Pens of Note

Waterman Man 100 Etoile, Limited Edition

 

This is a limited edition pen, with a total of 1,000 pens produced, I am fortunate to have pen #199..

Augusto Parascenzo, of Novelli Pen wrote me and invited me to Rome for dinner. So we took him up on his offer. It was our first visit to Novelli Pen and we had a great pasta that evening. His son, Marco, was just in the process of finishing his studies. Now, some 23 years later, we have been to Rome and visited Novelli pen all but one or two years since that time.

The Etoile is different from a different version of the Man 100 also produced in sterling silver. The 1985 Man 100 in sterling silver does not have the Fougere style pattern of engraving and it also has a black top at then end of the cap. The Etoile is all sterling silver

Waterman introduced the Etoile in 1993. It uses the Man 100 body, introduced in 1983 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Waterman company. Although produced in France at Waterman's factory in Nantes, the design and marketing of the pen is the Italian market. At the time, precious metal pens were quite popular in Italy.

This is a large pen, even by today's really big pen standards. There is real solid weight because of the brass inner mechanism and the sterling silver body. The pen measures 5 5/8 inches long when capped and 6 3/4 inches when the cap is posted to the pen. I really like the nice tight snap when the cap is placed on the pen body.

The barrel and cap are engraved in a Fougere style pattern. The nib section and the top of the cap are in plain sterling silver.

Limited edition pens were not the thing back in 1993. The packaging was impressive. The pen comes in a large blue box complete with a nib that can be pinned on your clothing. I reserve that for very special meetings!

The nib sections that come with this pen were available in Fine and Medium. The nib itself is 18 kt gold decorated with rhodium.

The filling mechanism is the regular Waterman cartridge/converter method.

The nib is a very smooth, the pen is a pleasure to write with.