Folks, for your enjoyment, I present to you my newest acquisition: the Montblanc Sakura 333 fountain pen.
I’m essentially speechless. It’s utterly, extraordinarily stunning. (And ordinarily, I’m not someone who particularly likes either pink or rose gold, let alone both together. But it works *very* well here.) Because I was short on time, the pictures don’t do it justice. But I will someday grab my real camera and take some more formal pictures
(Note: the notebook shown in the pictures didn’t come with the pen - it’s a Moleskin sakura notebook. Moleskin isn’t my favorite paper for fountain pens by any means, but it’s serviceable, and I happened to come across it shortly after ordering the pen.)
I do have a question for y’all. I am grappling with whether to ink and use this pen or instead leave it un-inked and just have on display. I went through this when I first starting collecting fountain pens. I ultimately decided that, because my whole interest is specifically in “functional art” (with pens as well as other items that I collect), it would be weird for me personally to have a functional art object but never use it. Example: some people buy limited edition bike frames to hang on their walls as display objects. I don’t do that: I use them (carefully: I don’t go riding on rough trails with them, but I do regularly ride them under appropriate conditions). To each their own, of course.
But here’s the thing: although I got a relatively good deal on this pen compared to what it normally sells for, it still was rather expensive. I have one other limited edition pen (the Montblanc Einstein) that‘s of roughly the same value that I do have inked, use regularly, and occasionally carry with me; but unlike this one, while it’s also a limited edition, it’s far less limited (4810 versus 333). In addition, the Einstein is made of metal, not porcelain. And as you’ll see from one of the attached images from the booklet, it comes with a stern warning basically saying “Hey, dummy: this thing is a limited edition made of porcelain! There ain’t no replacement parts; and if you break something, we might not even be able to repair it. Proceed with due care.” So, given both of those facts, this pen isn’t ever leaving my house. And here’s the thing: most of my long-form writing occurs *outside* of my home. That is: I tend think and write best, and therefore most frequently, at cafes; less frequently, at my office at work. Since most of my writing is long-form work-related writing, this means that if I inked it, I would only use it rarely since it’s not leaving my house. That said: (1) I do do some writing at home - mostly short sessions of journaling and some creative writing for my own enjoyment; and (2) inking this pen only to use it rarely does strike me at first blush as silly and contradictory, but using it only rarely also makes it less likely that I’d damage it, so it would have some benefit, I guess.
I’d be curious as to your thoughts. What would you do given the parameters and constraints above