I'll admit that I'm a rather loyal collector of the Pelikan Souverän M8XX special editions. Yet, I've been able to restrain myself and hold off on quite a few recent editions like the Vibrant Blue and Ocean Swirl. I guess they weren't really my thing anyway, as I wasn't that big on the vibrant colorways of those releases.
And then they announced their latest release, the M800 Stone Garden, a few months ago... The same tried and true Souverän pen (that I reviewed multiple times before), but once again built up from a completely new combination of materials. The color combo is definitely unique, combining a dark blue resin for the cap, section and piston knob, and a beautiful brown-blue marbled material for the barrel. As I'm usually not a fan of blue pens, I wasn't immediately hooked. But the subdued color scheme ultimately pulled me over. My thanks to Appelboom for sending one over to take a look at in this review!
In person, this is an absolutely stunning pen. The material has a marble-like diagonal striation to it, and the blue and brown flecks create a shimmering light and dark contrast. Combined with the gold trim, this is an extremely classy pen. I love how the Souverän pens can appear classic -almost in a vintage way- or modern and sleek, depending on the materials they use (case in point: the Stone Garden vs. the M815 Metal Stripe!).
One thing I don't really like, is how the pattern is interrupted by a single seam along the length of the barrel. Pelikan creates the barrel by hot-forming sheets of resin into tubes (called the 'binde'), so you'll always have a seam somewhere, it's just not visible on most materials they use. It's not too obvious, as it took me a good while to even notice it, so it certainly isn't a deal-breaker for me.
The Souverän M800 is a fairly large pen, measuring 14.1 cm (5.57") capped, and 12.7 cm (5") uncapped. It posts securely, creating a pen that measures 16.6 cm (6.53"). The brass piston mechanism adds just the right amount of heft, giving a total weight of 30 g. I've raved about the M8XX on multiple occasions before, it's pretty much the perfect size for my hand (with the M6XX a close second, especially if you have smaller hands!). I forgot to take a size comparison photo of the Stone Garden, but you can find one in my review of last years Renaissance Brown special edition!
The nib on this Stone Garden is new to me, because it's actually the first time that I got to play with the EF on one of Pelikan's high-end models. I figured, since the latest price increase, that I shouldn't wait any longer to get one... God forbid they might go up in price again in the future (The current 55€ premium you pay for an EF nib is already quite absurd!)
In terms of performance, what can I say? It's an excellent nib. As you may know, I'm usually not drawn towards the finer end of the nib spectrum, but this one is hard to knock. It's a solid performer. Maybe a tad bit boring because of the inherent stiffness of the M800 nibs (when I do buy finer nibs, I like a bit of 'cushioning' in my writing), but the ink flow is consistent (surprisingly not overly wet) and it's ample smooth. When comparing this to a Japanese EF, the line it puts down is still about twice as wide, but nevertheless it should be perfectly usable even when you have small handwriting.
I like the new Stone Garden (Who'd have thunk it!). Even though blue pens don't tend to be my first choice, I think they did a fantastic job on the color combination here. It's a classy-looking pen, which is how I tend to like my Pelikans (The Burnt Orange, Tortoise brown, Renaissance,...). I think a professional and subdued color scheme works better with the Souverän design than a more vibrant material (like the new Vibrant Orange m600), but I guess that's just my personal preference.
In general -but especially with the special editions- Pelikan is slowly pulling up their prices. Where they once offered a competitive price compared to say, Montblanc, that price gap is now slowly fading away. The Pelikan Souverän M800 Stone Garden retails for 519€ (612$) here in Europe. But for the non-EU audience that buy from overseas (like from Appelboom, for example) the price drops down to 437€ (500$) without VAT. The price hike for EF nibs will add about 55€ (65$), which I feel is quite unfair for people that prefer a finer nib.
Note: Appelboom is a sponsor of this blog. I received a discount on the purchase of this product. I was in no way influenced in the making of this review, the opinions shared in this review are completely my own! This post contains affiliate links. When shopping through these links, you support my blog, additionally you can use the above discount code to enjoy 10% off your order.
