Art Direction / Styling
Hard Luxury includes jewellery, watches… and pens. An unlikely trio in anyone’s book but pen’s are an obsession for some, a bit like coin collecting and collectors are called penophiles. When I was researching this shoot I met a few specialist collectors who bought their rare and rather beautiful collections into the office so I could get an idea of what mattered and what didn’t.
Some very plain pens are highly sought after like our Blancpain Grayson Tighe but as a jewellery lover, my eye lingered over the show stoppers such as those created by Montegrappa. All quivering sterling silver nib and buxom turtle-brown celluloid. I called in a selection of both and Joel and I created a graphic canvas for these most magnificent of old-school creations. I’ve never been able to look at pens in the same way since and shortly afterwards invested in a Montblanc. That’s the trouble with luxury. It haunts you…
Pens Grayson Tighe series 5 fountain pen, engraved titanium and white gold, Blancpain, £2,270
Rhodium-plated hexagonal fountain pen, Caran d’Ache at William & Son, £730
Reine de Naples fountain pen in polished solid silver, Breguet, £1,800
Black ceramic Lalique crystal fountain pen with cabochon crystals, Caran d’Ache at William & Son, £2,750
Extra 1930 fountain pen in turtle-brown celluloid and sterling silver, Montegrappa, £1,075
Creative Team Art Director: Melanie Grant, Photographer: Joel Chant
Photographed for 1843 Magazine at The Economist in September 2017.
