Montegrappa Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation: Life Fountain Pen

The limited-edition Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco: Life is a strikingly original addition to Montegrappa's line-up challenges writers to take meaningful steps against climate change.

Premiered in Rome in the presence of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, the first new Solidarity Edition for 2024 marks a change of style and thematic focus from the previous collaborations. Following I Colori dell’Oceano (2023) and Ocean (2022), Life embraces contemporary materials, artistic presentation and futurist appearance as we shift focus from the organisation’s actions for ocean health to its efforts to counter climate change.

The over-arching concept and the design for this edition have been led by Marco Colasanti— entrepreneur, designer and president of the Foundation’s Italian chapter. The artist and the institution both appear as co-signatories on a design filled with references to the Principality of Monaco and its ruling family. The United Nations is also tagged, with the symbols of its sustainable development goals engraved into the blind cap.

Life combines sculpted elements in brass and sterling silver with machined aluminium. Painted finishes add points of intrigue on both the brass cap—a polar bear family adrift on an Arctic ice floe—and a conical aluminium barrel. Its signature ‘thermometer’ clip assembly uses silver/vermeil components crowned with a white topaz—symbolic of the North Star.

The cap top features the Foundation’s emblem in enamel, while various other laser and diamond-engraved elements in silver include the Monégasque state motto and banner of arms. Life is designed to be stowed and displayed upright, and is at its most impactful when placed on its purpose-built dais, an ice platform milled from white resin and fitted with a 43mm dial thermometer.

Limited to only 200 fountain pens and rollerballs, Life is the first Limited Edition for the Foundation. The fountain pen has an 8mm, 18K gold nib (EF, F, M, B, Stub 1.1), custom-engraved with the House of Grimaldi’s banner of arms and paired with an ebonite feed. Custom packaging is a marble-lacquered wooden case which contains the dais stand and, in the case of fountain pens, a 50ml bottle of ink.

Italy's first pen producer, Montegrappa, began manufacturing pens in 1912 in its factory in Bassano del Grappa in Italy. Utilizing natural celluloid and precious metals, Montegrappa combines traditional methods such, as die-casting, with more recent innovations like low-relief engraving to form their precious art objects. Whether Montegrappa use colors reminiscent of the master painters, or ornamentation suggestive of Baroque palaces, the Italian heritage and romance is infused into each product.