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Metta Catharina Leather Pen
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A beautifully made metal pen with a leather grip section would be quite an unusual and special item on its own. Make it reindeer leather, and you’ve got a really unusual item. Well, how about if that leather was Russian, made by a traditional method of tanning by soaking it in pits with willow bark and birch oil? Well, no, that sort of thing just isn't made any more. But that’s how it was done over 200 years ago, when this leather was made.
Next week marks 230 years since the ship carrying the leather, Die Frau Metta Catharina von Flensburg, sank in Plymouth Sound. For the story of how the ship sank, was found, and the leather retrieved, read the pen's description on our site. Here, we'll just say that the leather has aged beautifully.
David Hayward himself initially trained as a silversmith, but then moved on to study for an MA in industrial design. He has gained both commercial and academic design experience in England, Germany, India and Hong Kong. Along with pens and pencils, he has designed a range of jewellery and other items. His close working relationships with many skilled craftsmen, including gem setters, wood turners and leather workers, enables him to produce unusual designs with materials that would be too difficult for most designers to handle.
The Metta Catharina pen is a perfect example of this - the combination of high-quality metalwork and perfectly prepared leatherwork is needed to do justice to such a historic piece of leather. A unique piece of history, for only £175.
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Merry Christmas One and All!
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Christmas comes but once a year,
And when it does it brings good cheer.
But it can also make you cry,
Because you don't know what to buy.
Fear not, dear customers, for we
( Cult Pens) are here to set you free!
Our Gift Guide gives you gifts galore,
So take a look. We'll say no more.
Except to say, do please see here -
For guidelines delivering
Christmas cheer.
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They were all the rage in 17th Century Venice, when writing wasn't just a means of putting thoughts into words but an art form in itself. Taking a blank sheet of parchment and covering it with beautifully-formed letters was enhanced by the use of an equally beautiful writing instrument. Hence the glass dip pen.
These days, you don't have to be sitting at a leather-topped desk overlooking the Piazza san Marco and wearing some sort of robe to write with a dip pen; you can be in the kitchen in jeans and writing a birthday card, because despite smartphones, laptops and the humble keyboard, there's still a market for dip pens (made of all sorts of materials, not just glass). OK, you wouldn't use one to write a book, unless you had an awful lot of time on your hands, but they do have several advantages. For one thing, they don't simply 'stop working'. Well, they do, but that's only because it's time to dip it into the ink again. There's no feed to clog, no refill to scrabble around looking for in a desk drawer (and probably stabbing yourself with a stray staple or drawing pin into the bargain). You don't need to remember to cap it. And if you're a bit bored with the current ink colour, no problem: simply wipe off any excess and find another colour ink to use.
Every fountain pen owner should have one. Instead of going to the trouble of filling a pen with a new ink, only to find that you don't actually like it, you could use your dip pen to 'test the water' so to speak - see if the ink is the colour you want. And dip pens have no problem with tricky substances like pigment ink or inks containing particles; dried-on ink is much easier to remove from a dip pen nib than it is from inside a fountain pen. What's more, they look nice, particularly glass ones. And at this time of year, a glass dip pen could double rather nicely as a Christmas tree ornament!
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You wouldn't normally feel like stroking a mouse mat because they're usually made of some form of plastic. But not these ones! They look like rugs (complete with tassels), the type you'd expect to see on a polished parquet floor in an old Victorian house and are so much more stylish for your mouse to glide around on. What's more - just to complete the effect - there are matching coasters. So you can sit at your desk (the heavy oak type that can only be moved by contenders for Britain's Strongest Man) with a mouse mat that doesn't look like a mouse mat, and a cushioned coaster to sit your cup of Earl Grey on.
Functional items don't have to be boring to look at. So don't mar your antique furniture (or indeed the clean lines of an Ikea-equipped office) with a grubby mouse mat that was free from a supplier, or a coaster that was swiped from the pub. Adorn them lovingly with Mouserug instead.
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'Dear Sandra Sally, Happy Christmas, hope you and Bob Barry have a good one…' If you have so many relatives you can't remember their names, writing Christmas cards can be a bit of a minefield. But don't worry - arming yourself with Pilot's FriXion pens means mistakes don't matter: simply rub them out and re-write! What's more, this pack of 3 comes free if you buy those relatives £25 worth of Pilot products!
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From helicopters that hold your paperclips and mechanical pencils that double as a screwdriver, to pens on key-rings and pens on lanyards, Troika really do cater for most eventualities (and most tastes as well). They make great gifts, with prices from only £14, and with 20% off they're an even more attractive proposition!
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Zero - pens that spin, pens that balance, pens that slide smoothly into their stand. They're as entertaining as they are meticulously machined. And as they're 25% cheaper than usual they're the perfect choice of present for anybody who likes their pen to be more than just a writing instrument.
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As usual, the French have a much nicer word than we do for something, and in this case it's a page marker, or 'marque-ligne'. These little metal clips - available in copper, brass or stainless steel - can be used instead of a highlighter to mark passages in books, or can be used as a tiny bookmark. And if you order any Calepino notebooks you'll get a 'cuivre' one free!
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Made in Paris in a workshop built by Gustav Eiffel, FAF ('Fabriqué en France') deskpads have non-slip rubber feet, so they won't slide off your desk when you're taking notes one-handed. They are pleasingly retro, constructed of folded metal and requiring circular nuts to be unscrewed in order to replace the refill. Now is a good time to try them, because at the moment each deskpad comes with a free refill!
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The Signo 207 Premier rollerball features a comfortable rubber grip and contains water-resistant gel ink which is lightfast and tamper-proof. It's worth £8.95, but you can have one free if you spend £20 or more on Uni-ball products.
And - by happy coincidence - you get to support Great Ormond Street Hospital too!
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Faber-Castell's Polychromos are simply some of the best artists' pencils around. Albrecht Durer Magnus are certainly some of the chunkiest, and Pitt Drawing Pens are ideal for ink drawings. And what better way to see how they work together than by bundling them together? 120 Polychromos will also get you a tin of 24 Albrecht Durer Magnus watercolour pencils, while a tin of 60 will get you 12. And a tin of 36 will come with a free pack of 6 assorted Pitt Drawing Pens.
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Get a luxury leather Atoma notebook worth almost £50 free when you buy a Staedtler Premium pen.
The pens start at under £55, which makes this an amazing deal. We had the same offer a few months ago, but it was so popular we quickly ran out of notebooks - we're a bit better prepared this time, but don't miss out!
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For the 6th edition of the 'Crayons de la Maison' collection, Caran d'Ache have joined forces with Swiss parfumerie Maison Mizensir, in order to scent the rare-wood pencils with the fragrance 'Bois du Tibet'. So not only will you benefit from the visual pleasures of Western Hemlock, White Oak, Silver Teak and White Ash, you will also gain the olfactory pleasures of incense, patchouli and tonka bean essence.
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Sheaffer's Calligraphy sets have been popular ways to get started in calligraphy for a long time, and are great value. Now, the standard 'Maxi Kit' has been joined by a version in elegant red gift packaging, making an even better way to give the recipient everything they need to start learning calligraphy.
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TWSBI's Diamond 580 Special Editions have proven to be popular, so don't hang around if this one appeals to you! The aluminium grip section and piston mechanism in this edition have been anodised in a dusky pink shade, giving a bit more style to the well-respected piston-filled 580 pen.
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Two beautiful and unusual calligraphy sets from J. Herbin. Perfect as gifts, these are both supplied in nice wooden boxes with windows to show off their contents. Choose from:
- Beautiful and practical glass dip pen with six small bottles of J. Herbin's famous ink.
- A goose quill with a nib holder at the tip, so the nib can be replaced as needed. Includes three types of nib, parchment, and a bottle of ink.
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The ever-popular Lamy safari has, for a long time, had its more grown-up sibling, the AL-star, with an aluminium barrel and cap. Well, now they are joined by a more refined sibling still - the Lx (pronounced 'luxe'). In addition to the much-loved features of the AL-star, the Lx brings four new finishes, with matching coloured metal clips, and very shiny end pieces to the cap and barrel. There's a new nib design, too, in black with elegant pinstripe, and a matching metal case with rubber padding.
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The new Kaweco Mini Squeeze Converter is a converter so tiny it can even be used in their Liliput pens! Until now, if you used a Liliput fountain pen, you had to fill it with cartridges. While they're very convenient, especially when you're on the go, a lot of people prefer bottled ink, but also loved the Liliput. Well, now they can go together - Kaweco's baby can be bottle-fed!
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Back in May last year, Cult Pens celebrated 10 years in business. Now, we celebrate 10 years since another milestone - our first employee. Michael started at Cult Pens 10 years ago, in December 2006, and is still with us. Over the years, he has turned his hands to most parts of the business, from picking and packing your orders to coding features for the web site. He also writes some of the product descriptions and articles on our site; does most of our Tweeting, Facebooking and Instagramming; and often writes a lot of the newsletter.
While he is a very good writer, and is very modest, he does find it difficult to write about myself in the third person. Sorry. It's quite confusing to write about yourself as if you're not me, because I keep remembering that I am me!
Outside Cult Pens, Michael enjoys life in Devon, and I can often be seen wandering around photographing things, or, more often, interesting bits of things. You can read more about my ten years at Cult Pens in a blog post (where, to keep things a bit more readable, I'll just stick to writing as me), and if you want to see the sort of photographs I take, they can be found on my personal site, PigPog.
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December's the time for thinking about Christmas, but if you're a super-organised sort of person, you'll probably also be thinking about where to go on holiday next year, whether it's a weekend in Whitby or a fortnight in Fuerteventura. You can start your planning by thinking about what luggage to take with you, and what could be better than a Rhodia travel bag? It's black, with an orange lining and three internal pockets - one for your phone, one for your passport (unless you're going to Whitby of course) and one for - well, whatever you like, but it's got a zip. And the main compartment has plenty of room for everything else you'd want to take with you. If you'd like it, just buy any Rhodia products from now until 31st December 2016 and we'll automatically enter you into the draw to win it.
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Cross very kindly donated a Townsend fountain pen to give away on social media, and Allan E was the lucky winner - congratulations!
We also asked you to shed some light on why some of the colour names of Graphik Line Painters are - shall we say - a bit 'out there', and offered a box of 20 to the most inspired. We liked Jan C's suggestions, especially her explanation for 'Billy'. It's short for 'bilious' of course, the shade of green indicative of seasickness. Lovely.
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Trustpilot Review Winner
We receive thousands of reviews highlighting our customer service, and as a way of saying thank you, each month we select a review that stands out, or makes us smile. The prize is £40 to spend on our site!
The winner this month is Matthew P - congratulations! You can read the review here.
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