Vanness Pens

Did you know that Vanness Pens now has Pilot Iroshizuku Ink for $25? Now you do, and there is no reason not to pick up a bottle or two of your favorite shades. I’m a Shin-Kai guy myself, and you can check out other bright colors like Fuyu-Gaki, and Yama-Budo.

What good is ink without a pen? Vanness has you covered there too, with the popular Pilot 823 and a huge range of the Pilot Vanishing Point.

My thanks to Vanness Pens for sponsoring The Pen Addict this week.

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Sponsors.

Visconti Divina Elegance: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

The Visconti Divina Elegance is one of those pen models that is distinctive. It is a spiral shape based on the divine proportion 1.618.

The pen arrives in typical Visconti packaging: an outer cardboard box enclosing an inner brown plastic clamshell box with a satin-like interior holding the pen. A booklet is included.

The Divina Elegance comes in a pearlescent green resin with gorgeous shimmer. The solid bronze trim complements the green resin perfectly.

The cap attaches with the Visconti hook and lock system, and for you OCD folks out there, the system means that the spiral accents line up perfectly every time (I love this!) I much prefer the hook and lock system to typical threads because the cap is quicker to open and close and it is absolutely secure.

See how the spirals line up perfectly?

The cap is adorned with a gold finial engraved with the Visconti logo.

And it has the spring-loaded Visconti clip that is effortless to use.

This Visconti fills via a pull and turn piston which is actually a captured converter. There’s no ink window to view your ink level, but an ink window would ruin the beautiful aesthetic of this pen. The converter holds approximately 1.1 ml of ink, which is fairly small considering how large this pen is.

Weighing 41 grams capped and 25 grams uncapped the Divina Elegance is heavy. But, it is so comfortable in the hand you don’t really notice the weight. The pen is well balanced unposted. I don’t recommend posting because the cap puts too much weight on the end and throws the balance off. The pen measures 152mm capped, 138mm uncapped, and a whopping 180.5mm posted.

The Divina Elegance is fitted with a 23K Palladium nib plated in rose gold. The rose gold is gorgeous with the green resin and bronze accents. The nib is engraved with Visconti’s beautiful scroll work.

This fine nib wrote perfectly straight out of the box. In my experience, Visconti nibs can be hit or miss, so I was very pleased with this one. It is rigid, unlike the Palladium nib on my Visconti London Fog, which verges on being semi-flexible (see my review here). Even though this nib doesn’t have any bounce or flex, it is wonderfully smooth.

I currently own two other Viscontis: the Homosapiens Bronze Age Maxi and the London Fog. I love both of those pens and each is beautiful in its own way. But I have to say that the Divina Elegance is one of the most beautiful pens I’ve ever held. There is something special about the shimmery green resin combined with the bronze and rose gold accents.

If you want to own this incredible beauty, you will pay a premium price. It retails for $1,195.00 at Goulet Pens. It’s always hard to say whether a pen is worth that much money, because worth is such a subjective thing. Is this pen extremely well made? Yes. Are the materials top notch? Yes. Does it write well without any problems such as skipping, blobbing, and inconsistent ink flow? Yes (though that is always dependent on the nib you get). Would I pay $1,195.00 for this pen if I had the money? Yes, for this pen I would. But, again, I realize not everyone would be willing to do that.

The only semi-negative thing I have to say about this pen (other than the relatively small ink capacity) is that the bronze accents will develop a patina over time. In fact, after just a few weeks the bronze accents on my loaner pen are starting to discolor. This isn’t a huge deal since you can easily polish and remove the patina. And, some people might actually like the patina as it develops.

You can order the Visconti Divina Elegance from Goulet Pens in various nib sizes, including EF, F, M, B, and 1.3mm stub. I’ll be honest, sending this beauty back is going to be very difficult.

Pros

  • In my view this is the most beautiful pen Visconti has produced thus far. The green resin has depth and shimmer and the bronze accents and rose gold nib complement the color perfectly. The spiral Divina shape is stunning.
  • I found the pen to be perfectly balanced in my hand. Even though it is a hefty pen, I was able to write page after page without any hand fatigue.
  • I like the filling system. Even though this model doesn’t hold as much ink as the Homosapiens or London Fog (which are vacuum filled models), the pull and turn system works just like a piston and is easy to use.
  • The fine nib on this model is smooth and trouble-free. I wish it had some bounce to it, but I was thrilled that it wrote so well. As stated in the review, I’ve found Visconti nibs to be hit or miss. I had to have my Homosapiens worked on twice. One of my Van Goghs had a troublesome nib. But my London Fog nib was perfect out of the box.

Cons

  • Obviously the biggest con for the Divina Elegance is the price.
  • People who require light pens will likely find this pen too heavy for sustained use. I’ve grown to prefer heavy pens, and I found this model extremely comfortable. If possible, try before you buy.
  • The bronze accents will develop a patina over time. If that bothers you, you’ll need to get a polishing cloth (I didn’t find one included with this pen, though one came with my Homosapiens).

Thank you to Goulet Pens for letting me borrow the Visconti Divina Elegance for this review.

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Posted on July 14, 2017 by Susan Pigott and filed under Visconti, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.