Jump to content

Visconti Millionaire L.e. Marble Empire Honey Review


ICantEvenDecideAMajor

Recommended Posts

Hi all! Glad to be here to share with you all my new pen, the Visconti Millionaire Marble Empire in the honey finish. This cool pen from Visconti is by all means a looker with its 2 tone palladium nib, beautiful ivory resin and the stunning marble finish (actual marble).

 

First Impressions:

29781061151_073da63a4c_b.jpgVisconti Millionaire by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

The pen comes in the standard higher end Visconti lacquered box (which I heard is wood underneath but not sure at all) that is very heavy and feels nicely made. I use these boxes as display boxes and they work perfectly. Bravo Visconti!

 

Appearance and Design:

 

29236485564_9e6074ab8c_b.jpgVisconti Millionaire by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

Just look at this beautiful marble. Feels cold and solid yet durable, it's got a greenish-grey background with red, yellow, orange green, blue-ish green and some white streaks going all over the place. And every pen is different! There are four different kinds of finishes; I personally like the black one the most but there's a special reason why I bought the honey finish... (to be unveiled later!).

 

29236487024_6134f0ac46_c.jpgVisconti Millionaire by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

The cap has a large gold coloured top which I think is brass. Because this is much larger and wide than the caps compatible with the my pen system, I'm quite sure that it's not removable (nothing you can replace it with even if you remove it). Pretty good nonetheless. The Visconti clip is filled with a off-white enamel of the same colour, a rather thoughtful touch. I was rather upset when the Florentine Hills had only a black enamel.

 

29236486024_98c79ffe43_b.jpgVisconti Millionaire by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

The section, cap top and barrel end are made of the best feeling resin I've ever held. White resins are tricky -- they're very likely to feel cheap if not top quality. But this Visconti ivory resin is just glorious: it's a little off-white, the colour feels rich and even the slightest shade of rose colour. Just beautiful. The nib is of course the Visconti 2 tone palladium nib, which in my opinion is only second to the Pelikan two tones when it comes to beauty.

 

29863722225_bebe34260b_z.jpgVisconti Millionaire by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

Now here comes the most amazing part of the pen --- THE WHITE FEED!!!

Isn't it just beautiful? I tried it briefly with Lamy turquoise and Waterman green (both very reliable inks famous for NOT staining), and it washes right off. And boy does it look good with ink on it! The versions with black resins have black feed, thus less interesting in my opinion.

(side note: my dream pen is the modern Wahl Eversharp Decoband with the gorgeous red feed like Louboutin shoes; you can tell I'm a sucker for coloured feeds).

 

Dimensions and Weight

The pen is about as long as a Delta Dolcevita oversize, but the grip is much more usable. I don't have a scale but I'm guessing the pen is around a little over 40g, with probably half the weight in the cap, so the pen body itself is surprisingly light. It is postable but super top heavy and it doesn't seat too deeply. Suitable for hands large and small despite the look of it being magnanimous. It should be around 140mm roughly estimated by me :)

 

Nib Performance

 

29781060421_06ffe62ba5_z.jpgVisconti Millionaire by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

Nothing to see here. We all know Visconti palladium nibs. Mine wrote just as expected: smooth, overpolished, skips a lot. I'm going to have mine sent to Dan Smith for a tuning. (Hence why I cleaned it out and couldn't provide a writing sample, sorry). But it was a little skippy on Leuchtturm and skips a LOT on Clairefontaine. But I actually quite like the feel of this medium nib; it's wet, juicy, and very soft velvety feeling without being mushy. I think I'm going to love this pen once it's back from Dan!

 

 

Filling System

 

29781061671_3a0b6a8dbb.jpgVisconti Millionaire by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

The filling system is pure genius. And I am NOT be sarcastic. Whoever decided to use this filling system on this pen deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for making my life easy. It's a....... Plunger! To ink, you unscrew the barrel and pull the plunger out; to expel, you push it in. Like a syringe. It's so simple yet effective; acceptable ink capacity (about the same as a C/C), literally no risk of malfunction. My only grudge is that the converter joints don't seem to be the tightest in the world; after inking with Waterman green, you can kind of see a green tint on the joints of the converter; nothing to worry about but definitely less than perfect.

 

 

Cost:

I bought this pen for $550 brand new, without the roller ball convert. To collectors this is probably an issue, but a roller ball section worth at most two dollars to me. I couldn't care less!

 

For five hundred dollars, this is a steal. Pure steal. Buy it in a heart beat. Even with the costs of getting it adjusted by Dan, it's still a steal. But for its most often seen price of $1500 - goodness-knows-what retail.... ugh... I can see how it's worth that, and it is rational to buy one for that. But personally with $1500 I'd probably get myself a Divina AND a Decoband.... (yes it can be done if you shop smartly), All in all, it's a good pen; I'll have a hard time choosing between this and the Divina, but not if a Divina is half the price.

 

And that's it for my review! As always I'm happy to know your feelings reactions feedbacks emotions rants criticisms opinions and whatever you have to say!

 

 

*Edit Added a section on weight and dimensions

Edited by ICantEvenDecideAMajor

Ask everyone if they want a cup of tea. It's a mantra to Heaven.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 12
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • ICantEvenDecideAMajor

    5

  • jandrese

    1

  • langere

    1

  • zaddick

    1

Keep that white feed clean. Mine now has a turquoise tint to it! ;)

Ouch... have you tried pen flush? Having a tint is not the end of the world; I'm a user after all. But I better figure out what tint I want and stick with it :P

Ask everyone if they want a cup of tea. It's a mantra to Heaven.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is great! I also bought a Milennium recently (probably from the same source :) ), but haven't had a chance to ink it yet. Hope mine doesn't skip!

 

Erick

Using right now:

Visconti Voyager 30 "M" nib running Birmingham Streetcar

Jinhao 9019 "EF" nib running Birmingham Railroad Spike

Stipula Adagio "F" nib running Birmingham Violet Sea Snail

Sailor Profit "B" nib running Van Dieman's Night - Shooting Star

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is great! I also bought a Milennium recently (probably from the same source :) ), but haven't had a chance to ink it yet. Hope mine doesn't skip!

 

Erick

Ohh the Millennium! I've heard those nibs are much higher consistency than the palladium one's being "consistently skipping". I've been eyeing one of those for a while as well; which finish? Is it the beautiful Moonlight Burgundy?

Ask everyone if they want a cup of tea. It's a mantra to Heaven.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great review of quite an under rated pen. I bought this pen when it first came out at full retail, and don't regret a minute of it. Like the OP I was also attracted to the honey marble version because of the white feed.

 

Unfortunately, the high price point, and the idea of a pen with such a seemingly fragile body turned off many people. There is something about the marble, the way it warms quickly to your body temperature, and also the weight that makes it rests so comfortably in the crook of your hand, makes it quite a delight to use. Also the unusually long grip section makes it a very comfortable pen to use. It's just the looks is not to every one's liking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great review of quite an under rated pen. I bought this pen when it first came out at full retail, and don't regret a minute of it. Like the OP I was also attracted to the honey marble version because of the white feed.

 

Unfortunately, the high price point, and the idea of a pen with such a seemingly fragile body turned off many people. There is something about the marble, the way it warms quickly to your body temperature, and also the weight that makes it rests so comfortably in the crook of your hand, makes it quite a delight to use. Also the unusually long grip section makes it a very comfortable pen to use. It's just the looks is not to every one's liking.

And I think Visconti will also replace the barrel or cap for free if they break? That's what I remember.

Ask everyone if they want a cup of tea. It's a mantra to Heaven.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wish more pens came with colored feeds. Colored feeds stand out almost more than any type of barrel finish.

I know! Coloured feed should be more common. It's not like it's super high tech or anything!

Ask everyone if they want a cup of tea. It's a mantra to Heaven.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And I think Visconti will also replace the barrel or cap for free if they break? That's what I remember.

Yes, these all come with a warranty for the lifetime of the original purchaser.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...