Metropolitan Museum Of Art Russian Imperial Red Fountain Pen Medium Nib

Peter Carl Fabergé (Russian, 1846 – 1920) was only twenty-six years old when he took over his father’s jewelry business in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1872.  Fabergé’s workshops produced a wide variety of "objets  d’art", including magnificent jewelry, clocks, enamel cigarette cases, boxes, and frames.

Fabergé was the world’s greatest master of guilloche enameling, a time-intensive technique, in which polychrome enamel is layered over circular, straight, or wave patterns engraved on metal.  The enamel is translucent, allowing light to penetrate and reflect off the metal, which shimmers as light catches it from different angles.  Combining exquisite guilloche enameling with precious metals and stones, Fabergé brought it to the very heights of luxury, making it one of the decorative techniques most favored by the elite of Edwardian society. 

The Museum’s pen, crafted of 24K gold overlay with lacquer, is based on a gold picture frame with guilloche enamel in the Museum’s collection, created by Fabergé’s studios before 1899.  

The fountain pen has a medium German made gold plated steel nib and takes a standard cartridge or convertor.  Both fountain pen and roller ball have twist caps.  The roller ball takes standard refills.