Namiki Emperor Goldfish

Namiki Emperor Kingkyo (Goldfish)

Possibly one of the most exciting maki-e fountain pens that have come out of Namiki in a very long time, this Emperor Goldfish is astonishing. The contrasts between the brilliant colors and the muted metal urushi gives depth to the composition. Landscape, if it can be called that, comprised of terrain, fluid, flora, and fish are all present in exquisite detail.

Namiki Pen Company has returned to a classic form of pen. Seen first in what now are extremely rare and valuable pens made for Dunhill by Namiki in the late 1920's, the "flat top" straight sided pens are back. There are advantages to this pen shape and lack of clip that offer a straight forward "canvas" for Maki-e application. As an eyedropper filled pen, the entire barrel is filled with ink, giving the writer pages of continuous flow.

Multiple approaches to surface detail include delicate raised ridges as seen here on the fins of the gold fish. They also define the contours of the land forms. Seen just to the left are inlaid diamond shapes of gold, in a pattern adding texture to the pond bottom.

Gold and silver metallic urushi lacquer define the goldfish scales as well as the pond ripples.

This style of Maki-e, where the surface is gilded, coated with urushi and then burnished to a high sheen with charcoal dates from the 7th century. The other method employed here developed in the 12th century lays down urushi lacquer in specific areas which is then sprinkled with gold dust to the desired density. This method requires great hand craft. Notice the variation of density on the detail to the left. It is well accepted that Namiki is a world leader in this art, possibly the world leader.

The artist on this pen is Seiki Chida. His calligraphic signature appears to the left.

Spiral swirls of silver ripples beautifully stylize the effect of light on water. The goldfish seem to float in that space between that top surface and the reeds below.

This eyedropper filled pen holds 7.5 ml of ink, several times the capacity of most pens.

Namiki provides this pen with Medium and Broad 18K nibs.

The silhouette of Mt. Fuji as well as the signature pentagon logo identify this nib as Namiki quality. They are superb.

After talking with our distributor, we discovered that only about four of these pens will be available in the US market this year. This production is very laborious and slow. It takes four months to produce one of these pens. So although this is not a numbered edition, the numbers will never be large and may be difficult to procure. This pen will replace the Namiki Carp on Waterfall.

Retail price $ 15,000.00 Our price $12,000.00

Please call for more information.

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