Delta Dolcevita Caruso Vancouver Pen Club Fountain Pen

The Vancouver Pen Club was founded in Vancouver, B.C., Canada in December of 2006 by five original members who were interested in sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm for the fountain pen hobby with others. The club has grown by leaps and bounds over the past eight years and now has over 145 people on its membership roster.

As befits its West Coast location, the VPC is a very casual club with no club officers or membership fees.  There are no speeches or formal presentations required of members, however, each meeting has a theme and members are encouraged to bring items (pens/pencils/other writing instruments/accessories) pertaining to the theme to show and discuss. Both modern and vintage writing equipment enthusiasts are welcome.

The members started discussing the idea of an exclusive fountain pen in the late summer of 2014. The discussions focused on Delta, a high quality pen manufacture in Italy, as their production processes commonly produces limited quantity runs of fountain pens.

Glenn Marcus visited the Delta headquarters in 2012 and 2014, and was impressed with the high degree of hand work and the processes Delta uses to create their pens.

The classic Dolcevita body became the size and look of choice to start the exploration of a Vancouver Pen Club Pen.

In September 2014, Glenn Marcus met with Delta's President, Nino Marino and Salvatore Matrone in Naples  to view celluloid and resin choices and to talk the logistics of having Delta produce a limited edition pen for the club.  Nino Marino said Delta would be very pleased to produce a pen for the club. With this visit, Glenn has met each of the three owners (Nino Marino, Ciro Matrone, Luigi Muscente) and the warmth and sincerity of Delta had come across very strongly. We were committed to have a pen develop and produced by Delta.

With the go ahead from Delta, we worked with Ross Cameron, National Sales Manager with YAFA, the North American representative for Delta. Ross helped to finalize the materials and logistics of the order. Ross said it was a pleasure to work on the project and he always enjoys the experience of linking people with a selected pen!

Salvatore Matrone of Delta created a concept document showing the look of the pen for the members to view. Based on his mock-ups the members agreed on the body size, celluloid and  details of the trim.

We placed our order for 25 pens by the end of November. The pen arrived in North America right at the end of December.

VPC Delta Dolcevita Caruso Pen

The Vancouver Pen Club pen uses a beautiful brown celluloid, called caruso. In talking with Salvatore about the celluloid, I found out it was selected by one of the owners of Delta, Ciro Matrone, and first used in the Delta Limited Edition Enrico Caruso pen issued in 2007.

The celluloid was also used for the 1982-2012 Delta Anniversary Pen. I acquired that on my 2014 visit to Novelli in Rome and it is included in my Pens of Note.

The members liked the solid size of the classic Dolcevita body. The pen has a closed size of 141.8 mm, the pen body 62.3 mm. The minimum diameter of the body is 13.7mm with a maximum diameter of 17.2 mm.

The capacity of the piston is 1.1 ml of ink.  And while some pens have a converter within the body, this is a true piston model.

Writing with the Dolcevita Caruso

Writing with this pen is a pleasure! I have numerous Dolcevita model pens from Delta. Over the past two years this has become my pen of choice in terms of size and weight. I like the size of the body, it sits well in my hand. The cap posts to pen firmly.

The Filling System

The Dolcevita Piston Filling system is one of the best you could have. I really like the soft racketing that occurs when you have fully drawn the piston up to fill the ink chamber. No need to worry that you are turning the piston too far and you may strip the threads.

The Nib

The Fusion nib writes very smoothly. When it comes to a stub, this is one of the best stub nibs I have.

The Cap

Caps are important to the look and feel of a fountain pen. The cap for this pen accents the overall look. The band at the base uses classic designs found in ancient Roman artwork. There is a second narrow plain band just above the larger band. Nice design point.

The clip is firm. You can clip this pen in a shirt pocket, and the small rolling ball at the end of the clip helps, or the pen can be clipped inside a jacket. The clip attaches to a solid metal band that then is part of the overall cap construction. This is nice, as it is not a pen where the clip is attached through openings in the cap. Sometimes, ink can build up on a nib, and then come through the small openings in a pen cap where the are openings for the nib.

At the end of the car there is a small metal plate with "VPC" engraved.

The Body

The body is what is in your hand, and it conveys the largest visual message about the pen. The size of the pen is excellent for those who prefer a larger pen.

The celluloid used here is subtle, but I will say when the light hits the pen the depth of the brown tones is stunning. It is a beautiful blend of dark and light brown tones.

There is a small window that shows the amount of ink in the ink chamber just above the nib section.

A simple band separates the body from a twist off cap that exposes the twist mechanism for the piston.