By Mike Stevens
Well,
there's good news, and there's bad news as they say. The good news is
that the new Wall Street from Visconti is a great pen. The bad news? It's
a limited edition, with a price tag to match. Oh well, you can't have
it all, I guess!
Setting aside the price for a moment, the Wall Street is a full sized pen, using the Visconti plunger-vac filling system, and made of a great material that will look very familiar to those of you into vintage pens of the Parker persuasion. I am told that the Wall Street is made of celluloid, as opposed to acrylic, if that matters to you.
Generally, the use of this type of plastic has come to cast a special glow upon any modern pen manufactured with it, but really, it makes very little difference in terms of looks or performance. Some say celluloid has a better "feel" in the hand, I don't know about that. It's not quite a case of "plastic is plastic" with me, but close!
Of
whatever exact type, the material has the same striped translucence as
used on Parker Vacumatics. And the Visconti Manhattan of a few years ago.
It's made in gray or blue, and the choice between the
two is so close as to be impossible to call. The blue is a bit brighter,
but the gray has a nice subtle elegance to it. Forget choosing, I want
both!
In fact, if you cast your mind back to the Manhattan, it was also made in green and burgundy, both of which would be a perfect color for this pen. Visconti? If you're listening...
The trim on both pens is silver in color, which manages to go along with both the gray and the blue in a very complimentary fashion. There's a capband, a trim ring at the piston knob, and the clip.
Removing
the cap reveals Visconti's large size nib, in two tone 18K gold. If you've
tried any large sized Visconti lately, you're familiar with this nib.
I've had pretty good luck with the large sized Visconti nib/feed combo
on the vac-fill pens, at least. The troubles I've encountered have all
been with the cartridge converter filled pens, and usually a quick cleaning
of the converter and feed channels have been enough to square things away.
The large Visconti nibs are what I would call a good "soft" nib, they're not flexible in the classic sense, but they're nit as rigid as many modern nibs. You definitely feel as though you're writing with a fountain pen. The vac-fill system ensures that you have a lot of ink with which to write, a whole barrel full.
Writing
with the Wall Street shouldn't prove to be to arduous a chore, even leaving
aside the attractive looks. The shape of the pen is something a bit new.
It's what I would describe as a rounded off square shape. It's hard to
describe, but looks great. Feels good in the hand, too.
Part of that is also due to the size, the Wall Street is almost exactly the "right" size for most hands. It's a full sized pen, no doubt about that, but light enough, and slim enough through the section to be comfortable for smaller hands. Post the cap, and the semi-squared off shape feels large enough to be comfortable for those who like a larger sized pen.
From feel to looks, the Wall Street is an amazing pen. About the only complaint I have heard so far is regarding the clip. There are some folks who dislike the design from an aesthetic standpoint. I don't agree.
I think the somewhat stark design of the clip fits in with the lines celluloid and the squared off shape of the cap and barrel. It's not a "traditional" clip design, that's true, but I feel that it compliments the pen's overall look very well.
It's a spring loaded style clip, like the kind used on the Van Gogh and other recent Visconti designs, and seems to work well in practice. The pens we received were prototypes, but I'm assuming that the production style clips will be similar if not identical to these.
For the most part, the Wall Street should prove to be a complete hit with the pen buying public. It's unfortunate that it's being made as a limited edition, only 2000 of each color being produced, because I think this pen would make an excellent flagship model for Visconti. Still, even as a limited edition, it should be successful. The list price of $600 might be a bit steep for some, but once you get your hands on one for a few minutes, trust me, you start thinking of ways to come up with the money! Just how important is that power bill, after all...
