Evening all -

I have my eye on Visconti's Divine Proportion fountain pen, and wanted your opinion on this pen. I like the aesthetics and the mathematic foundation of the design components.

Do Viscontis typically write well out of the box? Are Viscontis typically well designed and well constructed, or is quality control uneven?

Is the line wet and reliable - easy starting and without skipping?

How does the proprietary "power filling" mechanism work?

This will be my first celluloid pen. What's the big deal about celluloid? Why is it prized?



Help me decide whether to pull the trigger on this Italian beauty. Thanks in advance for your wisdom and experience.

Try these:

[topic="41115"]Divine Proportion Review[/topic]
[topic="48595"]Divina Proporzione Review[/topic]

There is also a thread, which I can't find at the moment, detailing one FPNer's customer service nightmare sending back their pen multiple times for defective materials and shoddy QC.

That's probably mine well at least it's a repair annoyance with Visconti I am giving Visconti another try with a cartridge Van gogh. How bad can they (I'm sure you can do better) up a converter filler


Kurt

Found it:

[topic="42861"]Divine Proportion Nightmare[/topic]

I've got one power filler Visconti I got used and my first dud in the nib department [scratchy, but then I got it used for a way low price, so I was half expecting it]. Power filler is a pain to rinse and change colors. The pen holds buckets of ink, but one has to unscrew and let more run in each time the little chamber runs out. Pain in the rear empennage if you're intending it as a user, which I am and do. All my lower end & mid range Viscontis up until this have been wet and luscious out of the box. My problem child is the Ripple and I'll be thrilled with it otherwise once I get it to a nibmeister to smooth out the rough bits on the nib as its oversize proportions suit my hand perfectly.

I've got 12 Visconti now, including some with what I think they call a "captured converter" [Ultima Lira] and all up until this one have been joys.

I'm starting to wonder if they assume the high ends will never get inked??

Yikes! I do so appreciate the word of caution. I am shopping at a reputable brick-and-mortar store, licensed Visconti distributers, so a valid warranty should not be an issue, and if there is a problem, the store will interface with Visconti - I won't have to do that.

I am certainly going to take my loupes with me and spend a good while examining every detail of the pen. And then, if I do decide to pull the trigger, I will ink and use the pen at the counter for several pages of doodling before leaving the store.

I really appreciate your shared experiences with Visconti.

This would be my first celluloid pen. What's the big deal with celluloid? I know it's lightweight - like a feather. But why is it so prized?

Hi, Ray. I can't speak for anyone else with respect to the celluloid question, but I can tell you why I love the stuff:

1) Feel: the material has a warmth and smoothness that set it apart from modern-day resins and acrylics, one possible exception being OMAS's cotton resin. It's difficult to put into words, but you'll realize as soon as you hold the celluloid that it's no mere plastic.

2) Depth and variety of color: simply put, plastic can't hold a candle to the depth and beauty of color and pattern of which celluloid is capable. Again, what plastic is capable of the skyline patterns of the Vac and Wall Street, of the OMAS Arco, of the various Tibaldis, to name only a few? Hold a resin pen next to a celluloid pen and you'll see what I mean: some celluloids are so deep that one could almost jump into them.

3) Tradition: even if I don't own any vintage pens these days, I enjoy knowing that there's a "genetic" link between my pens and the pens of yesteryear, in that they are made of the same material.

I'm sure someone will join in with other reasons, but those are the main reasons behind my love of celluloid. Good luck with your purchase,
David

Thank you David -

I spent over an hour with this pen this afternoon, and I surely agree that the celluloid depiction of briarwood was stunningly deep and lustrous.

After an hour of examining the pen under louped magnification, after being in-serviced on the rather unusual "Push & Pull Touchdown" filling mechanism, and after dipping the pen to find a buttery smooth nib - well - I pulled the trigger. As this was a 2006 LE, the pen I was holding was the last Divina Proporzione in either of the two pen stores in Atlanta. So it was either now, never, or trusting myself to a mailorder or internet seller later.

You know, they say that paying for quality only hurts once.

In my case, this time, that appears to be true.

After I paid for the pen, Mort at Total Fine Writing helped me ink the pen for the first time (Visconti black, of course). And for at least another half hour, I stood at the counter filling several pages with truly wet, reliable lines. No hesitation to start, no skipping, even with my lightening fast signature. Eventually, the pen will probably wind up on Richard Binder's bench for a 0.9 mm cursive italic or Italifine regrind, but for now, I'm a happy camper.

I may do a review after I've lived with the pen for a while. But the whole presentation of the pen is remarkable. Artisan quality varnished wooden casket, and a usable caliper to measure the Divina Proporzione ratio elsewhere. I was attracted to the mathematic foundation of the design of the pen - the hommage to Phi, the Fibonacci sequences, and the supposedly hidden numbers in the celluloid (no I haven't found any yet). The pen was originally designed and launched to take advantage of the sensation surrounding the book and movie The Da Vinci Code - a book I enjoyed reading on the beach - so there was another tie-in to good memories.

Anyway, I have burned half a tablet of good paper this evening with a pot of Earl Grey and this wonderful new pen. You know, I haven't fallen for a beautiful Italian since I was in college, but...

Yay! Congrats on a good pen.

Why thank you Ghost Plane. The Divina Proporzione will spend the evening inside my jacket pocket tonight. And now, time to get myself cleaned up - my driver will be here in 45 minutes. Tonight I am party-boy.

Happy New Year, and thanks for your help.