VISCONTI ALHAMBRA - RED EBONITE WITH SILVER FILIGREE LIMITED EDITION

In its early years, Visconti was led by two ingenious pen passionate people, Dante del Vecchio and Luigi Poli. Their personalities, abilities, cultural background and insight shaped one of the most creative and innovative Italian pen companies of the 1990s. Visconti products of these years represent  a very significant chapter in the history of the Italian fountain pen renaissance which took place in that decade.

Visconti re-introduced the use of traditional materials such as celluloid and ebonite in the production of fountain pens in Italy, after more than a decade of injection moulding  and resin. Visconti's pioneristic approach thus paved the way for a new taste in pen production which would then influence the  whole fountain pen scenario worldwide.

The Visconti Alhambra is definitely one of Visconti's most significative models of these years. 

It was introduced in 1995 to celebrate the beauty and history of the Alhambra Red Palace in Grenada. The red ebonite, used both for the body of the pen and for the feeder, was meant to recall the color of the palace and the metal filigree which decorates the cap and the barrel draws inspiration from the moresque decoration of the Palace.

The Alhambra was produced as a Special Reserve edition with solid gold filigree decoration  in only 288 pieces and as a limited edition of 888 pieces with silver filigree.

The artwork of the metal decoration required a very elaborate production process with more than a dozen passages.

The filling mechanism of this pen is Visconti's Power Vacuum filler, a patented mechanism which guarantees an ink capacity corresponding to 6 ink cartridges.

This Visconti Alhambra with silver filigree is unused and it comes with its original box. It is a very rare and historically significant pen.