Pelikan M601 Art Collection Rudi Rother Limited Edition - Fountain Pen

THE PELIKAN ART COLLECTION CONTINUES WITH A  NEW MASTERPIECE INSPIRED BY HISTORIC POSTER ART FROM RUDI ROTHER. 

Following the success of the debut edition featuring Glauco Cambon’s vibrant design, Pelikan proudly unveils the second chapter of the Pelikan Art Collection: the SOUVERÄN M600 PELIKAN ART COLLECTION RUDI ROTHER. This Special Edition once again brings to life the rich visual heritage of Pelikan’s historic advertising; this time through the bold, geometric aesthetics of artist and designer 
Rudi Rother. With his expressive poster artwork reinterpreted on the fountain pen’s barrel, this edition continues the journey of transforming iconic visuals from the past into contemporary objects of writing art

The fusion of art and commerce around the turn of the 20th century marked the beginning of a new era: the birth of advertising art. From that moment on, posters became the canvas for brands to communicate blending artistry and product. Leading avant-garde artists and designers such as El Lissitzky and Kurt Schwitters began crafting commercial visuals using Pelikan inks and paints. This wealth of advertising posters, spanning from 1900 to 1950, forms an extraordinary part of Pelikan’s artistic legacy. It was Fritz Beindorff, the former owner of Pelikan and a passionate art enthusiast, who first recognized the creative potential of these collaborations. As early as 1898/99, he launched Pelikan’s inaugural poster competition, laying the foundation for a long-standing dialogue between fine art and design.

Rudi Rother was a German painter and illustrator who was born in Hirschberg in 
1863. He was renowned for his decorative and graphic work in Jugendstil, Germany’s 
counterpart of art nouveau. His humorous pen-and-ink illustrations garnered respect particularly in the world of advertising, with his advertisements and posters having a decisive influence on commercial art. His work was characterized by flowing lines, ornamental designs, and stylized figures. Rother died in Berlin in 1909.

The lovingly designed barrel of the Souverän M600 is made using the sophisticated “Aurora” method. First, a brass tube is processed, engraved, and given an application of guilloche, that is, wafer-thin grooves that achieve the special, light-reflecting hologram effect. Thanks to the ten layers of clear lacquer, the writing instrument has a smooth, even surface on which a coloured image design is printed after polishing. The final polishing of the case, which is done in several rounds, brings the icon to a high sheen.