Monday, March 24, 2014

Visconti Wall Street (THE Grail Pen?)


If there's any pen in my dad's collection that I'm really yealous of, it might very well be this one! (Together with the sailor I reviewed a couple of weeks ago!) The Visconti Wall street fountain pen is an unbelievably pretty pen! So in this review, I'll let the pictures speak mostly for themselves...


I love my Visconti Van Gogh, it's a good looking pen, it writes great (definitely one of the best steel nibs I've used so far!) But with this Visconti Wall street, everything seems to be even better! The Celluloid material is mindblowingly cool! The barrel of the pen is supposed to represent the office buildings on Wall Street, it has an opaque black base colour with a striped pattern in slightly translucent grey, it's an absolutely stunning pen to look at!


The shape of the pen is pretty interresting as well, it has a rounded square profile which is surprisingly comfortable to hold. It's a generously sized pen, I'd dare to call it oversize, even though this isn't the actual oversized version of the pen! But even though it is quite large, it doesn't weigh a ton, it has a decent weight, and  it is well balanced in the hand (I didn't post the cap, as it was already long enough without it!)


As always, build quality is spot on, but I honestly didn't expect anything less considering the generous pricetag! It is equipped with a strong, spring loaded clip that has the word visconti engraved on either side. On top of the cap, you can find a small magnetic inlay, which is customizable with a variety of different designs and materials.
The center band on the cap is -unlike the one on my Van Gogh- very minimalistic. I like the way it looks, it doesn't distract from the beautiful celuloid. I'm quite certain that the center band is made out of sterling silver, because it tends to discolour after a while.


The big (#6) 14k two-tone gold nib (Medium) has a beautiful design. Even the breather hole looks nice, with a moon-like shape. The two-tone nib fits the pen nicely, and it adds a hint of colour to the otherwise colourless pen.


However the most important thing obviously is the performance of the nib, so how does it actually write? Well, it's definitely on par -if not better- than any of my gold-nibbed pens! It's an incredibly wet flow, making it appear even smoother than it already is! The nib is quite soft, which makes it even more fun to write with, and it allows for some incredible line width variation! However, while I was writing this review, I noticed a few skips, well as some hard starts after leaving it uncapped for a little while. It wasn't a big issue, but for a pen of this price category, I expect consistent flow, regardless of the ink and paper used!


The Wall street is a great pen, with exceptional looks and very decent performance! Unfotunately, the pricetag is quite substantial, at over 600 USDollars, it definitely isn't an impulse buy! (except if you're very wealthy!) 

If you like the pictures I made of this pen (and all other pens I reviewed so far!) you might want to check out my Flickr account, there you can find many, many more pictures of my pen collection!


5 comments:

  1. Choke , cough and gag (I'm just talking about the price). The pen must be much more impressive in person. It comes across as very monochromatic, kinda blah. Eye appeal is usually what sets the hook in me first. With this pen I missed being hooked. Thanks for an in depth review, keep us informed.

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    1. Yes, it is a bit monochromatic indeed, but that's why I like the two-tone gold nib, it adds a hint of colour to the pen! However -and the pictures probably don't do it justice- the celluloid has a beautiful appearance, with a lot of depth to it

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  2. get yourself a vintage parker vac.that's where they ripped this design off from. better made and a lot, lot cheaper. American made!!!

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  3. get yourself a vintage parker vac.that's where they ripped this design off from. better made and a lot, lot cheaper. American made!!!

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  4. This is a beautiful pen. Wish I could find a grey Wall Street today. I think it is a Grail pen.

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