DELTA

La Città Reale

Reggia di Caserta

Special Limited Edition

2005

P

erhaps Charles Borbon III King of Two Sicily greatest creation was the Royal Palace at Caserta. Wanting a home to rival his ancestors' palaces at Versailles and Escorial, Charles hired Luigi Vanvitelli, southern Italy's greatest architect, to design a complex of buildings and gardens that ended up being larger and more impressive than either of its predecessors. Located out of range of both Vesuvius and of marauding sea pirates, Caserta is a 45-minute train ride from Naples Central station. The palace was the last great building of the Italian baroque., and each of its 1200 rooms are as extravagant as exquisite. The majestic main staircase, whose 116 steps were all carved from one gigantic block of stone, is a perfect combination of rich marbles and dramatic perspectives. It leads to the splendiferous 25 rooms of the royal apartments. This immense palace was meant also to include within its walls a University, a Seminar, The Ministries, one Public Library, The Magistrary, a Great Theatre and one Cathedral Church. All that and including accomodation for the Royal Family and Court. It had to be big and magnificent indeed. Construction was performed between 1752 and 1773.

The gardens are immense; stroll through the Bosco Vecchio (old wood), past the little castle built as a playhouse for the Bourbon princes, past the fish pond where mock sea battles were staged to amuse the members of the royal court, past the dolphin fountain and on to the fountain of Diana and Actaeon, a sculptural group as animated and enchanting as the one in Trevi Fountain. Rest a while here, for you still haven't reached the loveliest section of the park, the English Gardens, embellished with a tiny lake and fake ancient ruins.

This time Delta pays tribute to the Royal Palace of Italy, dedicated to the great monument “La Città Reale” and to the city of Caserta, with one creation that surely will be remembered in much time to come. Instruments in this Edition have been handcrafted from solid bars of splendid rare marbled celluloid which has been maturing at Delta for the past decade.

Two different versions are available. Cellebration (75 units), with solid gold trims and Special Limited Edition (750 units) with solid sterling silver trims and lever filling system. In addition, 750 Rollers and 750 Mechanical pencils (0.9mm) have been manufactured. The effort in producing such precious writing instruments, presentation boxes and accessories at an attractive final price is something that the collector should be grateful for. The basic arrangement may be simitar to the well known Venezia, offering also as standard a pen desk base in adition to the usual special ink bottle, high quality leaflet and boxes.

THE PERSONAL STORY

Last fall, on a late evening and while paying one of my frequent visits to our local FP store, the owner told me that the spanish representative for Delta was just about to arrive. Well, I could not resist waiting a few minutes more as I wanted to meet him again. On his last visit to the island, when I met him for the first time, I found that he was a very nice chap and he finally managed to find for me the Segovia and the elusive Joaquin Rodrigo. It was not long before his smiling face appeared and we shaked hands. He did not give me time to say anything as he immediately asked me… Would you like a FP in marvellous celluloid, in shades of caramel ranging from almost white to dark chocolate? Yes, it even comes with a pen base like Venetia did… and the number of limited edition will be not big, around 700 … and the price perhaps will be not high taking into account it will be something special… By this time I had already a big yes prepared, but he continued… and… I have here the prototype to show! … well, that was too much for me. The shop owner was at this time still busy and the representative showed me the prototype of the pen, in the same celluloid but with plain cap rings and without any engraving. I found the pen gorgeous indeed. Instead of answering a YES, I asked him… can I choose serial number? He answered that possibly yes, then I ordered the 71 SLE with F nib!

After returning home I did some search on Internet but to no avail. Well, it was time to wait till Christmas in which a phone call told me that Santa arrived. Yes, still was a surprise to see the final result after engravings were added and clip was definitive in shape. It was even mores spectacular than imagined. It was a big and heavy one in my first impression, and what an incredible celluloid!

The combination of the brown shades in celluloid and the silver trims and fittings was just unbelivable. By this time I had already seen some pictures in online italian stores but the detail and rich colour were not comparable to the real thing. On unscrewing the cap, a precious 18-karat nib appears, as usual by Delta, personalized to the pen and with its traditional care and detail, tending to perfection. On close inspection, the white-brownish veins can be seen penetrating between the darker brown patches and giving transitional shades in the process, all in a tridimensional magnitude. If looking closer to the dark brown areas, theese are formed by different shades of brown also. This is something I discovered later when examining very slowly the FP while having my evening tea. This pen requires time and peace of mind to show all its aesthetic potential.

The charging system is by lateral lever and works very well, as by all lever Deltas. Lever shows the date of the LE and there is an engraving in the barrel with the name and type of LE.. The pen holds a full load of ink and is ready to give hours of writing pleasure despite its apparent weight as most of the it is contained in the cap. As I do write without posting this FP feels really well when in use.

Serial number is engraved on the posting end of the barrel in a silver plate. The instructions point that it should be engraved in the barrel but I think it was wiser to locate it here in order to not overengrave the beautyful barrel. Apologies for the cammera and almost marginal self-portrait appearing on the plate. I have to fix that some time…