Fountain pen fans weren’t exactly surprised when Italian brand Delta Pen closed up shop a few years ago. You never want to see a beloved brand shut down, but I must say, I am pleased at what I’m seeing so far from the companies that started up in Delta’s wake.
The Delta DNA is clear in both Leonardo Officina Italiana and Maiora Pen offerings. I’ve covered Leonardo ad nauseam in these pages and on the podcast, and it’s time to give Maiora its own due. The Impronte Oversized Posillipo certainly deserves it.
Let’s tackle the Oversized part of the name first. Yes, this is a big pen, but by no means outrageous. As a well-known fan of writing instruments on the smaller side, the Impronte Oversized fits my hand wonderfully.
The key to that is the concave grip section. It’s deeper than what you may find as standard, but what it allows is your fingers to have a proper amount of space between them with a traditional grip. The result is having good writing control for a pen that has a wide barrel.
The barrel itself is beautifully shaped, beginning with a wide center point, and tapering - at different degrees - towards the peaks at the top and bottom. All of the barrel trim matches perfectly with the fun blue green of this Posillipo material.
The Impronte is a cartridge/converter filling pen, with a blind cap on the back of the barrel for that “captured converter” feel it you want to fill the pen without unscrewing the barrel from the middle. I don’t mind this aspect of the design, but I don’t think I’ve ever used this feature in any pen I own.
The #6 JoWo Extra Fine nib was good right out of the box, but I did have to smooth it just a touch to knock off a bit of a “picky” feel when writing. It was fine, but I wanted it smoother, so a couple of swirls around 12000 grit sandpaper fixed it.
If you were to ask me to pick only one between the Maiora Impronte or Leonardo Momento Zero, I wouldn’t be able to. In use, I only have a list of pros for both pens, and no cons for either. They are even priced similarly in that $200 range. Which one looks better to you? That’s the one you should buy.
Maiora vs. Leonardo.
I do have one negative I want to mention, in hopes to turn it to a positive. I like this pen, and I like what Maiora is doing. But it was difficult to get proper, full, and correct details about this product. Most retailers post the marketing copy for the pen received from their distributor. The distributor may have received that from Maiora directly, or written it themselves. Regardless, what I see on many sites is a copy/paste of the first Maiora pen released, down to having that original orange color on product pages for non-orange material pens. Additionally, there is no Maiora Pen website, where I would liked to have read about, well, anything that would give me more information about what is a good product.
As someone who writes and talks about these things, it would make my life easier. Maybe I’m the only one, though. Maiora is doing something cool here, and I’d like to tell their story much better than I can right now.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.
Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!
