrandt calligraphy set, and then my eyes turned to a larger pen in a bigger pond then I usually play with. I have been on a pen sabbatical for sometime, for two reasons. the first was to save money for my DC trip, and the second was to fun a Nakaya, but at DC after handling them, I wasn't so sure I wanted to buy one any longer. My hands got to play with some other pens there, an Omas 360 (which I loved and still do), The pelikan M800's, and some others. I have also been looking into the Yukari size Namiki pens as well (Which I still love, but are in a budget that I would need a year or more to save for without a DC trip involved)

I dont exactly remember when I first saw the Crystal Swirl, but once I did, that was enough for me to rethink everything... Dave(258) who I had been talking to about it priced it out from his pen guy (Bryant at Pentime/Chatterly Luxuries) and that was about it. Order placed with the stub... Pen received two days later. So thats how I ended up in the world of higher end Italian, instead of my usual Japanese pen types. But let get to the pen shall we


Price and Availability:

Well there was a run of 1000 of these pens, and places are already showing Sold Out, so time is running out on getting your hands on one. Once they are gone, they are gone unless they appear in the secondary market, as a Limited run it is quite possible demand may drive the secondary markets price up instead of down as well.

this is not a cheap pen, with an MSRP of 995.00 USD look to spend around 700.00 USD or close to there abouts, though if places have more Emails on the pen, then Pens on hand, they may not even offer a discount (I ran into a few before speaking to Dave.

Packaging

Its been a while since I have spoke about this (as usually I don't really care much about the package), but there is some reason to speak about it here. This pen does not come in a plastic or card board box, well I guess it kind of does, when you get to the outer layer there is a stiff cardboard box that protects the pen box itself, its actually nicer then you may think, but its whats inside that that we will discuss here


This box has a weight to it, a heft of craftsmanship that had more then a moments thought put into how it will look, not just as presentation, but as if this pen may find itself on someones office desk all the time. Its a lacquered box in black, with viscontis logo printed on the top.


Inside you will find a soft padded inner lid with Viscontis logo again, The I.D. card and the "leathery" shelf that holds the pen for display, lifting the tabs to the right and left of the pen revealed a small area underneath that holds a small pamphlet with some other Visconti pens and famous people who have used them. The outside bottom is felt lined and boy this does display the pen like no other package I have for a pen.

Part II

the Pen


The pen has some great lines and a lot going on from one end to the other, there isnt much to not like here, and there isn't a thing to not cover. Overall this pen is a show stopper for me, I dont think I could go a day anywhere out with this and not catch people glancing or making comments, It is a far cry from most of my pens that have a subtle greatness to them.

Size and Balance


This is not a small pen, but not overly large either, I think it would be comfortable in most peoples hands but may come as a shock in size to those used to smaller pens like most vintage pens or newer ones like the M205. The cap will not securely post here but give the pen sits so well in hand I dont think most people would want to post the cap anyhow. The weight is heftier then that of my other resin pens, but the filling mechanism here is going to play into that. Its on par wither my Tswbi pen, but this is much more comfortable in hand to write with.

Filling Mechanism


So this is actually my second Vac filler, the first is my Twsbi Vac, and they pretty much work the same. Unscrew the not so blind cap, then pull the plunger out push back in creating a vacuum and *pop* in rushes some ink. For those that dont know how the magic works here, its all about the shape of the plunger head, its shapped in a way that when you you extend the plunger out it will allow the air (or ink if filled) to pass by the head, but once beginning to push the head will swell out to the barrel walls trapping air movement, those creating a seal to make a vacuum. When the plunger reaches the end of its travel, the inner walls of the pen are cut to a wider area that releases the seal of the head breaking the vacuum, and when the pressure inside equalizes it draws ink in. the "double reservoir" system is a second seal below the main plunger head, much smaller that cuts off the main ink supply from that contained in the grip section and feed. this is meant for travel specially air travel by not having such a large area to expand or contract keeping the ink in the pen and not in your shirt pocket. ive not written enough just yet to see how much writing with the stub I can do before you need to reload the feed, but I have heard you can write quite a bit before it is an issue. Reloading the area is simply done by unthreading the cap at the end, but not needing to pull the plunger out. Once the feed is saturated again simply close the thread until needed once again.


I had some issues with the large nib, and the tiny Sailor bottles, I actually pulled out the inner reservoir tube last night thinking it would be enough to fill the pen, but even a mostly full bottle, without the plastic insert, is still a bit small. You can see it fill for the first time kind of here as well, it is hard to film while holding a camera on your phone between your knees

Overall Thoughts

The Arc clips on all my viscontis are a great pleasure to have, they not only look great but the spring loaded system in them is such a pleasure to use. the clip and ring bands on this pen are 925 silver and simply pop on the dark blue cap. the cap is a unique little thing with lots going on here as well. Although at first glance it simply appears a dark blue that matches perfect, it actually has a lot of the "swirl" effects on it as well, but the cap (and tail cap for that matter) are a lot less transparent then the demonstrator pen body, that it is tougher to see


Blasting 450 or so lumens through the cap shows a lot more of what's going on, I don't think it was done on purpose here, but really I kind of like it, the dark blue looks nice, but if you go in closer there is a bit of a surprise as far as detail is concerned, just for those who go looking for it. Speaking of the swirls, all the pictures will not do this pen justice, the swirls are not a static colour on the outer surface, but actually shimmer and dance in the light, much the way tortoise, mother of pearl or Raden will do to a pen. that was one surprise that made me very happy to see, as I was not expecting it and it caught me off guard in a great way. Watching the Ink in the pen roll its way around the transparent sections, through the swirls, this pen is on you could just sit and look at while deep in thought (about whats for dinner perhaps). When I took this pen out of its wrap, and got it under the light it truely was everything I had hoped for, and even more.

there is also more to the swirls then I firs thought, the sidewalls to the pens body are quite thick, and the swirls dont just sit on the surface but run up and down through the sidewalls twisting and turning in, some of them even cross, some twist sideways, they really are spread in 3d space throughout the pens body, and are a marvel to sit and detail with the eye

Part III

the Nib


This nib is big, spring, and smooth as anything I have ever tried. It really is something special, but not without its faults. As with my other two Viscontis they hesitate for half a stroke when starting but flow like a faucet there after. it took me quite some time to get the nib working for me as I'm more familiar these days with cursive's which give more feedback to letting you know your rotated properly and when your on target. but i'm coming around to liking this thing, one of its only problems now is that it writes such a huge wet line it can drain the primary reservoir within a page or two of writing, but even that isnt a huge issue. It has some sping to it, so part of me is dying inside as I know with the EF is probably like to use and that i'm missing out, but this pen will be under serious consideration to having some nib work done to take it to a cursive italic from its stub. I have no doubt that Visconti knows how to make a nib, and they do it their own way and with their own materials, I would never look over them as a serious brand again as of all the european brands I have had the pleasure of playing with over the years this has got to be among my favorites

Atta boy...always leave them wanting more!

I woke up this morning thinking about this pen LOL. Not because I could ever get it, but how happy I am that you got it. It's truly a stunning pen

Great looking pen. Congratulations. Sounds great so far...I can't wait to hear about the nib

Very nice, James! I cannot wait to see if you like the nib, and want a writing sample!
Congrats on the beautiful pen.

Excellent!

Nice pickup. I told you, you can't go wrong with Bryant. The Palladium nib is something special.

updated and Finished

That's just ... huge! A big congrats on the new fire hose nib.

Beautiful colors and quite a looker, James.

nemo said:

That's just ... huge! A big congrats on the new fire hose nib.

Beautiful colors and quite a looker, James.

Click to expand...

After first flush (Which by how quickly this nib goes through ink wont be long) I think a big statement ink would be cool in here, Im just not sure which one yet, the MV Turquoise would look cool in there, but something bright like my Akkerman Orange would sure get noticed in the pen as well. I need more time with this pen to fully appreciate it and get me out of my comfort zone.

Im glad I pulled the trigger on the pen, it is more then enough to tide me over for the long drought I will have as it took a sabbatical to save for it, and I will be on another one for a while as I dont have the budget to just keep buying. but I have a nice collection of different pens, and this is a great centre piece to that collection

i couldn't wait, I just swapped inks and it's a whole new pen... not sure if it's the ink or the flush but the variation is there now... much better ink flow for the nibs use... now I'm happy, I'll drop a picture in a few minutes

can you see the difference ?

That's a beautiful pen!

...and I repeat...

Excellent!

Great looking pen James! I love my stub on the opera crystal. And I noticed the same as you, different inks make the Nib aft differently

Congrats on the pick up and welcome to the Visconti LE club!

Cheers,

M.