Pen-Ultimate: a pen shop in Sydney (and a colourful side trip)

I had to travel to Sydney for work, so popped down at lunch time to see what the retail world had to offer and stumbled onto this:

Pen-Ultimate is a fabulous pen shop in the beautiful Queen Victoria (QV) Building in George Street in Sydney (level 3). The window immediately tells you its owners are discerning; and certainly the fellows I spoke to all knew   their stuff!

Here are a few of their window wonders:

Krone Le Mans (lovely hand-painting on Mother of Pearl)

Pelikan Maki-e Fantasia

Krone again - Duke Ellington LE (and a couple of others behind it)

Mont Blanc Da Vinci

Not so long ago, I reviewed a Campo Marzio design pen (with a USB in the end). It was a great colour and a good idea; but not such a good pen. Even so, I started to follow Campo Marzio on Instagram and love some of the pics and colours that come up. So imagine my surprise when I should find the Campo Marzio shop also at QV!

Again I was impressed with the colours. And just look at this pen display:

All manner of pencils, rollerballs and various size and colour pens up to around $AU145 and even one that used an acrylic (I assume) very similar to Brian Gray's Edison pens Persimmon Collier.

But Brian has nothing to fear. The quality of the pen was way off the mark! Even the brand on the base of the cap is just a little tacky. Such a shame. The colours are great, the presentation fabulous, the product? Not so hot. As for the ink...

A little hard to tell.

So I popped back to Pen-Ultimate and bought some Iroshizuku :D

But more on that, another tine!