Libelle Nature Series Tuscan Sunset

July 21, 2007

The Libelle arrived today so I thought I'd share my initial impressions. The photos are from the vendor in Georgia, www.ultimategiftsandmore.com (interesting story and more on that later).

Since I just did my living room walls in Venetian plaster in a color called "Tuscan Sun" and my dining room walls in "Tuscany Sunset" I naturally started thinking about the Libelle Nature series pen. I always loved the color but never did buy one because of the steel nib and silver trim. But I may be on to something here, because doesn't everyone need a distinct fountain pen for each room in the house?! :clap1:

The pen came in a Libelle 2-pen case, which was a nice surprise. The case has 2 leather (or simulated leather) & elastic pen slots and a little side pocket for cartridges. The little Libelle card in the pocket says the pen has a lifetime mechanical warranty, also nice.

The pearlized color of the pen barrel-- an acrylic swirl of alizarin crimson, pink and gold with a lot of depth -- is as gorgeous as I had it in memory! It has the appearance of mother-of-pearl facets, however the facets are somehow on the inside, as the barrel shape is round. In fact, the acrylic is a sleeve over a very solid metal body (brass I assume). The cap is also very solid metal. This is one very heavy pen! I think it weighs over 2 oz. & is heavier even than my Waterman Exception (and similar in size and dimension: 5.5" capped, 4-7/8" without the screw-on cap). The section is a comfortable 3/8" diameter. You can forget about posting the cap on this pen -- it does post but there's far too much weight for any kind of a reasonable balance unless maybe you have wrists of iron! This is one of those pens you could use as a weapon or throw down a mountain side & it would probably be just fine.

The pen feels great in my hand, though (unposted). For those who like to hold their pens a bit further away from the nib, the short section, threads and the barrel ring might be uncomfortable. The nib is a medium (medium on the fine side) "iridium point Germany," and performs quite nicely. It's stiff without being a complete nail, probably due to the wide-shoulders shape, and requires no pressure whatsoever. The nib has just a bit of tooth. While I prefer gold nibs, this one feels pretty good.

So far the ink flow is just right, not wet, not dry. I did have to rinse out the converter throroughly. I filled it first with MontBlanc Bordeaux (the PERFECT color of ink for this pen!), which the pen didn't like all that much (pens seem to either love or hate MB ink). Now it's filled with Private Reserve Burgundy Mist. I don't know if it was the soapy rinse or the ink change, but the ink flow is fine now & I'll probably try MB ink again later.

Price: okay, here I admit to my late-night geekiness. I found the vendor on something like page 10 of a Google search... not that many vendors still have the Tuscan Sunset color, and when they do, the price is usually around $100 (MSRP $125, I believe). At Ultimate Gifts, the price was $65 with apparently free shipping! So of course I couldn't resist. The next day I received an email saying I had found an old link to the site -- so old the site neglected to charge me for shipping. Apparently Ultimate Gifts no longer carry pens, but they still had this one in stock. I agreed to pay the shipping and two days later the pen arrived, with the pen case as an unexpected treat!

All in all, I like this pen a lot. The steel nib puts down a nice consistent line and I don't really mind the silver colored trim (the barrel has two wide bands with greek key design; the cap has a silver cap band, clip and "Tassie" -- is that the name of the cap-end?). The color and appearance are quite lovely, and I don't know of any other pen either in acrylic or celluloid that has this distinctive color. I like it enough that I'm considering getting the Nature series Mosaic...If you've been thinking about getting one of these, you might want to check out the newest Nature color at Joon's, brown cap and acrylic barrel that looks like mother of pearl & abalone.

I'm going to stop now, go to bed, and dream about sunsets in Tuscany -- maybe some day I'll actually see the real thing!

Petra