Vesuvio LE

In 2018 Maiora was born. A small fine writing instrument manufacturer based in Naples, Italy. 

The owner Nino Marino ( former co-founder of the now defunct legendary Delta Pen company) has brought with him 40 years of experience with the simple goal of creating beautiful writing instruments that capture the key Maiora strengths; experience, passion and enthusiasm. 

The Vesuvio is currently Maiora's flagship pen with only 888 pieces being made. I have #002/888 with an EF nib and I am very impressed.

The body and cap of the pen are made from a specially mixed resin and cast into rods in house. In fact all aspects of the pen, casting, hand turning, hand assembly, and hand polishing are performed under one roof in Naples. 

The material is stunning... a beautiful Orange Spaghetti resin with black hues, some translucence and some glittery highlights all polished to a mirror like finish.  There is so much depth to the material making the pen truely eye-catching.

The cap is finished with a clip that is very modern in design, machined from a solid piece of brass, hand finished to obtain glossy and matte contrasting surfaces and then gold plated.

I would have liked a more traditional clip with a small roller ball on the end, but this is common with nearly all Italian pen manufactures. Although the clip is not my favourite style, it certainly is contemporary and suits the overall look of the pen well.

Continuing down the body (I'll come back to what's underneath the cap.. it really is special) below the cap there is a contrasting matte black portion and then a beautiful brass band, again gold plated. The band features hand engraved "triskells" which in this case symbolises the forces of the universe (according to Maiora)

This is the widest point of the pen... and it really is quite girthy. For me the width is perfect but it may not suite some hands.

The body then tapers down quite dramatically to another gold plated brass ring which is part of the blind cap thread assembly.

The pen is a cartridge converter and you can either undo the barrel from the section to access it, or leave the barrel in place and just remove the blind cap. Of course the cartige convertor operating mechanism is garnished in gold coloured trim with Maiora engraved into it. The convertor  is threaded so screws into the section.

For those of you who are wondering... no the convertor does not rattle in the body, rather it fits very snuggly.

Now the piste de la resistance... the nib. What a beauty! 

The nib is hand made from 18kt gold using equipment from the 1900s... which gives the nib so much character, and has the Maiora logo hand engraved on it.

The Extra Fine in mine has so much expression, fantastic line variation with lovely bounce and snap back. There is a hint of feedback on the EF but it is not scratchy. In fact it is a rather pleasant feeling. 

The whole writing experience is fantastic and the balance of the pen is perfect whether you write with the pen uncapped or posted. Speaking of posting the cap posts deeply and securely.

One thing you should note is the section is girthy and is a significant hour glass shape which some users may find a bit awkward. However if you hold the pen quite high up on the section the cap threads are not sharp and operate very smoothly with one complete turn to cap and uncap the pen.

So overall, well in my opinion, a very well made and beautiful pen.

At ~ £450 some pen enthusiasts would expect a piston filler or another filling system other than an cartridge convertor, and maybe that is a good point but you do have a limited edition, oversized hand made Italian pen with a solid gold nib. 

And what a writing experience.

I personally think the price is very fair after all I brought one! 

Sizes and weights:

Capped:     144mm

Posted:      155mm

Uncapped: 133mm

Girth:            16mm

Overall weight (inked):  35g

Body (inked):                  28g

Cap:                                   7g

I hope you have enjoyed my review on my Maiora Vesuvio Limited Edition.

You can check out other models in the range  at www.izods.ink or @izods_pens on instagram.

Please feel free to have a look at my instagram account, @ellz_penz where I feature my pens and writing samples.