I post these on Pentrace, but I thought I share them here as well.

This is a 3-pens set Forbidden City by Loiminchay. They are done by traditional Maki-e methods. Total of 18 set made world wide and are all sold out. This set is numberred 18/18 (very desirable number). Enjoy. All the Maki-e designs are taken from the Forbidden city, and the Large BOOK-let that came with this set will tell you exactly where in the Forbidden city to look for these designs and symbols. Enjoy.

The huge Leather box


The three pens


The "Imperial Garden"




The "Imperial Theater"




The "Hall of Harmony"


They all have big nibs with dragon on it.


Enjoy

Kev

Awesome Kevin! I'd love to just see these on display somewhere. I'd like to see the book too. I love the dragon on the nib. I'd take a plain pen with that nib anyday. I wonder how they write. I wonder if anyone has ever written with any of the sets? I doubt it though.

One of my let's say very fortunate Maki-e collector owns two of these sets. He uses one set and keep the other mint. According to him, the big nib have some flex and writes very smooth. They are all piston fillers.

Kev

Hi Kevin,

Very impressive! Thanks for sharing.

Yesterday I had to run some errands in the inner city, overe here in Maastricht, and I always visit my fav B&M store whenever I happen to be in the neighbourhood. Saw some of the new Namiki maki-e pens, one of them being the biggest size (Yukari? Emperor?) with a paradise bird, with inlaid abalone chips in the feathers, painted on it. Wow!

I had relatively little time, and went through my pen budget a few weeks ago, so I managed to escape before bankrupting myself, or even buying anything at all.

Of course, you make it even harder for us. Wherever you go on the internet: pens from winedoc .

Kind regards,
Wim

Beautiful set, Kevin Thanks for posting the photos for us to enjoy.
I was just wondering...Is the set numbered 18/18 desirable because it is the last set...or because the number 8 is considered lucky in the Chinese culture?

Hi Maja, the number is desirable in both counts. "8" sounds like "wealth", so anything ends with "8" is good. Another good number is "9", which in Madarin sounds like "longevity". And also if you take 9, and multiply by any number other than 0 and add your final answer to single digit, you will get "9", like:

9 x 4 = 36 and 3+6 is 9
9 x 32 = 288 (2+8+8)=18; then (1+8) is 9

Kev

oooh, I didn't know that about the number "9".... I have many friends who are of Chinese origin and they told me about the number 8 (house numbers, car licence plates, etc. with 8's are desirable) but not about "9"...Thanks for the answer, Kevin!

Thie reminds me of my wife's family. Like most Filipinos, they are part Chinese (I think my wife's grand-mother was actually Chinese). But the country and culture are also heavily Catholic, due to three centuries of Spanish colonisation.

The blend of Chinese and Catholic traditions sometimes create some very interesting/entertaining schizophrenic moments... such as when my sister in law, in a matter of few minutes, put coins by the windows to bring prosterity to her new house, and while standing by the lucky plant in front of her door, told her kids, in a very Catholic way, that they should not be superstitious.

winedoc, these are gorgeous pens, congratulations on this amazing acquisition! The pictures are very wel taken as well. If you've written with them, how well do they write? And just out of curiosity, which inks do you prefer to use with them?

SEE! It is NOT just me, others think it is a grand conspiracy too! Kevin provides fanstastic pictures, great products and the best in customer service, which means we are all in debt up to our eyeballs to him or our credit card companies! And he doesnt care, he just keeps posting seductive pictures hoping we will get more in debt, apply for more credit cards, ARG!

Allan

PS. Thanks for the CS Drake I received today, stunner of a pen!

simply gorgeous!

I just saw "Denis Richard" name in here and was actually think of him for await with no particular reasons. Is he Ok?