My tiny Italian Stable!
I thought I would share with everyone the two Italian pens I own. Small amount in comparison to others I know but I am trying to do something about that!
My first Italian pen purchase came a couple of years ago. I saw for sale on John Mottishaws website and immaculate Montegrappa Historia in grey mother of pearl celluloid and fell in love with it! It came with the huge box, papers, book and beautiful cloth pouch as well.
The pen is wonderful to write with, it is a medium nib but writes like a fine it is a little dry and does have some start up issues if left for a couple of days but nothing major and not annoying enough for me to have it seen to. I just open the blind cap and twist the piston converter extension to flood the feed and away I go!
Fit and finish is exceptional. It is my best built pen ( you can see the pens I own in my signature that I compare this one to) The Stirling silver hardware is beautifully machined and the mother of pearl that is ground into the celluloid has a wonderful iridescence about it. It is even more so due to the deep deep blue grey of the celluloid, perfect! Ebonite feed and 18k nib plated with platinum, the bib has a nice spring to it and writes wonderfully. The only plastic on this pen is the clear section of the cartridge converter. By the way, this has to be the best built cart converter I have ever seen. It has an extended twist section so that one can operate it by simply unscrewing the blind cap instead of the whole body.
The second Italian pen is a more recent purchase. I saw Farhney's had a couple of their red and black ebonite Stipula Passaporto's left and loved the look of them, always wanted a pocket pen and the fact it is an eyedropper and ebonite sealed the deal. Lovely pen but with one flaw that really puts me off using it on a daily basis. The cap does not screw onto the body when posting like the plastic ones. If ones hands are the tiniest bit moist when touching the pen the cap becomes almost impossible to post and stay put. I have to wipe the body with a cloth and then it will stick! If they had machined threads like they do with the other passporto's this pen would be an every day user. Other than that it writes very well, feels amazing to hold, Ebonite is such a wonderful and warm material, so natural in the hand I feel, though this particular ebonite certainly pongs a bit!
No leak problems, no ink flow problems and mine has the lovely italic nib.
I have my eye on the third addition but am trying to decide between the piston or cartridge converter, the pen, oh, the Tuscan dreams. I actually love the rather over the top pen furniture on it. Having lived in Florence I feel it is very appropriate to a city that never lets you forget it's artistic roots!
So, here are some pictures, hope you enjoy!
The Historia:
And the Stipula:
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Originally Posted by ianmedium
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