Shark Attack!

[Free Citizen]

Press Release Source: Pilot Pen

 

Pen-Ultimate Shark Attack!

Thursday September 30, 9:03 am ET

Pilot Pen Releases the $10,000 Shark Fountain Pen

- Connoisseurs Put the Bite on Limited Edition Collectible Pen -

 

 

TRUMBALL, Conn., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Enter The Shark. Each year Pilot Pen makes one limited edition luxury fountain pen prized by collectors throughout the world. This year, Pilot Pen will release its most expensive limited edition pen ever -- The Shark. And to no one's surprise, the passionate pool of pen collectors has been, well, circling in anticipation since the first sighting months ago. Selling for a cool $10,000, each of the 80 incomparable pens produced worldwide (29 for U.S. consumption) is already spoken for -- with the post-release value expected to quickly soar as pen cognoscenti scramble to add this ultimate pen to their private collections.

While most Americans already own a Pilot pen, it's generally the G2, America's best-selling gel pen, the Dr. Grip ergonomic pen or the Precise V5 Rolling Ball -- all popularly priced and readily available at your local stationery store, superstore or retail outlet. But Pilot Pen also produces the Namiki line of fine writing instruments, which can be bought through pen shops and fine stationery stores.

 

Exceptional artistic vision, top-level craftsmanship and the finest materials go into creating a fountain pen that's worth $10,000. Each hand-made Shark pen takes one artist four months to complete, using the traditional raised Maki-e (raised lacquer work) technique, painting the illustration on the body of the pen with brushes so small that some have only two rat-hair bristles. The craft of Maki-i goes back to Seventh Century Japan and there are only a handful of artists who are certified to work in this medium. Namiki has long employed Kyusai Yoshida, the acknowledged master in the field (certified by the Japanese Ministry of Labor as First Class Maki-e Technician, in addition to a team of top craftsmen. The task of transforming an outline drawing into a complex decoration of sprinkled powders and fine lines is lengthy and requires many years of study and practice. The lacquer itself comes from trees that grow only in Asia and the ornamentation is done with 18k gold and sterling silver.

 

Collectors fall into one of two categories, according to Ron Shaw, President and CEO of Pilot Pen Corporation of America. "There are the purists who love the Namiki pen and its packaging presentation never to use them and then there are the investors who are attracted to these fine writing instruments because they never lose their worth and always appreciate in value. Of course, the actual feel of writing with a Namiki is unsurpassed."

 

Within the last five years, interest in fine writing implements has reached an all-time peak. One of Pilot's vintage Namiki pens set a world record at a London auction in 2000. The pen was an exceptional Namiki Giant Maki-e lacquer pen decorated with two dragons (c.1928); it sold for $239,250.

 

About Pilot Pen

 

Pilot Pen, the third largest pen company in the U.S., offers superlative writing instruments renowned for quality, performance, cutting-edge technology and consumer satisfaction. Widely acknowledged as innovators, Pilot was first to introduce Americans to fine point writing and currently maintains the top share position in the gel pen category with its #1 selling G2 pen. Pilot's line also includes the acclaimed Dr. Grip family of products that features an ergonomic, wide comfort grip that actually reduces writing fatigue and the prestigious Namiki Collection of writing instruments for collectors and connoisseurs, as well as general consumers. Pilot Pen has operated in the U.S. since 1972; its parent company is the oldest and largest manufacturer of writing instruments in Japan.

 

Press Contact:

Andy Morris & Co.

Carol Klenfner

212-561-7467

carol@amc-pr.com

 

 

 

 

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Source: Pilot Pen