Visconti

Founded 1988 · Florence, Italy · Dante Del Vecchio and Luigi Poli

Visconti was born of two collectors who wanted something that was no longer being made. In 1988, when the industry had abandoned celluloid for cheaper and more stable resins, they set up a house in Florence precisely to make celluloid pens again. It is the youngest of the great houses and the most technically restless.

History

Dante Del Vecchio and Luigi Poli, friends and collectors, founded Visconti on 20 October 1988 in Florence. Their first collection was called Classic and was made in celluloid, a material the established makers had left behind but which collectors still sought for its depth of colour. In 1989 they brought out Urushi, their first limited edition, of a hundred pieces. At the turn of the millennium came the clip that became their signature: an explicit reference to Florence's Ponte Vecchio. Since then the house has made its name experimenting with materials nobody else uses — basalt resin, Etna lava, ebonite, titanium — and with filling systems of its own.

Iconic models

Homo Sapiens
A basalt resin body with Etna lava; heavy, matte and slightly porous to the touch.
Van Gogh
Marbled resins reproducing the colours of one specific painting; the house's best-selling line.
Medici / Ponte Vecchio
The clip imitating the Florentine bridge, the brand's mark of identity since 2000.
Rembrandt
The entry to the catalogue, in resin and with the same formal language as the top lines.

Worth knowing

The clip on a Visconti is not an abstract ornament: it is the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, arches and all, set on edge across the cap.