Faber-Castell, the oldest manufacturer of pencils in the world (founded in 1761), now presents their latest starlet: Graf Von Faber Castell 2012 Pen of the Year. Since presented the first model in 2004, the company continues to design pens with a deluxe level of craftsmanship making it top quality product and the world’s first brand writing instruments.
Faber Castell Pen of the Year 2012 is designed as luxury combination of gold leaf and ancient wetland oak. This extraordinary beauty of oak is the result of thousands of years transforming the wood into gnarled textures to look like driftwood. Many of the wood pieces used in this collection have been buried for more than 8,000 years in German bogs and marshes.
The gold leaves are perfectly and precisely applied by hand to the grain of the wood. Process is so delicate and demands particular artistry and skill. Only a select few gilders in the entire world are capable of implementing it. Faber-Castell has chose Ernst D. Feldmann, a master gilder and church painter, who has studied Venetian gilding techniques for years and has been awarded the Bavarian State Design Award, to do the delicate work. Using a fine squirrel-hair brush, he applied a 4,000-year old technique that dates to the ancient Egyptians to paint multiple layers of 24K gold leaf on the oak barrel, bringing the wood into intricately gilded beauty.
The pen is crowned on its cap by a chessboard-faceted citrine gemstone. Every one of the meal fittings and finishes are 24K gold-plated and shinned to luminescence. The front tip of the pen features an impressive 18K bicolor gold nib that is available in line widths of fine, medium and broad with each one ‘run in’ by hand. Limited to only 1500 pieces, each pen is individually serialized and comes in a striking deep black wooden case. It is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Ernst D. Feldmann.