Visconti is an Italian

manufacturing company Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a range ...

luxury goods In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to n ...

, founded in 1988 in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

by Dante Del Vecchio and Luigi Poli, who were themselves collectors of

fountain pen A fountain pen is a writing instrument which uses a metal nib to apply a water-based ink to paper. It is distinguished from earlier dip pens by using an internal reservoir to hold ink, eliminating the need to repeatedly dip the pen in an inkw ...

s. The company became notable for the use of

celluloid Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common contemporar ...

in the manufacturing of its pens, adding details in

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

ebonite Ebonite is a brand name for a material generically known as hard rubber, and is obtained via vulcanizing natural rubber for prolonged periods. Ebonite may contain from 25% to 80% sulfur and linseed oil. Its name comes from its intended use as an ...

, and

acrylic fiber Acrylic fibers are synthetic fibers made from a polymer (polyacrylonitrile) with an average molecular weight of ~100,000, about 1900 monomer units. For a fiber to be called "acrylic" in the US, the polymer must contain at least 85% acrylonitr ...

. Visconti's handmade fountain pens have been recognised for their quality and fine craft, having released several collections since the company's inception.

History

The company was founded on 20 October 1988 by Luigi Poli and Dante del Vecchio, two friends that decided to turn their passion for fountain pens into a business.Brand values & history
on Visconti website The first collection launched by Visconti was the "Classic", a pen made of

, which would be used for several collections in successive years. The success of this pen encouraged its founders to release a new model, "Urushi", a limited edition of only 100 pieces, made of

and decorated with the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

lacquerware Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer. Lacquerware includes small or large containers, tableware, a variety of small objects carried by people, and larger objects such as furniture and even coffins painted with lacquer. Befor ...

technique. During the 1990s, Visconti developed the high vacuum power filler system (1993), the travel inkwell (1997) and the double reservoir filling system (1998), which consisted of a double reservoir refilling system, to prevent leakage. By 2008, the company had 25 employees who made the pens handcrafted.L' atelier della penna raddoppia il fatturato
by Maurizio Bologni on ''La Repubblica'', 22 Oct 2005 In 2009, Visconti reached a deal with Coles of London (actually based in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

), whereby Coles became the official distributor of Visconti products in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Together, both companies launched a range of new products, including the Rembrandt Collection, Opera Masters, Homo Sapiens Collection, Divina Royale range, and the limited-edition Templari. By 2012, Visconti exported its crafted products to more than 50 countries around the world, with 50,000 pens sold by year. Dante Del Vecchio left Visconti in 2016 due to a conflict with his business partner and later became chief pen designer at Pineider.

References

External links

*
Visit with Visconti and President Dante del Vecchio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Visconti (Pens) Manufacturing companies based in Florence Fountain pen and ink manufacturers Watch manufacturing companies of Italy Jewellery companies of Italy Italian brands Luxury brands Italian companies established in 1988