Just saw this video as Goulet Pens is going to be selling them. It's great. And I laughed out loud when you properly pronounced the name Van Gogh and said "that is how you pronounce the name...trust me, I'm Dutch." I so enjoy your humor as well as the content of your reviews. Thank you.
the nib is smooth over the first lines but after a while it develops skipping problems. Please try the pen the full extent. Big fan anyway. That said, I think they have recently upgraded this nib so the new version is ok.
I share your enthusiasm for the van Gogh pens Stephen. I have "Starry Night" in a medium nib and it is one of my favourite pens. I also love the sound of that magnetic closure when you are capping the pen. Very nice indeed. Thank you for the review, excellent and thorough as always.
I have the Van Gogh Maxi edition. A lot of people have mentioned nib problems with the Van Goghs, in my experience at least, problems only arise when using cartridges. The nib would dry out super fast - so much so that I actually put the pen away for about a year. Out of curiosity I re-inked the pen about a month ago with the converter and it's like a completely different pen!! Ridiculous smoothness with my M steel nib and absolutely no ink flow issues or drying! Will never use cartridges again.
Thank you for reviewing this line in my favorite brand! Visconti has by far taken over my collection, which has representation from many manufacturers. I absolutely adore the Visconti finishes and colors in play with many of their pens, as well as the ongoing variations/innovations in design. Balance and weight are good, and they are a nice fit for any size hand. They really are Art that writes.
It is a stunning pen. I bought one with a medium nib before the summer holiday. I have yet to come across someone who does not admire the colour of the pen. The 18 sides really contribute to the apearance of the resin. I use a medium steel nib and I have to say that Van Gogh nib perfoms less well than the stell nib on my Rembrandt. A pity because the Van Gogh is twice the price of the Rembrandt.
What a gorgeously warm and beautiful pen. That is amazing, and i would imagine a great honor, to be able to buy a Visconti in Florence, at the oldest retailer of Visconti in Italy. I am supremely jealous sir. Thankyou for the wonderful overview of the pen.
Its always nice to see Florence at this time of year not too hot,leather is a big product in the town too, thanks for the insight, keep up the good work
Twsbi 580 has already done multi faceted body. Plus it shows how much ink is left in reservoir. I like the magnetic cap. I will wait for a more innovative Visconti. Great review. Thanks
Ordered one in Pollard Willows color. Took the Fine nib, was afraid Extra Fine would be too fine. Almost took the Irises but Im more of a brown leather guy in color.
Hi, I was aware of the non-van-Go! pronunciation of the artist's name. But it's still difficult for an English ear. If you were spelling it out for native English speakers, what would you do? I love languages and I like to get things right (native Londoner here). Cheers.
Look what came in the mail today! I just inked the Van Gogh up with Lie de The and I love it. Beautiful in the Arles finish with an excellent broad nib. I found it new on ebay for half price. I've been wanting a modern Visconti more than usual after recently indulging in a couple of their early (second) model, celluloid, piston-filler "Replica" pens ca.1989. As you likely know, Visconti recently re-released their first model, the "Classic" (ca.1988) as an entry-level C/C pen. Both the original "Classic" and the "Replica" (cap/clip design aside) bear a striking resemblance to the German-made Tropen "Scholar" piston-filler from the same period. One of my Visconti "Replica" pens even has a "Tropen Nichroma" nib. This leads me to wonder if their earliest pens were sourced from Tropen. Thanks Stephen - you always lead me in the right direction.
Hi Stephen , Would you recommend upgrading to a palladium nib over the stainless? Is the performance worth it? Cost of the Palladium Nib is 70% of the pen.. Thanks!
yes!! original steel nib has plenty of skipping problems, we are not happy here in Italy. But now, I am reading in year 2021 , they have replaced it with a recent upgrade.
Hi. Help . I bought by Ebay a sheaffer black lf ss trim ss1 , and after a couple of months I receive it just now. The lever to press the rubber is stuck, and it seems the whole fountain pen is glued. I cannot open that part. Help.
Very nice. Even cooler, that you bought it from Firenze :-). I've been there almost 10 years ago, unfortunately before I fell in love with fountain pens. I have to say that I was not very impressed with Rembrandt, so I'm not sure if I'd like this one, but of course Visconti is a premium brand and they sure know how to make fountain pens. I'm not going to purchase this one though, because I'm saving to buy a Visconti Homo Sapiens. Congrats on another great review!
So there isn't much in the way of wild boars or deer or...well, I have no idea what a "mouflon" is, but it's mentioned at the Kröller-Müller museum's website. On the other hand, the site says the park is the natural habitat for these animals--but not that they actually live there, so there's that. :P
Thank-you! It's a relief to be finished and moving on to a post-doc. I hope your program is going well. I was curious- do you have a pen "wish list" for the upcoming year? I ask as Brain and Lisa Anderson did this on their webcast this past week and I was wondering if you had something similar.
Stephen thanks for the review on this line from Visconti I was curious do u think this pen rights as well as your opera elements/homo sapiens? Smoothness and flow wise speaking I know line variation would probably be better in the opera, thanks Jude
The museum looks pretty neat--did a Google search and am looking at the museum's website right now. So it's in the middle of a national park with native animals living in it? That's pretty neat--especially to a city slicker like me. :)
That's true. My favorite Van Gogh painting will always be "her," though--"Starry Night." Painted with the Sacre Bleu, if I play along with Christopher Moore's book. :P Magical blue pigment or not, though, it's still a lovely painting. :)
Hey Stephen, I bought this pen a month ago, great out of the box, filled it with Visconti turquoise. Pen was on the wetter side, exceptionally smooth, loved it. However, about halfway into that fill it started drying up and I started getting hard starts. Tines are aligned well. I tried opening them up a little with no improvement. I've never had a pen go from wet to dry like this, especially a Visconti. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Stephen. I'm looking to buy myself and my fiancé a fountain pen to keep a travel / general journal together. (two pens, two inks, one journal :D) . For a few reasons this pen is at the top of my list. However I cant say that both pens will be in constant use, they very may be used quite infrequently ..... Would this pen be a poor choice, does it seal well ( i've read that the 3772 would seal well, or the VR may be good, but ... i'd far prefer this pen if drying up isn't something to be massively concerned about) Could you please impart your thoughts on this
I think any fountain pen will dry up if it's not used for a longer period of time. Having said that, Platinum and Sailor are known for their exceptional sealing mechanisms.
+sbrebrown thankyou for the quick reply. Do I need to be too concerned? Would I ruin a beautiful pen if ink dries or is it just a matter of soaking in warm water? You obviously have alot of pens, so you must either risk ink drying or you empty the pens not in use?
Dr. Brown, I realize this is an older video but I have been strongly considering picking up a Van Gogh but I am slightly torn due to the price. At ~$300 it is somewhat difficult to justify buying a steel nibbed pen. However, I am very drawn to the material and I am a fan of Van Gogh. Now that you've had the pen for awhile was it "worth" it to you? Does the nib performance hold up to the price tag? Many Thanks!!
Just find some other semi-orange pen and that's it. This really doesn't resemble painting in any other way than palette. For that amount of money I'd go with Edison or Newton pen with gold nib, customization and far far higher QA.
My new nib unit arrived today, so I flushed it with water. Dried it out and swapped out the old nib. I inked the pen up with Diamine Sapphire Blue and.. it writes wet :-) no hard starts, smooth. So pleased with it now.
I have religiously watched your videos every time one is posted and i must say that every time a Visconti video is i posted i get extra excited. I know i must procure one, but i do not believe i am ready for one just becaus ei am still new to fountain pens. although i do know i will attain one eventually. An suggestion for one would be most welcome. Cheers!
hello I have only just started getting into you reviews you are a very likeable person I was wondering if you have made a review for the Visconti Rembrandt I cant find it?
Hi very nice review I was just wondering, please can you tell me if this pen is the mini. midi or maxi and please tell me if the viscontis we see for sale online which one are they? I dont understand it. Thankyou
Pandelis Katsianis This is just the Van Gogh. The old model came in midi and maxi, but that's a whole different pen, namely this pen th-cam.com/video/wqr3USNgnU8/w-d-xo.html.
Hello, Im new yo the world of fountain pensm i thinl they are great and i am thinking on getting a new better pen soon. the pen i am using everyday at the moment is the schneider race gear fountain pen . it would be much appriciated if you could do a review on it for me :) and revomend some cheaper pens which are smoother than this ... i like medium or broad nib i fell fine is too scratchy .. thankyou
Or narwhals or tiggers or cookie monsters? Darn! :P Well, I wouldn't mind seeing deer, at least. We have deer in some of our forest preserves here in Chicago. But we don't have wild boars or mouflons, so I think it'd be really neat to see them. :)
Yep. Makes me feel a little sad about Vincent painting "Wheatfield with Crows," only to get shot and killed by that twisted little Colorman because he wouldn't give "her" up. He was only trying to protect her, after all. Gave up an ear for her and everything :(
I expected the review to be of the Starry Night pen, which was the only Van Gogh pen I knew of. Nice to see there are others. (Trying to save my Jammie Dodger from a cat!!!) The UK pronunciation seems closer to the Dutch: Van Goff. Please don't use the US Van Go (ugh!!). Thanks for the review.
I paid £162 for this pen its not worth all that money imho I think its worth about £45 It’s too light in weight . And I thought the nib was not nice very slippery like a ballpoint So I took it in to my workshop and ground and polished it into a italic nib, wow what a difference it now writes superb Don’t like the magnet cap I wish it was a screw type I guess I was fooled by all the hype In the Chinese pens I buy Jinhao Duke and Crocodile. Crocodile are superb and they do a very nice copy of a parker duofold for about £14 They are way more tactile than the Visconti , I am going to be very cautious about buying any more expensive pens they are just not worth the money The Jinhao 159 pens are amazing pens for about £5 from China and when I make the nib into a italic nib they are equal to a pen costing hundreds.
You have to pronounce "Van Gogh" in the American manner for this terrible joke, taken from a cartoon strip called, if I recall correctly, "Frank and Ernest": "Did you hear about the attempted robbery at the art museum? They almost got away with the Monet, but they couldn't make the Van Gogh."
What a marketing gimmick! All they did was make some pens with similar color schemes to famous paintings. I can't believe people pay this kind of money for pens that are obviously selling on a gimmick regardless if the pens are good writers or not. I think this is just typical of the human psychology that people would spend their hard earned money on something so ridiculously ..... ooooo I like the Starry Night pen. I must have it! Never mind.
Just saw this video as Goulet Pens is going to be selling them. It's great. And I laughed out loud when you properly pronounced the name Van Gogh and said "that is how you pronounce the name...trust me, I'm Dutch." I so enjoy your humor as well as the content of your reviews. Thank you.
You're welcome!
the nib is smooth over the first lines but after a while it develops skipping problems. Please try the pen the full extent. Big fan anyway. That said, I think they have recently upgraded this nib so the new version is ok.
I share your enthusiasm for the van Gogh pens Stephen. I have "Starry Night" in a medium nib and it is one of my favourite pens. I also love the sound of that magnetic closure when you are capping the pen. Very nice indeed. Thank you for the review, excellent and thorough as always.
I have the Van Gogh Maxi edition. A lot of people have mentioned nib problems with the Van Goghs, in my experience at least, problems only arise when using cartridges. The nib would dry out super fast - so much so that I actually put the pen away for about a year. Out of curiosity I re-inked the pen about a month ago with the converter and it's like a completely different pen!! Ridiculous smoothness with my M steel nib and absolutely no ink flow issues or drying! Will never use cartridges again.
Ive owned my Van Gogh Starry Night for 5 years now and still enjoy writing with it.
Thank you for reviewing this line in my favorite brand! Visconti has by far taken over my collection, which has representation from many manufacturers. I absolutely adore the Visconti finishes and colors in play with many of their pens, as well as the ongoing variations/innovations in design. Balance and weight are good, and they are a nice fit for any size hand. They really are Art that writes.
I'm going to be studying abroad in central Italy this winter/spring, and I'm definitely planning on buying a Visconti in Florence while I'm there!
It is a stunning pen. I bought one with a medium nib before the summer holiday. I have yet to come across someone who does not admire the colour of the pen. The 18 sides really contribute to the apearance of the resin. I use a medium steel nib and I have to say that Van Gogh nib perfoms less well than the stell nib on my Rembrandt. A pity because the Van Gogh is twice the price of the Rembrandt.
What a gorgeously warm and beautiful pen.
That is amazing, and i would imagine a great honor, to be able to buy a Visconti in Florence, at the oldest retailer of Visconti in Italy.
I am supremely jealous sir.
Thankyou for the wonderful overview of the pen.
8 years later, I still use this pen to sign all of my contracts.
Beautiful finish. I don't have any visconti pens in my collection but have been thinking about a Van Gogh or a Dali.
Its always nice to see Florence at this time of year not too hot,leather is a big product in the town too, thanks for the insight, keep up the good work
Twsbi 580 has already done multi faceted body. Plus it shows how much ink is left in reservoir. I like the magnetic cap. I will wait for a more innovative Visconti. Great review. Thanks
I like your new look (glasses, hair, and beard). Helpful info too! Thanks for your in-depth reviews.
Ordered one in Pollard Willows color. Took the Fine nib, was afraid Extra Fine would be too fine. Almost took the Irises but Im more of a brown leather guy in color.
Hi, I was aware of the non-van-Go! pronunciation of the artist's name. But it's still difficult for an English ear. If you were spelling it out for native English speakers, what would you do? I love languages and I like to get things right (native Londoner here). Cheers.
Thanks for the review. I just got a van Goth with 14ct gild nib. One of my top daily drivers. Thanks.again.
Look what came in the mail today! I just inked the Van Gogh up with Lie de The and I love it. Beautiful in the Arles finish with an excellent broad nib. I found it new on ebay for half price. I've been wanting a modern Visconti more than usual after recently indulging in a couple of their early (second) model, celluloid, piston-filler "Replica" pens ca.1989.
As you likely know, Visconti recently re-released their first model, the "Classic" (ca.1988) as an entry-level C/C pen. Both the original "Classic" and the "Replica" (cap/clip design aside) bear a striking resemblance to the German-made Tropen "Scholar" piston-filler from the same period. One of my Visconti "Replica" pens even has a "Tropen Nichroma" nib. This leads me to wonder if their earliest pens were sourced from Tropen.
Thanks Stephen - you always lead me in the right direction.
Enjoy your new pen!
I have just purchased a Van Gogh just like yours. It is my first Visconti and it is a wonderful pen!
Hi Stephen , Would you recommend upgrading to a palladium nib over the stainless? Is the performance worth it? Cost of the Palladium Nib is 70% of the pen.. Thanks!
If you want some line variation, it's worth it; if you don't care about that, it's not.
yes!! original steel nib has plenty of skipping problems, we are not happy here in Italy. But now, I am reading in year 2021 , they have replaced it with a recent upgrade.
Hi. Help . I bought by Ebay a sheaffer black lf ss trim ss1 , and after a couple of months I receive it just now. The lever to press the rubber is stuck, and it seems the whole fountain pen is glued. I cannot open that part. Help.
Very nice. Even cooler, that you bought it from Firenze :-). I've been there almost 10 years ago, unfortunately before I fell in love with fountain pens. I have to say that I was not very impressed with Rembrandt, so I'm not sure if I'd like this one, but of course Visconti is a premium brand and they sure know how to make fountain pens. I'm not going to purchase this one though, because I'm saving to buy a Visconti Homo Sapiens. Congrats on another great review!
So there isn't much in the way of wild boars or deer or...well, I have no idea what a "mouflon" is, but it's mentioned at the Kröller-Müller museum's website. On the other hand, the site says the park is the natural habitat for these animals--but not that they actually live there, so there's that. :P
I received one of these recently as a gift for finishing my PhD. It's the starry night version and I really like it.
Congratulations, dr.!
Thank-you! It's a relief to be finished and moving on to a post-doc. I hope your program is going well. I was curious- do you have a pen "wish list" for the upcoming year? I ask as Brain and Lisa Anderson did this on their webcast this past week and I was wondering if you had something similar.
I can imagine :-). I have no wishlist, but I just see what flies by and grabs my attention :-).
How much
I certainly hope so - that at least ought to be a given at this "reassuringly expensive" price point.
Did you get to the Uffizi?
Nice review of a nice pen, recently was trying the Salvador Dali. I Really like that magnetic cap!
I'm glad you liked the review!
That would have been quite educational to view Visconti production in person. Thanks for the review.
Stephen thanks for the review on this line from Visconti I was curious do u think this pen rights as well as your opera elements/homo sapiens? Smoothness and flow wise speaking I know line variation would probably be better in the opera, thanks Jude
The museum looks pretty neat--did a Google search and am looking at the museum's website right now. So it's in the middle of a national park with native animals living in it? That's pretty neat--especially to a city slicker like me. :)
That's true. My favorite Van Gogh painting will always be "her," though--"Starry Night." Painted with the Sacre Bleu, if I play along with Christopher Moore's book. :P Magical blue pigment or not, though, it's still a lovely painting. :)
Hey Stephen,
I bought this pen a month ago, great out of the box, filled it with Visconti turquoise. Pen was on the wetter side, exceptionally smooth, loved it. However, about halfway into that fill it started drying up and I started getting hard starts. Tines are aligned well. I tried opening them up a little with no improvement.
I've never had a pen go from wet to dry like this, especially a Visconti. Do you have any suggestions?
If the tines are fine, I'd give the feed a good scrub with some ammonia. l
+sbrebrown success! Thank you!
I think the box has now changed
I've always liked the appearance of this line of pens, one of Visconti's nicest designs.
Do I have reservations? Oh, you bet I do. ;-)
Hi Stephen. I'm looking to buy myself and my fiancé a fountain pen to keep a travel / general journal together. (two pens, two inks, one journal :D) . For a few reasons this pen is at the top of my list. However I cant say that both pens will be in constant use, they very may be used quite infrequently .....
Would this pen be a poor choice, does it seal well ( i've read that the 3772 would seal well, or the VR may be good, but ... i'd far prefer this pen if drying up isn't something to be massively concerned about)
Could you please impart your thoughts on this
I think any fountain pen will dry up if it's not used for a longer period of time. Having said that, Platinum and Sailor are known for their exceptional sealing mechanisms.
+sbrebrown thankyou for the quick reply. Do I need to be too concerned? Would I ruin a beautiful pen if ink dries or is it just a matter of soaking in warm water?
You obviously have alot of pens, so you must either risk ink drying or you empty the pens not in use?
+Kristopher Hammes I'd recommend emptying a fountain pen if is not used for two weeks or more.
omas paragon middle -large nib arte italiana
Dr. Brown,
I realize this is an older video but I have been strongly considering picking up a Van Gogh but I am slightly torn due to the price. At ~$300 it is somewhat difficult to justify buying a steel nibbed pen. However, I am very drawn to the material and I am a fan of Van Gogh. Now that you've had the pen for awhile was it "worth" it to you? Does the nib performance hold up to the price tag?
Many Thanks!!
Mine performs very well, but it is an expensive pen.
Just find some other semi-orange pen and that's it. This really doesn't resemble painting in any other way than palette. For that amount of money I'd go with Edison or Newton pen with gold nib, customization and far far higher QA.
I bought a Visconti can Gogh starry night. The nib hard starts so I will be buying a new nib unit like I did for my Rembrandt.
My new nib unit arrived today, so I flushed it with water. Dried it out and swapped out the old nib. I inked the pen up with Diamine Sapphire Blue and.. it writes wet :-) no hard starts, smooth. So pleased with it now.
Mine has the same problem... I am going to contact Visconti
Ah, the well known Visconti QA strikes again.
I have religiously watched your videos every time one is posted and i must say that every time a Visconti video is i posted i get extra excited. I know i must procure one, but i do not believe i am ready for one just becaus ei am still new to fountain pens. although i do know i will attain one eventually. An suggestion for one would be most welcome. Cheers!
hello I have only just started getting into you reviews you are a very likeable person I was wondering if you have made a review for the Visconti Rembrandt I cant find it?
Yes I did. You can find links to all my video reviews on my website, sbrebrown.com.
ok thank you
Oooooh, gorgeous pen! Reminds me of one of my favorite books, Christopher Moore's "Sacre Bleu." :)
Apropo nothing at all. Do you know if there are any pens out there that are made completely out of recycled materials?
Hi very nice review I was just wondering, please can you tell me if this pen is the mini. midi or maxi and please tell me if the viscontis we see for sale online which one are they? I dont understand it. Thankyou
Pandelis Katsianis This is just the Van Gogh. The old model came in midi and maxi, but that's a whole different pen, namely this pen th-cam.com/video/wqr3USNgnU8/w-d-xo.html.
ok thanks will buy this pen! Danjuvel
Hello, Im new yo the world of fountain pensm i thinl they are great and i am thinking on getting a new better pen soon. the pen i am using everyday at the moment is the schneider race gear fountain pen . it would be much appriciated if you could do a review on it for me :) and revomend some cheaper pens which are smoother than this ... i like medium or broad nib i fell fine is too scratchy .. thankyou
Did you get the 'new' one or the 'old' one? I hear there's a difference between the two (though I don't really know what difference exactly...)
You mentioned the magnetic cap closure but not when posting, does the cap fit snugly at all when posted or is it all loose and spin-y?
It's fairly snug.
By the way, is Brown a Dutch name? : )
Or with the dali and Michelangelo
Yes the black Midi great little pen
Ooooh! Now that's something I'd love to see up close someday. :)
Sir which is better old Van Gogh maxi or recent VG? Thanks for nice video. =)
Groux Degan I prefer the old model.
Did you sell the pen? I always found it quite interesting... very nice review!
TheJOSProductions I did sell it. I just didn't use it enough
Yeah, I suposed it... A pitty I didn't see it at your website
Or narwhals or tiggers or cookie monsters? Darn! :P Well, I wouldn't mind seeing deer, at least. We have deer in some of our forest preserves here in Chicago. But we don't have wild boars or mouflons, so I think it'd be really neat to see them. :)
Is it really the original painting
Not really.
sbrebrown Yes it is!! :D
how do you know?
Was just kidding ;)
-_-...
Yep. Makes me feel a little sad about Vincent painting "Wheatfield with Crows," only to get shot and killed by that twisted little Colorman because he wouldn't give "her" up. He was only trying to protect her, after all. Gave up an ear for her and everything :(
It's not just the pen.... You actually have a Van Gogh beard too! ;) Nice vid!!
Nice! Is there a Visconti model that you still don't own? Haha
I expected the review to be of the Starry Night pen, which was the only Van Gogh pen I knew of. Nice to see there are others. (Trying to save my Jammie Dodger from a cat!!!)
The UK pronunciation seems closer to the Dutch: Van Goff. Please don't use the US Van Go (ugh!!). Thanks for the review.
From what you say, it sounds as if it should be transliterated as Vah - HOH(ch)!
Please, learn how to properly ask a question. Be clear and use a question mark. It is not that hard.
Beautifu pen and BTW you look handsome with the beard.
Nice one .
I would love to hear you loudly berating a ballpoint user in Dutch!
I paid £162 for this pen its not worth all that money imho I
think its worth about £45
It’s too light in weight .
And I thought the nib was not nice very slippery like a
ballpoint
So I took it in to my workshop and ground and polished it
into a italic nib, wow what a difference it now writes superb
Don’t like the magnet cap I wish it was a screw type
I guess I was fooled by all the hype
In the Chinese pens I buy Jinhao Duke and Crocodile.
Crocodile are superb and they do a very nice copy of a
parker duofold for about £14
They are way more tactile than the Visconti , I am going to
be very cautious about buying any more expensive pens they are just not worth
the money
The Jinhao 159 pens are amazing pens for about £5 from China
and when I make the nib into a italic nib they are equal to a pen costing
hundreds.
It's the resin material that costs the money I think. I believe it takes a year to produce or something.
Great Enjoyment! una bella penna.
thank you! i like the pen a lot! woo hooo!
This is a very nice pen.
You have to pronounce "Van Gogh" in the American manner for this terrible joke, taken from a cartoon strip called, if I recall correctly, "Frank and Ernest":
"Did you hear about the attempted robbery at the art museum? They almost got away with the Monet, but they couldn't make the Van Gogh."
wow. just..wow.
when in firenze, right :)
thanks for not butchering the actial name of the pen like our beloved american friends haha
Yes don't, they glasses would fall off too! ;)
That's a pity. :-(
What a marketing gimmick! All they did was make some pens with similar color schemes to famous paintings. I can't believe people pay this kind of money for pens that are obviously selling on a gimmick regardless if the pens are good writers or not. I think this is just typical of the human psychology that people would spend their hard earned money on something so ridiculously ..... ooooo I like the Starry Night pen. I must have it! Never mind.
LOL
Imagine living in kenya