Stipula La91 August September 2005 Stylophiles Online

I love pens that are exquisitely engineered. It probably plays to the "fiddle factor" that drew me to fountain pens in the first place. I love my Namiki Vanishing Point and my Sheaffer Intrigue (which has a cap that only fits in one position), and the Monteverde Intima, which is tiny until you post the cap.

Friends may call them gimmicks, but innovative design intrigues and fascinates me. (Yes, I have a thumbnail flash drive for my computer.)

So I couldn't tear my eyes away from the Stipula La 91 when it showed up at Bertram's Inkwell at the Portland Pen Show.

The pen twists and slides and - using the same titanium nib as an earlier model of Stipula's Ventidue - writes beautifully. (Even vintage pen aficianados who scorn modern pens aren't wholly immune to the charms of the Ventidue's titanium nib.)

As I walked by Bertram's table, I saw a cylinder on display that looked like a pen, but apparently had no cap and no nib. When I asked about it, Jim Rouse hummed a lighthearted tune as he demonstrated the extension mechanism. As he began describing the different features of the La 91, I'm surprised I didn't break his fingers in my eagerness to get it out of his hands.

Outside, the Stipula La 91 has an acrylic body with liberal silver accents. The pen comes in green, blue, tortoise and black. The green is a pure emerald, perfectly balanced between blue and yellow. The variegated color derives from flakes of varying pearlescence and intensity, from a lighter, shimmering emerald to a deep forest green.
The blue (not in attendance at the show) has a similar color style.
The tortoise is a deep yellow, less pearlized, with scattered black swaths as contrast. The black is simple and opaque.

This is not a pen that will roll off your desk. First, you won't want to leave it lying flat... because it won't lie flat. This is a pen with contour!

With the nib extended for writing, a thick barrel band, 1/2" wide, bisects the pen. The band is composed of three flat silver plated bands that alternate with two black rubber rings. In front of the band, the acrylic barrel is slightly concave and tapered.

Behind the band, the acrylic barrel is evenly cylindrical (not having the concave taper of the plastic in front of the band) and runs straight back toward the silver end piece, which tapers straight out, giving the base a wider diameter than the barrel. The pen is made to stand on this flat base, nib pointing upward. The Stipula insignia is imprinted on the slightly concave base.

At the nib end, a silver-plated collar (engraved with La 91) tapers out toward the barrel, then bevels inward. In its closed state, the barrel band rests flush against the pen's silver base and a circular metal panel closes the front of the pen, protecting the nib.

But twist the barrel band, and a half-circle of the panel rotates open. Now the barrel band slides into action: it doesn't twist or turn - it slides straight forward along the barrel, extending the nib as it moves. When fully extended, the nib and band snap into a locked position for writing.

I dipped the pen for testing at the show. The titanium nib is beautifully responsive. I have a titanium italic nib in my Ventidue, and I'm an evangelist when it comes to the performance of these nibs. The medium on the La 91 has a nice, springy bounce. Nibs also are available in fine, broad, and 0.9 or 1.1 italic.

Beneath the acrylic exterior, metal workings and a plain plastic sleeve extend the nib and hold the international ink cartridge in place. There is a gap cut across the diameter of the pen, just in front of the base piece, that allows the opening mechanism to operate. There is also a groove running from the end piece to the barrel band that allows the extension mechanism to slide forward.

One drawback to "safety" style pens is that they often aren't jotters. By the time you unscrew the cap, extend the nib, write your note, retract the nib... well, you get the idea. This isn't a concern with the La 91. Its capless design and simple twist-and-push nib extension makes it a great jotter, and it's the perfect size for a purse or pocket.

A couple of other observations: When I retracted and closed the pen after use, some ink transferred to the outside of the sliding door that protects the nib. This seems to be a function of having dipped the pen and not wiping the nib, because Bertram's reports they've seen the same effect when dipping, but not in normal use with a cartridge. Also, the nib of some pens extends without a snap to indicate it is locked, but it remains firmly in position under writing pressure.

I'd hoped to add the La 91 to my collection - and may still - but I have reservations about the oft-repeated mantra, "It's all about the nib." If it were all about the nib, I'd have an La 91 in every color and nib size. Yet the weight and balance weren't quite right for me. At 3-5/8" long, and 1/2" diameter at the gripping point, the La 91 is short, thick, stocky - and heavy. The inner metal barrel, the metal components that protect and enable the sliding mechanism, plus the metal end piece and accents, provide a lot of heft in such a compact model.

Style, ingenuity and a damned nice writing experience make the La 91 stand out. Small and heavy, it won't have universal appeal. But what pen does?

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