Diamonds, dragons on European pens
Diamonds, dragons on European pens
By Ati Nurbaiti
JAKARTA (JP): A pen that doesn't conk out when you're in the middle of signing something important is all the average writer wants; but when pens come beautifully engraved, in shiny cases and priced at millions of rupiah, there must be something more to it.
These were featured in a display of French, German and Italian pens from the respective companies of Waterman, Mont Blanc and Montegrappa. The event which began Thursday and will last through today is held at the atrium of Plaza Indonesia.
But on second thoughts, what would be the point of promoting such expensive items to a nation notoriously lazy about letter writing? It is the keyboard that caters to us most of the day.
Apart from scribbling notepads full of seminar notes, "Our targets are executives who will mainly use them for signing," was an apt remark by one of the marketing executives.
Promotion targets are also collectors, said other marketing executives; now this makes more sense, as carrying around a diamond-studded pen of Rp 388 million (US$175.89) may bring unease instead of pride. That's right -- one pen and 4,810 tiny diamonds.
This figure reflects the height of the Mont Blanc mountain from which the German factory in Hamburg takes its name.
Then, highlighting the importance of affluent Asian consumers is a pen featuring a dragon figure in gold, silver and red rubies on a Montegrappa pen -- there are only 100 pieces of the gold version and 1,912 in silver. The design celebrates the coming Chinese New Year, Imlek.
"The exact price is yet to be determined but it would be at least Rp 10 million," said M.F. Massie of the distributor, PT Ina Era Pena.
Regardless of how much people use pens, it is prestige and a sense of things beautiful among potential buyers that has encouraged confident promotions here of various items of high value.
So confident, that part of the pens were borrowed straight after a display in Austria.
A British graphologist, Ness Shirley, brings excitement to the event. She does readings on visitors' handwriting and reveals interesting points about the writers' personality.
The marketing people said the main aim of the display is mainly to introduce the items before eventually hooking buyers; but organizers estimate there are already around 20 collectors here.
"There are at least eight collectors here who own our pens," said Emiliana Nursanti of PT Sumaco Wahana Utama, which represents Mont Blanc here.
"A governor bought a Waterman for Rp 1.8 million," said Agustine, Waterman's representative.
The display was opened in grand fashion last Thursday by Mrs. Maud Girard and Mrs. Karin Seeman, wives of the French and German ambassadors respectively.
Shoppers watched from the upper floors, perhaps wondered what the big fuss about pens was: there was even canned applause together with taped music blared all over the nearby department store as the diamond-studded pen was revealed by the drawing of a curtain, the "Solitaire Royal" pen.
Nursanti of Mont Blanc, the manufacturer, said such an open display would not be held in other countries like Hong Kong, no matter how affluent buyers are.
Hong Kong buyers are "mature," she said. The last display of valuable pens in Hong Kong was held behind locked doors.
"Visitors first make an appointment to see the display, but here nobody will come if we lock the items up," Nursanti added.
Apart from the diamonds and dragon pens, the rest of the collection, the prices which range from Rp 75,000 to Rp 30 million, are also individually exquisite which dates back to 100 years ago.
Teachers
No less interesting is the background of the inventors: some were teachers, that rare class of people who preserve writing for the sake of writing.
Some of us may still remember our first instructions in using our pencils, and how we regarded our teachers' writing, our first exposure to the magic of the printed word, as the best.
These teachers, we are told, wanted to produce the perfect tool for the art of writing. The story of Waterman is rather different; he was an insurance broker who lost a contract on account of the failure of his pen. In an effort to write his signature, the pen splattered ink all over the contract.
Montegrappa says that pens were among the vital tools of the army in World War I as they remedied homesickness through letter writing.
So, although we may have no intention of buying any of the pens, we may be inspired by the devotion of the craftsmen designing a single pen which can take almost one year. We might be encouraged to improve on our scribbling, and who knows, maybe write a few letters.