By Mike Stevens
When the Vinsconti Wall Street edition was announced a couple of years ago, it was greeted with quite a bit of interest. Why not? A large sized pen, plunger vac filler, and oh yeah... Striped translucent celluloid! The original was made in two colors, gray and blue, and they've been very popular pens. With modern pens it seems that nothing gets the attention of buyers quicker than "genuine celluloid", and indeed the shimmering highlights of these striped pens proved to be their main selling point.
I've
always had a soft spot for the Visconti plunger vac style fillers, I
like the fact that they hold a lot of ink. The chief objection I hear
raised about the plunger vac filler is that you can't get the barrel
"all the way" full of ink. I'm not sure that this is really
a reasonable objection, but rather just a limitation of the filling
system design.
I have been told that if you use the Visconti ink pot to fill the pen, holding it inverted while compressing the piston, that you can get a mostly full barrel of ink. Personally, I don't bother, even 2/3 to 1/2 a barrel full of ink is more than enough for any use I'm likely to put the pen through. I consider the plunger vac filler to be a winner used as is from an ink bottle.
The new versions of the Wall Street are the same "rounded square" design as the original, just in two different colors: Bright green and a deep burgundy. Think vintage Vacumatic and you are in the right neighborhood. These colors have made a huge difference in my opinion. The original pens were nice, even very nice, but these.... The red especially jumps right out at you.
Of course, being bright and colorful does not make a pen good. It has to offer more than that. Given the price point, a lot more than that. The Wall Street manages to do just that.
For
one thing, instead of the simple and easy (but frankly boring) cartridge/converter
filling system, there's that plunger vac filling system with all of
the advantages I mentioned above.
The nib on the Wall Street is also quite nice; I've tried both the medium and their stub, which writes like a medium italic. When it comes right down to actual use as opposed to just looks, the Wall Street comes through.
If you find yourself preferring a ballpoint, the Wall Street comes as a BP, and a rollerball as well for that matter. The ballpen is quite a bit more slender than the fountain pen, and would actually make a pretty good "everyday" pen for those who don't care for a fountain pen.
The Wall Street is a limited edition, but it's definitely what I would call a "usable" LE pen. These are not likely to end up sitting in your safe deposit box somewhere waiting for the market price to appreciate! Once you get one in your hands, I predict that like me, you'll end up loading it up and getting as much use out of it as you can!
copyright 2006 Mike Stevens
Images copyright 2006 William Riepl