A new concept in Designer Engine Turning

In the mid nineties, Montegrappa was beginning to run out of ideas for new projects that we could use for the CAD CAM system. We suggested that they let us come up with new ideas for them and they readily agreed. They suggested a format based upon multi-cultural artistic and design styles. Thus the Cosmopolitan range of pens was born. Unit price, based on 2005 prices, would be about £20 UKP per pen for most of this range unless otherwise noted, for editions of about 1,000 minimum, usually in two or three lots of 500.

Gothic

"Gothic design is very close to my heart. I have produced several gothic designs for several customers and I don't doubt that more will follow. I am also designing a gothic house which I plan to build. A W Pugin, in 1841, described the purity of a building style that shows the structure as a thing of beauty. I too believe that good engineering is as much an art as a science. In fact, for me, the two are one; there is no dividing line between art and science. My father was an aeronautical engineer and the aircraft he worked on that were most successful, such as the Hurricane and the Harrier, were truly beautiful objects as well as brilliantly functional. To me, this is the spirit of gothic design and why I continue to work with it. This first gothic pen was not one I was completely happy with, but it proved to be one of the best sellers in the Cosmopolitan range and very quickly sold out."

N.B. The illustration shows a reject from production as we did not get a chance to photograph a good one.

African

This design was a difficult concept to achieve because the brief was so broad, with huge numbers of widely varying artistic and design styles all over the continent and over the longest historical period of human occupation on the planet.

After much research, one pattern icon repeatedly appeared, here modified to work on the cylindrical form of a pen. It is based on the simple fly whisk or swat, made of woven grass or rush, and often appears in carvings and other decoration from many parts of Africa. At the customer's suggestion, the outline of the continent itself was used for the engraving panel on the pen cap.

Japanese

"Perhaps the most difficult design brief of all those I had in the nineties, particularly for a person of European origin, was to create two Oriental pens, one distinctly Japanese and one that was clearly Chinese. For the Japanese design I selected the two icons of Cherry Blossom and the Crane, and combined them into the design you see here. "

We will add a photo of the completed pen here soon; our solicitor's wife has one which we will borrow to photograph!

Chinese

"For the Chinese design I selected some of the most ancient icons in Chinese Art. The k'uie, a stylised form of Dragon which predates and which was ultimately the father of the well known Greek Keyway, an icon of Montegrappa's corporate identity as well, forms a repeating pattern in Chinese style. I used it in two distinct formats in this design, from different periods."

The Chinese text, visible here most easily on the body, which on this pre-production example is engine turned, was eventually replaced with plain panels with fine machine engraving to make it easier to read.

Baroque

We will try to find an image soon!

Islamic

One of many Islamic designs we have produced. CAD CAM Engine Turning lends itself particularly well to Islamic design styles.