Delta Musei Vaticani Edizioni

[Fatestorm]

Hello there. I wanted to share a new pen I've just acquired:

 

My friend recently traveled to Rome for the occasion of John Henry Newman's canonization two Sundays ago. I sent him along with some money, figuring I could get an Italian pen to mark the occasion and his trip, and it be a little more meaningful to me than just buying it outright.

 

The pen he ended up selecting was one he found at a gift shop in the Vatican Museums, a new Delta Musei Vaticani Edizioni.

 

 

Pen: Delta Musei Vaticani Edizioni

Ink: Graf von Faber-Castell India Red

Paper: Hobonichi Cousin / Tomoe River

 

We all know, or at least it is my understanding, that Delta is not actively producing pens anymore. I therefore believe that the Vatican Museums might have a back inventory of Delta pens that they are continuing to sell; or perhaps Delta, or some successor or remnant or owner, is able to produce very small batches for very specific clients still.

 

The pen is a small and lovely little thing: 5 and 1/4 inches capped. It's a lovely red resin, that seems almost matte or like it's ebonite in low-light; but in direct light it rather gleams. The nib is marked with MV for "Musei Vaticani" and the papal coat of arms. There is no size marking, but it appears to me that it is a stainless steel medium. The nib and all trim are a nice silver color. Some materials that I found online indicates that it is palladium-coated. There is a metal cap band with the text "Musei Vaticani", and there is a jewel in the cap with the seal of the Vatican Museums. There is a small and subtle engraving on the back of the cap that says "Delta Italy", and beneath it, a little more obvious, is 0407--which might be a limited edition number.

 

A nice touch which I particularly enjoy: the cap and the end cap of the barrel both have a very small ring of black resin as a contrast marker. I found online that there is a previous edition of this pen that was made in all black resin, with the same small contrast rings in red resin. So in a way, I take this pen to be the "inverse" of that one.

 

The pen came with a delta converter and cartridges: I inked it with Graf von Faber-Castell India Red, and it wrote perfectly immediately. Very smooth nib with a healthy flow, but not too wet. I haven't been regularly buying steel nib pens for the last several years, so the performance of this nib is actually astoundingly good to me.

 

My friend said that they have others of these pens in the Vatican Museums gift shops (along with a rollerball model)--but that they have separate inventory in the many gift shops spread throughout the museums. So if you are in the Vatican right now, and want one--walk around and visit them all if one in particular says they are out.

 

All-in-all, I love the pen, especially as it was a marker of my friend's trip. It makes me miss Delta, and wish that I had bought a Delta before now!

Edited October 28, 2019 by Fatestorm

[sansenri]

A lovely pen.

The basic shape looks similar to the Delta Black & White (below), or the Dolce Vita slim.

Very nice in that very hot red. An interesting catch considering these are no longer made.

[RubenDh]

Interesting find indeed. Thanks for sharing!

[Fatestorm]

Thank you for your comments, and for that picture! Yes, I think you must be right, in that these pens must have been tooled from a similar machine or cast. (I won't pretend to speculate on how exactly they did it.)

 

Also for reference, I found a photo on Chatterley Luxuries' historical items via Google Search of the same pen in the black resin I mentioned earlier.

 

[sansenri]

nice

yes Delta has used two of its main shapes to do several different editions, the Dolce Vita, and the Dolce vita slim.

This is the Dolce Vita Slim