Make your mark in true style

In today’s world of customised luxury, there are few things as personal as a pen.Not only does this constant companion speak volumes about a person’s taste, it also reveals a lot about the holder’s personality and the image they want to portray.

And image is precisely what is behind the latest launch to come out of the Montegrappa atelier: the Portrait Pen.

“Few for the few” has been the driving concept that has inspired Italian pen manufacturer Montegrappa’s selected production of writing jewels.
 
Now they have taken the idea of personalisation of a fine object to new heights by coming up with this “unique pen for a unique client”, which creates a distinct and unrepeatable original fine writing instrument that is immediately and forever different from all others on the market.

Priced at Dh88,000, this fountain pen is made of 18 carat white or yellow gold and on its barrel there is reserved a plain oval area that is decorated for each client with a design of their choice.

This is executed under the guidance of the master craftsman of Montegrappa, using the traditional manual technique of burin engraving, a technique that requires an artistic skill that is already extremely rare in the world and one that only the master engravers of Montegrappa are capable of applying to the tiny surfaces of writing such exquisite instruments.

Roberta Facciano, Montegrappa’s vice-president of sales and marketing, told Emirates Business: “Our master craftsman is an artist from Bottega Incisioni Giovanelli, an artistic engraving workshop, and he has been working for Montegrappa for many years.

“Each Portrait Pen generally takes three months to make. It is entirely handcrafted. Depending on the drawing the customer asks for, the master engraver uses the burin or chisel engraving technique. Even the smallest detail has to be carefully and faithfully reproduced.

The different deepness of each engraving gives the image a deep, three-dimensional effect. This is why a handcrafted engraving – and drawing – is absolutely unique. Then, after the engraving process is over, the pen, as all other Montegrappa pens, has to be polished and assembled by hand.”

There is another very small area on the end of the cap reserved for a second precious engraving. The result is an authentic work of art, created by an expert hand and carried out directly on the surface of the pen. In a remarkable feat of miniaturisation, the artist interprets, in gold, the lines of any design that the client may care to commission.

The decoration may be a portrait of a loved one, the symbol of a union or  marriage, or perhaps an image of a subject that has a special significance only for the person who decides to have it engraved on the pen, and ultimately for the person who receives it as a gift.

And because these pens are all so different from each other, they are not a limited edition. Facciano said: “It’s not a limited edition because each pen is absolutely unique as the customer chooses his own subject. It is a unique pen for a unique client. An edition that is more than limited, and indeed is not numbered, because it is simply a collection of unique pieces.

“This pen will be available in Dubai soon as the Portrait Pen will be presented there at end of April on the occasion of a new Montegrappa boutique opening.”

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