Pontifex Maximus Lace Negoro Red Usu-nuri 2025 N°4 * Philosophical Instruments

 The Pontifex Maximus is the first fountain pen model. In Latin, Pontifex means "bridge-builder". Made in Belgium from Japanese ebonite and featuring a Japanese eyedropper filling system, this oversized fountain pen is a well-balanced writing instrument and offers a generous canvas for urushi and maki-e artwork.

 The urushi fountain pens are created in collaboration with Urushi Atelier Netherlands, where a small team of highly skilled Japanese urushi artisans is led by Dave van Gompel, the only Western graduate of the lacquerware department of the prestigious Tokyo University of the Arts. The studio prides itself in using urushi exclusively and does not employ a mixture of natural and synthetic coatings.

 The combination of lace and urushi lacquer brings into being a timeless, refined and tactile combination of Western and Japanese arts & crafts. On the Lace Negoro fountain pens, certified antique hand-made lace from Bruges is applied with 100% urushi from Japan, combining the negoro and tamenuri methods. Top urushi layers are burnished to make the underlying and differently colored layers appear so as to reveal the lace pattern, therefore the pen reminds us of the negoro style. The use of lace, in this case pure linen, is reminiscent of the nuno-bari method, in which fabric is lacquered and intentionally left visible.

The number of fountain pens made with a particular lace design will be limited and vary depending on the availability of the antique lace used. For 2025, Lace Negoro Red production is limited to four fountain pens.