Our newest pen club pen -- the Leonardo 'Furore' "Mosaico Hawaii" Vancouver Pen Club Limited Edition!

Here it is--- the newest limited edition pen made for our pen club -- the Leonardo 'Furore' "Mosaico Hawaii" Vancouver Pen Club Limited Edition fountain pen!

(all photos by Maja ~ please click on images to enlarge)

This is the third fountain pen made exclusively for our pen club and, like with the first two, this project was initiated by our fellow pen club member Glenn Marcus, who worked with Salvatore Matrone of Leonardo Officina Italiana to have this very special pen made for us. Salvatore worked with our club to have our previous pen club pen (the lovely Leonardo "Momento Zero" Vancouver Pen Club Limited Edition in the "Sand" resin) made in 2019, as well as our very first pen club pen (the gorgeous Delta 'Dolcevita' Caruso Vancouver Pen Club Limited Edition produced in 2014), while he worked at Delta.

After the pen model, general colour and type of resin were finally chosen, the pens were ordered in late October, manufactured and engraved in November & early December, and then shipped from Italy on December 7th. Due to some Canada Customs red tape and delivery delays due to snowstorms in the Lower Mainland, the pens didn't arrive until shortly after Christmas... but they were well worth the wait.

My pen came well-protected in two boxes--- a black gift box with soft, cream-coloured lining and the Leonardo name & logo embossed on the inside of the lid, and a black cardboard box also with the Leonardo name & logo on it (not shown above). The boxes were in a cardboard sleeve with a floral design, which had the pen's model name and "FATTO A MANO IN ITALIA NELLE OFFICINE ITALIANE LEONARDO" ("Made by hand in Italy in Leonardo's Italian workshops") on it. Classy packaging from a classy company!

We chose the beautiful "Mosaico Hawaii" resin  for our 'Furore' model as this material had never been used in a 'Furore' before (since our pen was to be a Limited Edition, it had to have a model/resin combination that hadn't previously been used). The "Mosaico Hawaii" resin was used in a  Leonardo 'Momento Zero Grande' model, but never for a 'Furore' or any standard-sized Leonardo pen. 

The "Mosaico" resin is currently available in "Chiaroscuro", "Hawaii" and "Mango". Leonardo's official website describes the "Mosaico" resin in this way:"The material (is) spaghetti resin, Italian production new* concept the horizontal cut of the slab gives life to a real mosaic, the result is a squared side texture, while on the front (clip side) and rear side a texture is visible that I would define "ringed Arco" (*about 2 years ago we started experimenting with this new concept)."
(*for more information on this, check out my follow-up post here*)

It's a beautiful material and when it catches the light, you can see all the different blue and brown/tan tones...

(Look at that resin!!)

We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to use this resin for our club's limited edition pen...

The 'Furore' was launched in 2018, making it only the second model that Leonardo Officina Italiana released (the first was the "Momento Zero', the model we chose for our previous pen club pen). It was inspired by "a magical place, where land and sea meet" that's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site - the tiny village of Furore, on Italy's Amalfi Coast. These beautiful pens are handmade in Naples, Italy by expert craftspeople who take great pride in their work...and it shows in the quality of the writing instruments they make.

Leonardo's website says that the Furore model has a "vintage shape" -- it instantly reminded me of the vintage Sheaffer 'Balance' (the world's first streamlined fountain pen), which came out in 1928. The cap and barrel ends of the 'Furore' are softly rounded, while the stacked appearance of the resin accentuates the pen's smooth styling.

Included with the packaging is a lovely illustrated booklet with information about the "Furore' and the inspiration behind it. The booklet doesn't mention it, but there is a lifetime warranty against any defective part, according to the official Leonardo website. As an aside, I was delighted to see that Glenn--who is an excellent photographer-- provided one of the photographs in the booklet! (you can see his name in the photo above)

When I opened its presentation box, I was surprised at how large the pen was; for some reason, I was expecting a shorter, slightly narrower pen (probably because there is a larger version of the 'Furore' called the 'Furore Grande'). The size was a very pleasant surprise, though, as the pen is comfortable to use both unposted and posted.

The pen posts deeply and securely with a posted length (nib tip to barrel end) of 168 mm, by my measurements. If you decide to use the pen unposted, there are two shiny gold trim rings (by the section threads and the barrel's blind cap) for you to stare at, in addition to the mesmerizing resin :)

Dimensions (from the manufacturer's website):
Length closed: 146mm
Cap length: 66mm
Body length: 131mm (nib included)
Weight: 27g
Diameter cap: 15,5mm
Diameter grip section: 10,6mm

The pen fills via cartridge or the supplied screw-in converter. The converter can be accessed via a turning knob hidden under the blind cap, or by unscrewing the section (Note: the converter is screwed into the nib-section unit, so don't try pulling it out). I didn't photograph it, but the converter that came with the pen has a polished metal turning knob with the Leonardo name and logo on the clear barrel of the converter. The colour of the turning knob matches the pen's trim, which is another nice touch.

We chose gold trim for this latest pen club pen; I think the warmth of the gold trim balances the cooler colours of the resin. Another consideration was that we thought it'd be nice to have a different trim colour than the silver trim used on our previous pen club pen.

The cap is a screw-on type and it unscrews in about one and a quarter turns, which is handy if you're in a hurry to cap or uncap your pen. The pen's wheeled clip is flexible and attaches easily to a pocket, notebook, or pen case. The newer 'Furore' models (like this one) have a narrower clip than the original models.

Each pen made for us has "Vancouver Pen Club" engraved on it in elegant cursive lettering... and yes, it's in the same font as our Leonardo "Momento Zero" pen (but larger).

The 'Furore' usually comes with two narrow metal cap bands, but in order to accommodate the special engraving on our club's pens, a wide middle cap band was added.
 

The pens are individually numbered on the back of the cap, just above the cap bands. Thirty pens in total were made and mine is number 07/30 (the same number as my two previous Vancouver Pen Club limited edition pens :)

The nib material options were steel or 14K gold (I chose a steel nib) and the nib width options were a-plenty for this limited run -- our members had the choice of: Extra-Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad, Stub 1.1, Elastic (aka Flex) Extra-Fine and Elastic Fine. Further options (which cost more) included the choice of an Architect nib or a Cursive Smooth Italic nib in either Medium or Broad. All of the nibs are #6 size JoWo nibs. 

The nib on our pen club pen has an older-style engraving --the Leonardo Officina Italia winged logo and, below that, the words "Leonardo" and "Italy". The pens with steel nibs come with ABS feeds (made in Germany), while the gold nibs came with ebonite feeds made in-house by Leonardo.

I chose the Cursive Soft Italic nib in the Medium width, and it writes beautifully. I am very impressed with both of the nibs on my two Leonardo pen club pens---the Bock Stub 1.1 steel nib I chose for our previous pen club pen, and this one by JoWo.

(Last, but certainly not least...)
Three things I love about the pen's section:

• its "milk bottle" shape. Our previous pen club pen--a Leonardo "Momento Zero"--has the same shape, but the sections on the redesigned "Momento Zero Grande" (aka "Momento Zero Grande 2.0") fountain pens have a different shape (standard "Momento Zero" pens still have that milk-bottle shape... whew!)
• it matches the material used for the rest of the pen (this is extremely important to me lol)
• it doesn't have a metal trim ring at the nib end of it (because trim rings there can corrode over time from being dipped in ink)

"Grazie mille!" (a thousand thanks) to Salvatore and his sister Maria Francesco at Leonardo Officina Italiana for their work and support in getting our pens made, and to the craftspeople at Leonardo for producing these wonderful writing instruments for our club members! And of course, huge thanks to our fellow club member Glenn, who was in charge of this project from start to finish, and who successfully steered it through some choppy Canada Customs and DHL waters to get the pens to us :)

(~Blog post by Maja~)

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