Monday, August 25, 2014

Citytrip to The Hague: P.W. Akkerman


Last week we went on a litle trip to the Netherlands, which is something we often do (it's a beautiful country and it's not too far!). But this year was extra special, because we visited (not the Capital city, which is Amsterdam, as pointed out by a clever reader!): The Hague, home of the King and Queen of the Netherlands! This will be a series of two posts (I'll try to upload the other part tomorrow) in which I'll show the two highlights of my visit to The Hague!

But what does The Hague have to do with my pen blog, you might think... Well, In The Hague, not only you'll find the Royal palace, you'll also find The Royal supplier of pens, P.W. Akkerman, which is well worth mentioning to say the least!

P.W. Akkerman is a great shop to visit, and it's situated in one of the most beautiful 'Passages' of the Netherlands. (A passage basically is a shopping street covered with a glass roof!) It's also incredibly easy to find because of the GIANT orange Parker Duofold hanging in front of the shop (convenient)
Phoenix handpainted pens (I'd probably faint if I'd see the price tag of these works of art!
P.W. Akkerman has over 100 years (!) of experience (since 1910 to be precise), which is clearly noticeable as soon as you discover their amazing collection of pens, with known and less known brands (like Phoenix handpainted pens seen below), pens for the small wallet and pens for the slightly bigger wallet (you can easily burn through 5k and more!). If you can't find what you're looking for in this shop, you'll probably never find it! The people who run the shop are extremely friendly, and they'll gladly help you to find just the pen you're looking for! 

Another Phoenix pen!
A set of nine Phoenix pens depicting the Romanovs


Another Giant Parker, accompanied by a giant illuminated Pelikan Souverän!

OOOH shiny! Some Namiki Maki-e pens
Probably the biggest collection of Visconti pens I've ever seen!
Again some pens that will destroy your bank account, this time from Krone.

As you can see in the picture above, they gathered quite a nice collection of (vintage) inks over the years (and this is only about a third of their collection!)

Some of my grail pens from Graf Von Faber-Castell

But of course, my visit to P.W. Akkerman wouldn't be complete if I didn't get one of their P.W. Akkerman inks! These inks have become world famous for their unique bottles and convenient filling system. There's a variety of colours to choose from, and every color is named after a place in The Hague! (I'll be doing an ink review about it later!)

I had high expectations before I visited P.W. Akkerman, and I wasn't dissapointed when I left! If you want to get one of their inks or a nice pen, or if you just want to read about the fascinating history of their shop, I'd suggest visiting their website/webshop!

5 comments:

  1. Oh wow, it looks amazing in there. Not that I could afford a single thing!

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  2. Awesome! I bet it was beautiful! How I would love to tour the Netherlands (along with many other countries and such over that way!). I bet I could have found loads of pens...that would have broke my bank no problem! lol

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  3. Oh no, my comment seems to have gotten lost. Which ink did you buy?

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    1. Binnenhof Blues, and I've actually been to the 'binnenhof'!

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  4. Den Haag is not the capital of the Netherlands, though it is the political centre. Amsterdam is the capital.

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