Questa resina è bello!
After working out the kinks in my Opera Metal Master and really falling in love with the design I decided to look at a second pen from Visconti’s lineup. While doing some research I came across a discontinued orange Rembrandt and decided to pull the trigger. I wanted to see how the entry level Visconti pens fared in terms of build quality and design. To my surprise the answer was – actually not bad at all.
The first thing I noticed was the pics online did not do this variegated resin any justice – it’s really stunning. The “orange” is really a beautiful swirl of oranges and light yellows with streaks of black mixed in almost like wisps of black smoke in a warm fire. This resin design is based on the painting term Chiaroscuro – referring to the contrast of very light and dark colors to give depth or volume to a painting.
The pen comes with a steel nib (in this case a medium) that is quite smooth and has just a hint of feedback. It is engraved with Visconti and Firenzi (Florence) along with some ornamental flourishes. Ink flow is excellent and the nib and feed are nicely matched – no hard starts or skips at all. The nib, while steel, has some flex and gives you a little line variation to play with. The pen uses a magnetic cap system which holds tight and creates a nice smooth section to body transition as there are no threads – a nice plus if you tend to hold your pen further from the nib.
Speaking of the cap, it features the traditional Visconti logo on the finial and arch clip while the cap band is engraved with Rembrandt and surrounded by ornamental carvings. The clip has plenty of spring but really requires you to open it to place it over anything as it sits so flush to the body of the pen.
The pen is push to post but feels a bit long in my hand and the balance shifts quite a bit when it is. Speaking of size, the pen is 5 3/8″ (136mm) capped and 6 1/2″ (165mm) posted. The metal section tapers slightly but measures about 7/16″ (11mm) and has a small flare at the bottom to keep your fingers from slipping. Overall a very comfortable pen in hand and sized perfectly for my grip.
The filling system is a Visconti screw-type converter roughly the size of a CON-50 from Pilot. It is not as fancy as the one included on the Opera with all the engraved metal parts – just plastic here.
While this orange was a limited edition color that has since been discontinued it is still available in Black, Red, Blue, Purple, and “Merry-go-Round” which is a swirl of colors created by Visconti in support of the Meyer Children’s Hospital Hematology Department in Tuscany, Italy.
Nib options include a fine and medium point – both in steel. The pen can take advantage of Visconti’s MyPen system, which allows you to replace the finial visconti logo with your initils, a gemstone, or an eastern or western zodiac symbol.
