The pen favored by princes, kings, presidents — and yes, even Oprah

Dante del Vecchio doesn’t need to court big names to endorse his exclusive fountain pens. They come to him.

Visconti, the company Del Vecchio created in Florence in 1988, makes pens that have been in the hands of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prince Albert of Monaco and the King of Saudi Arabia.

His favorite story, though, involves Oprah Winfrey.

“Oprah went to a pen show in 1998 and bought three pens — two of them were Visconti pens,” Del Vecchio, a smartly dressed Italian gentleman, recalls at Rustan’s Fifth Floor showroom. For one of her TV shows, she kept a box hidden under her seat for the last segment. “You’re curious about what’s under my leg,” Oprah told the audience. “You probably don’t know the name Visconti yet” — this was 20 years ago; nobody had heard of Visconti outside Italy. The TV host opened the box, held up a Taj Mahal pen to the cameras and said, “This is the best pen in the world.” Later she sent Del Vecchio a DVD of the show and a hand-signed note: “This is my gift to Visconti for making the best pen in the world — Oprah Winfrey.”

Indeed, Visconti pens combine passion, art and technology in such a breathtaking way, they end up drawing raves from just about everybody. It was Rustan Commercial Corporation president Donnie Tantoco who first went gaga over Visconti. “For years, I was willing to be here, it’s a huge department store,” says Del Vecchio. “But it’s through the owner, Mr. Tantoco, who said, ‘This is the best pen I’ve ever seen.’ He loves the brand.”

So much so that Rustan’s sent buyers to BaselWorld, the watch and jewelry show held in Switzerland, to make a deal with Del Vecchio. “How can I say? They fall down in love with the pens.” And so Visconti is now available at Rustan’s Makati in a tasteful boutique near the Premium Lounge.

Not only celebrities and discriminating buyers love Visconti pens. It’s held a key position in that most diplomatic of missions: sealing international agreements. They say the pen is mightier than the sword — Visconti has proved it, making its appearance at the NATO-Russia Council in 2002 in Rome, used by George W. Bush to sign historic treaties; at the 2009 G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy where US President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy signed an historic agreement; in Beijing 2014, where a commercial agreement was reached between Italy and China, and Visconti pens were presented to Chinese President Xi Jinping; a special gift of 50 exclusive Visconti pens was also made to King of Saudi Arabia last November.

Then there was the marriage of Prince Albert. “I was in Monte Carlo four years ago, we have a friend there with a five-star hotel, he’s crazy for Visconti pens. He said ‘Dante, we want Prince Albert to be married with a Visconti pen.’ We met the Prince, he tested our pens for the Jacques Cousteau museum there. I introduced the pens to the Prince and Princess Caroline. After a year, he came to Florence for a big event, and he recognized me.”

Thirty years ago in Florence, Del Vecchio left his pen-selling job and decided to create a new brand. He started by going back to classic materials — using celluloid, which had fallen out of favor among fountain pen lovers. It’s not surprising that someone from the birthplace of the Renaissance would seek artistic advancement. Del Vecchio challenged himself to make better pens. He looked to unusual materials — like lava, which is unbreakable, inflammable, and hygroscopic (it holds water molecules, absorbing the heat in your fingers; useful in humid climates like the Philippines). He took pens apart and started reimagining them from scratch: “There is not a single piece of the pen I was not able to innovate.”

The manufacturing takes place in a 15th-century villa outside Florence called Di Pazzi (“It means ‘crazy’ in Italian, so we came up with another name for the company”). There, craftsmen hand-build a limited edition of Visconti pens each year. In his spare time he teaches MBA students who come to visit the villa from the US and study his business model. I ask where he gets his ideas, and he chuckles. “I used to say that in the villa there is a tree full of ideas, and when I see one, I pick one off like an apple. When you need a good idea, you just take it. But it doesn’t work like that!” Instead, he says, “the ideas are with you. Sometimes it’s a feeling.”

Del Vecchio holds dozens of patents on his pens. Another big innovation was the Hook Safe Lock, a magnetic cap that never opens unexpectedly, causing leaks. (It was a Saudi sheikh with a leaky pen over his white shirt that spawned that invention.) Gazing at Visconti pens is one thing: trying them out is another. I pick up the Homo Sapiens and try the lock: it has a beautiful cushiony feel when it closes, like a Porsche or Mercedes door closing. Del Vecchio notes how important tactility is for pen lovers: “A pen stays in one of two places: either in your pocket or in your fingers. So it’s so important to design something that is very friendly to your fingers.”

Or take the pen cap that is too tight, creasing your favorite shirt or suit pocket. “I am someone who races superbikes,” notes Del Vecchio, “so I worked with a motorcycle designer to make a mechanism in the pen that was like the suspension in motorcycles. So when you raise the clip, there is a piston inside that moves up and down like a suspension. I asked the Swiss watchmaker Jacques Perigueux to make the pens; they were amazed by this idea.” 

The Visconti owner proudly displays another of his pens. “This is a piece of technology: it’s the Pininfarina.” Co-created by premier Ferrari designer and Visconti partner Sergio Pininfarina, the casing is made from carbongrafite, used in many Ferrari cars, and it has 45 pieces, all created in-house. The cost, for those looking for a great men’s gift? 1,500 euros (about P78,700).

Sure, Visconti pens can be luxury items. One exclusive model, the Alchemy, sold for 200,000 euros recently. But there’s an entry level, too. Del Vecchio suggests the Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Michelangelo lines, all with a magnetic cap, priced at 150 euros (about P7,870).

The collections available at Rustan’s include some of Visconti’s biggest sellers: the Van Gogh line, the Homo Sapiens, and the Divina, based on Leonardo Da Vinci’s divina proportione, the classic Renaissance relationship between head, torso and limbs. (This is Donnie Tantoco’s favorite.)

Visconti pens earn raves through word of mouth (“I spend practically nothing on advertising,” the owner says), and they are the most discriminating of raves. Pen bloggers in the US, the millennials, gush about the beauty of Homo Sapiens. They are just discovering something that has been around for a very long time. Meanwhile, Del Vecchio continues to take his time, perfecting each new innovation. After all, he says, “The fountain pen is the most unrushed item made by humans.” Placed in the fingers, the pen becomes an extension of the heart, will and intellect. So what is the Visconti owner’s favorite pen of all? “The next,” is his answer.

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Visconti is exclusively available at Rustan’s Makati.