Pam Alison Knits

We will each have to work out our own idea about what we will classify as a “greatest of all time” pen purchase. For me, it needs to be something beyond simply the most expensive pen I’ve ever bought, though it will probably be a pen that tempted me to step beyond my usual comfort zone. Size isn’t going to be the defining factor, either, some may think the bigger, the better, but there are pens in the world that look more like broom handles to me. Material, perhaps? A gorgeous resin by Jonathon Brooks might fit the bill, or a sterling silver pen with an ornate finish from the likes of Yard-O-Led. Maybe simply the name will be enough: a Visconti Divina, a Montblanc Meisterstück Solitaire Blue Hour Le Grand. A limited edition pen which carries your lucky number would make a great G.O.A.T.

But you know me pretty well by now. You know if I find a pen that might claim to rule them all, it will be a pen with a story attached. It will be pretty. It won’t be the most expensive pen in the world, but it will cost enough to make the eyes of non-believers water. It will most probably have chrome fixings (clips, rings etc) and it will, above all else, not be black.

I wasn’t expecting to fall for a black and gold pen, and if I had been looking online (and if this had been available to purchase online), I might have stopped and looked but I would have scrolled on again in search of something that wasn’t black. That, of course, is where the magic of shopping in person, be that at a pen show or in a shop, comes into play. I walked around the floor of the London Pen Show on Sunday 13th October 2024, and I saw lots of lovely pens. I tried a few for size, I tried writing with some. I had a long chat at the Onoto stand and got a close look at their pens for the first time in real life. I even got to hold the Great Court pen from their British Museum series, solid sterling silver with blue vitreous enamel, a pen so heavy and so beautiful that you can see and feel every one of the numerous pounds you would spend on it. You know when you play the game of “if I won the Lottery I’d be sensible except for…”? Well, that pen has been in my “except for” list for quite a while. Yet, of all the pens I looked at on their display, it was this relatively modest black pen with the golden engraved design which captured my heart.

I mentioned that any G.O.A.T. pen I’d consider would have to come with a story, and the story of my pen starts on the finial at the end of the barrel. The cap displays the traditional Onoto logo “coin”. The metal plaque on the bottom usually displays a number such as 5/250 as Onoto pens generally have limited runs. Mine doesn’t have a number, mine says “Custom” because this is a prototype design rather than one of their production ranges. They had two variations at the show and I liked both but when I returned to buy, it was the gold version which had hung around for me. This design is for a luxury shop in the UK and in production it will be branded with their name and logo, which which makes this version something of a curio and as such it fits seamlessly into my aesthetic. Despite being black and gold.

Onoto offer steel or gold nibs for their pens and I opted for a steel nib (though I realised during the buying process just how easy it would have been to justify the additional cost of a gold nib). I had gone to the show open to the idea of moving outside my usual penchant for round-tipped fine nibs, and here Onoto really came up trumps. First, I tried a broad italic nib which gave fantastic line variation, but the minute the pen touched the paper it was clear that this wouldn’t be the nib for me. A little searching came up with an alternative – a medium nib which had been ground to an oblique. I wrote with it and was immediately won over. It must have been my lucky day as such grinds are usually a special order and subject to an additional charge, but this one was ready to go as it was a duplicate that hadn’t been needed. They were gracious enough to offer this with no upcharge.

In some lights, I see this pen as a bargain: it is perfectly-executed, unique in that it is a prototype, and likely to cost a significant amount in its final format. Onoto were selling all of the pens at 20% discount at this show which is very generous. Even so, I am conscious that the price of this pen was outside my comfort zone. I had saved up assiduously for my trip to the pen show, and I had a clear idea of what I would be prepared to pay for one really stunning pen. This came in under my self-imposed limit and that is enough for me to declare it a win.

One point I think it is important to make is that any pen I buy is a pen to use, not a pen to sit on display or be tucked away “for best”. I was sad to hear that people buy Onoto pens at show discounts and then put them up for sale on e-bay at inflated prices. It’s not unusual to come across suggestions in social media that some pen manufacturers are just plain greedy when it comes to pricing pens, especially when the people asserting that opinion are justifying the purchase of, if not knock-off designs exactly, then certainly very strongly “inspired by” versions of well-known pens. Yet if an individual buys a pen with no other purpose than to sell it at a profit that strikes me as a far clearer exhibition of greed. I can understand someone selling on a pen that doesn’t suit them once they’ve got it home and tried it; I can understand someone selling an unwanted gift. In both those cases I’d expect them to sell the pen at slightly less than they paid for it to acknowledge that it was “lightly used”. I can understand someone buying a pen, improving it in some way (restoring it if it’s vintage, or perhaps grinding the stock nib into something less usual) and then selling it on with a suitable upcharge to cover their expertise. Luckily my lovely pen escaped the clutches of any lurking miscreants, and came home with me to be loved and cherished and written with for years and years to come.

I don’t have a sample of my writing yet. I quickly inked this up when I got back to my hotel with a cartridge of J Herbin Bleu des Profondeurs, but now I’m home I am having a think about what ink I really want to try out with it.

Keep your eyes peeled for a further installment of my pen show adventures as this was not the only item that has come home with me, and I did visit some very interesting stands along the way.