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Back in the mid-to-late 1990s, I was fortunate to be a part-time online U.S. retailer of a few brands, including Cesare Emiliano ("CE") pens, made by Grifos (CEO: Maurizio Sturza) in Milan, Italy. I was, and still am, a fan of this brand, although I understand from other postings at FPN that CE no longer is an active brand, although Grifos is. I wanted to show you what remains in my inventory, even though I'm solely a collector now, I'm not selling anything, and I want to retain these pens in my overall collection. My CE pens are a very small set of the great variety of styles and finishes that CE offered, but my CE collection is representative of what I judged that I could sell. I'll add these photos in different posts, because of upload size limitations per post. First, here are photos of the fronts and backs of the CE catalogues in my possession. In my next posts, I'll provide photos and information/comments about the different "models" that I own.

Some years ago I found a solid silver pen with 18 k gold nib branded Cesare Emiliano made in Italy. A week ago a saw the web page for a pen manufacturer call Grifos also in Italy and they have the same pen with a different name. My question is are both the same company? Grifos bought Cesare Emiliano? The pen is heavy and very well made. I will like to know more about the Brand.Thank you for your comments.

Yesterday, I received from Grifos, the Italian pen maker based near Turin, Italy, the Grifos Masonic Square & Compasses (the “Masonic”) fountain pen with a medium gold-plated nib. I inked it up with Waterman Purple ink, began writing with it the same day, and have written with it today. First, here are photos I’ve taken, and then I’ll provide my early first impressions of the pen. This Grifos pen appears to be unique among the many Grifos offerings on its website; those other models normally contain heavier components, including more metal. The Masonic is made primarily from a light-weight, black resin. It has gold-plated trim – the clip, cap band, and thinner ring near the end of the barrel. The cap band has on its front the words, “Alius Ex Alio,” which means “one for the other.” On the cap band’s back is a small Griffon head and the inscription, “Made in Italy.” The Masonic is 5.5” (almost 14 cm.) long and is quite light-weight (I couldn’t find my scale). The only other metal is in the black section’s threads, which screw into the plastic threads of the barrel. I could be wrong, but I think that the Masonic is the only Grifos FP with a snap-on cap; all the other models, I believe, feature screw-on caps. If you know differently, please post here to correct my statement. Other than the GP trim, the only decoration on the pen is that on the lower half of the barrel, which features, in a copperish-gold color, the Masonic square and compass logo with a capital ‘G’ (for Grifos, I assume) in its middle. The Masonic comes with an International Standard converter and a pack of six short Life Line branded black cartridges. After filling the converter from a fresh unused bottle of Waterman Purple ink, the Masonic wrote immediately with a medium line neither too wet nor too dry, but in the “Goldilocks” zone. I wrote with the pen a few brief paragraphs, shown here. I left the Masonic to sit in my pen box for about 20 hours, and it wrote just as readily this evening. The medium, gold-plated nib is attractive and firm with just enough (slight) give to impart a pleasant feel when writing. The section thins out a bit in its middle, but I would not characterize the section in any way as a “step-down” type of section. Further time will tell how it performs with more intensive use. My one criticism so far is that the snap-on cap, although easy to remove is a bit awkward feeling to reinsert at times. That awkwardness may be caused by the cap’s inner plastic liner nearer to the top of the cap, and this minor issue may resolve after further use; we’ll have to wait and see. For the Masonic, I paid a sale price (15 % off), which was 179.20 Euros (about $201 USD). As of today, that’s still the price in Euros. I believe that we all are seeing small-batch pens at or near that price range with only stainless steel or GP nibs, so the price is not a shock. The pen has a special design that might attract those who are Masons (I am not) and also are fountain pen fans. In summary, at this early point of experience with the Masonic, it is an attractive and light-weighted pen with a nice gold-plated nib that writes well.

Here's a sampling of the Grifos pens we will be bringing to Ohio. Handmade in Italy, alll start with solid sterling silver, guilloché engraved and then combined with other precious/exotic materials. Included are our new line of sustainable leathers (including various fish leathers, all of which are one of a kind). Stop by our table at the show to see or try them out!

Im trying to justify adding an 18kt gold nib to an order for a Grifos Pen. I dont recognize the markings on the nib and Im not completely familiar with the brand and what nibs they use. Is the nib worth an extra $160 over steel? The pen is made in Italy but I know nothing about the nib maker. Maybe the good people on FPN can tell me if its worth the up charge? I have a couple hours to make the decision so no time to email the manufacturer. Its a massdrop deal.

A friend of mine asked me an advise as he is going to get one of these pens from massdrop : Grifos Pen and the City Fountain Pen https://www.massdrop.com/buy/grifos-pen-and-the-city-fountain-pen Montegrappa Ducale Fountain Pen https://www.massdrop.com/buy/motegrappa-ducale-founatin-pen Montegrappa Game of Thrones Fountain Pen https://www.massdrop.com/buy/montegrappa-game-of-thrones-fountain-pen-bundle unfortunately I haven't use any of them ....I hope to get some thoughts from you and so far I don't think there is budget issue

I received the Grifos Nero Muse Bog Oak Wood that I bought on Massdrop. Only after receiving this pen did I realise that I had completely wasted almost SGD 200. The pen is made of 5000 year old wood and has sterling silver accents, which are nice I admit. The shape, design and weight of the pen are also pleasing. But what really irritates me is that the nib writes worse than my Pilot Metropolitan. I have 3 other pens in my collection, excluding the Grifos, a Pelikan M200, an old Sheaffer and the Pilot. The Grifos is not only the most expensive of the bunch, but also the worst. The threads on this pen are so badly made, you can hear it scratching against itself. But leaving that aside for now, the nib on this pen is diabolical. It has hard starts, a ridiculously dry writing and writes like a European Medium, although it is a fine. The only plus is that it's pretty smooth. I really get no pleasure in thrash talking about this pen but this is my final resort before I ship it back to Italy or Massdrop. Is there anything I can do about the nib? Anything to make it write? As I said it isn't a smoothness problem. Is it possible to swap out the nib? Can I replace the entire grip section and nib? If so, please give me a few suggestions. Or is it just cheaper to send it back? Any help or advise is appreciated.

Hello all - This is my first time in any forum, so please forgive me if I do something incorrectly. I am wondering if anyone knows of a pen repair shop that might be able to fix my very favourite Grifos fountain pen. It is a celluloid and sterling pen, with the sterling being the broken portion. I unscrewed it to check the ink supply in the converter, and when I put it back together something popped and the parts would no longer screw together. I spoke with a couple of different repair places and they all said that they wouldn't be able to get parts for the pen. I am trying to avoid having to send it back to Italy for repairs, as I could probably purchase a new pen more inexpensively. But this is my favourite. Any help would be appreciated.