This past Tuesday, November 11th, 2025, was Pen Boutique's 21st Anniversary, and we had a wonderful celebration that included most of our team and a beautiful and diverse cross section of our local customers who were able to make it out to share our joy. The store was packed, and our adjacent reception area, where I enjoyed hosting and mingling, was filled with customers and staff sharing canapés, fruit, cakes, and a delicious Indian buffet dinner, while talking about their favorite pens and Pen Boutique memories.
The evening had many highlights, but, for me, my favorite was an intimate one: a moment alone with Pen Boutique owner Leena Shrestha-Menon as I watched her light the 21 candles I had placed around the perimeter of our birthday cake. "You have to make a wish and then try to blow them all out," I urged her, recording a video on her phone for posterity. Leena thought for just a moment, folded her hands in prayer, closed her eyes, and wished. She opened her eyes with a big smile and breathed out, "Yes!" then leaned forward, glowing, to blow out all 21 candles, finishing with an astonished laugh. I don't know what she wished, but I could tell that her wish was a powerfully positive one. I still remember the joy and thankfulness radiating off of Leena as she clapped her hands in delight, then clasped them to her heart, beaming, and how happy she was all evening, surrounded by the staff she calls family and all our wonderful supporters, old and new.
I was so gratified to see Leena able to enjoy a true celebration this year. Our anniversary last year was bittersweet because Leena's beloved father was close to death in Nepal, and, although we released a number of special 20th Anniversary store exclusives throughout the year, none of us were in a festive mood. This felt like our milestone 20th and 21st anniversaries rolled into one, and the simultaneous unveiling of our two beautiful new limited edition store exclusive pens made it even more special. I'm sure Leena was thinking on Tuesday of her late father and all of his support and encouragement, but now it was with peace rather than pain.
When I left for home, my voice was hoarse from talking with customers, my face hurt from smiling, and my heart was light, while my shoulder was heavy with a large reusable insulated shopping bag full to the top with store exclusive pens Leena had given me to bring home and photograph for this article. It had been a very busy week, so there were a few she wasn't able to find, but there were over 20 pens in the bag, and I had photos on my computer of several more that I had written articles about. What a trip down memory lane! The majority of the pens were ones I was familiar with from my years with Pen Boutique, but there were surprises, too, and the two brand-new releases to explore in depth. This article will be more focused on photos over words than my usual, but I loved capturing the beauty and variety in the pens that Leena has chosen to represent Pen Boutique over the years, and I hope you will enjoy this retrospective along with me. I hope to update it as we release new exclusives, so we can look back together over the years as they unfold.
Aurora Optima Sogno del Mare
The 21st Anniversary store exclusive I am most excited about is our first-ever collaboration with Aurora: an Optima that Leena's husband Raj named "Sogno del Mare," Italian for "Dream of the Sea." It's the perfect name for an absolute dream of a pen, in a breathtaking hand-finished marbled Auroloide inspired by the ever-changing turquoise waters of the Mediterranean.
This pen's limited edition number reflects its release on our 21st anniversary, 11-11-2025. There were only 111 pens made, and numbers 1 and 111 are in Aurora's Officina della Scrittura museum! Like all Aurora Optimas, Sogno del Mare is a pen we are proud to share with our customers. Aurora is the only Italian pen company that produces its own fountain pen nibs completely in-house, and it has been family-owned since its inception. It was founded in 1919, and every part of its fountain pens are still manufactured under one roof in their original factory in Turin (Torino), Northern Italy.
The Optima's nostalgic Art Deco shape, beautiful materials, and understated but evocative vintage-inspired details immediately make it feel special, and my own Optima is one of my most beautiful pens and always a pleasure to write with.
Optimas are flat-ended and medium-sized, with a wide center ring, clear ink window, comfortable and generously proportioned grip section, and smooth piston filling mechanism that features a unique hidden ink reservoir system. Of course, the star of the pen is Aurora's amazing large and graceful gold nib. Its elegantly curved shape wraps around the hand turned ebonite feed with swooping lines that set it apart, looking very different from the straight sides of most other nibs. As our Optima is a limited edition, its unique number out of 111 is inscribed on the back of its top finial.
You can read more about the Optima in the in-depth article I wrote in 2024, which includes details about the Goccia (pronounced "Go-chuh") nib option. Goccia means "drop" in Italian, and the tip of the nib is shaped like a water droplet. This fun and special nib is similar to a Sailor Naginata Togi nib or Sailor Zoom nib, where you get different line widths depending on how you use the pen.
Our Sogno del Mare is available with a rhodium-treated 14-karat solid gold nib in Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad, or Goccia Medium, but the gorgeous material that Leena and Raj selected really sets it apart from any other Optima. I love turning this pen in my hand and getting lost in the depths of the chatoyancy. The beautiful color, and the waves and whirlpools unique to each pen, are stunning in any light, but especially luminous in sunlight. Although I'm usually very pleased with the photos I take for my blog articles, I feel like this pen is one whose beauty is impossible to truly capture in a photograph. I did my best.
Delta DV Original Verde Serpente
Simultaneous to the release of the store exclusive Aurora Optima, Leena worked with her longtime friend Ken Jones at Yafa to add another Delta limited edition to our 21st Anniversary store exclusive collection. We have had several Delta exclusives over the past few years, but this one new one really stands out as extra special, thanks to the resin poured in house by Jonathon Brooks from the Carolina Pen Company. Jonathon's materials are world renowned and wildly popular, and this one is a sold out resin, so it can no longer be used in any other pens, making it even more rare and exclusive. Our design is named "Verde Serpente," Italian for "Green Snake," and is limited to only 50 pens.
In Nepalese culture, seeing a snake is a sign of good fortune, protection, and transformation, and I remember last year how relieved Leena was on a difficult afternoon during her father's final illness when she unexpectedly saw a harmless snake near our warehouse.
The DV Original comes with a stainless steel nib and elegant chrome plated trim, including a ruzzolino clip, aka wheely clip, a style that always feels very Italian to me. I love the look of ruzzolino clips. (In case you're wondering, "ruzzolino" means "tumbling.") The shiny silver band has a vintage look, with a design and proportions that remind me of an ornamental finger ring. It's subtle, but gives the pen a slightly opulent touch to offset the muscularity of the rest of the design. Overall, the color, shape, and trim project a look of calm strength and confidence.
Alien Execution, the Jonathon Brooks material chosen for this particular limited edition, is stunning in its depth and tasteful elegance. Subtly mottled in shades of olive green, pine green, teal, and cobalt blue, with tasteful silver shimmer throughout, the pattern has a dynamic three-dimensional beauty, and is unique to each pen.
The limited edition number out of 50 is embossed on the back of the top finial, and the name of the material is also subtly embossed into the resin on the back of the cap above the ring.
I love that these two 21st Anniversary pens are so unique, and that each may appeal to a different collector. The Delta is a much larger pen, with a bold and powerful shape, and also a lower price due to the smooth stainless steel JoWo #6 nib and cartridge/converter filling system. Both are worthy new additions to our store exclusives, and I love seeing which of my teammates and customers gets excited about each one!
Poe-inspired Retro 51s
Over the years, we have been proud to repeatedly pay tribute to local hero Edgar Allan Poe, who lived in Baltimore at various times throughout his life, and ultimately died there. Pen Boutique is located in Columbia, Maryland, about 30 minutes away from the Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum, as well as Poe's grave. Our first Poe-themed pen, released in 2020, was a numbered limited edition Retro 51 Tornado inspired by Poe's famous poem, "The Raven." Both the rollerball and fountain pen versions have become highly collectable, and there is one currently listed on eBay for over $300!
Since the first one, we have collaborated with Retro 1951, a Texas based company founded in 1990, to create three more numbered limited edition The Raven designs, each inspired by different aspects of the poem. All have originally been released as Retro's popular rollerball, and two of the editions were followed by a matching fountain pen. San Francisco, California-based Rickshaw Bagworks has also created exclusive matching pen cases for several of the designs!
In 2025, we teamed up with Retro 51 to design two different Poe-inspired pens: The Raven 4 and Annabel Lee, inspired by Poe's final gothic masterpiece. Both pens have matching pen sleeves and triple pen cases, as well as matching fountain pen friendly notebooks made by Denik. We have also newly released a triple pen case to match the sold-out Raven 3 pens from 2024.
Poe was one of my biggest literary inspirations when I was a teenager, and I loved being able to see all our Poe-themed pens together for this article! I really enjoy photographing these pens, and the Retro 51 Tornado has always been a favorite with our customers and staff. Their creative designs, and sturdy, reliable, well-built pens are extremely fun to collect, use regularly, and give as gifts. If you've never read my 2022 article on the Retro 51 Tornado, check it out. It's a little out of date, but most of the information still applies, and my respect for this brand has only grown over the years.
Here's a brief retrospective (ha!) on our Retro Edgar Allan Poe pen collabs:
The Raven (original), from 2020:
When these limited editions of 300 rollerballs and 500 fountain pens were released, Pen Boutique wrote:
Although Edgar Allan Poe lived in Baltimore for only a few years, he met his wife here and considered it his second hometown. The city of Baltimore has always been proud of this association, even going so far as to name the football team the Ravens as a reference to his legendary poem. We chose to use a black and purple palette to call back to the black with the purple sheen of a raven’s feathers. Being based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” we were careful to include references to the man and the text both obvious and subtle in the design of the pen. Most clearly, the top and bottom of the design feature “The Raven” and “Edgar Allan Poe” in stark silver letters, and the top of the cap has a drawing of Poe. The eponymous raven “perched upon a bust of Pallas” as described in the poem is featured prominently on the body of the pen. More subtly, the first words of the poem, “Once upon a midnight dreary,” are written in a subdued purple above the raven and the refrain “Quoth the Raven ‘Nevermore’” is written similarly below it.
The Raven 2, from 2022:
Our evocative website listing for this pen described the details of this edition which I never even got to see. I believe it sold out the day it was released!
Darkness looms in "Raven, 2022," a new Tornado Exclusive from Pen Boutique. This limited edition of 575 rollerballs features new art that revisits Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poem.
Lenore's memory wanes while the "prophet or thing of evil" refuses to leave, only adding to the student's misery. Poe’s portrait is surrounded by ravens, the image of Lenore and Pallas Bust all set against a bleak December midnight and Plutonium shore.
These designs are finished with stonewashed pewter appointments and a Limited-Edition number engraved on the top ring. The finial features one more raven whose "eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s" always looking back at you.
The Raven 3, released in 2024:
The third iteration of The Raven marked our first time teaming up for our social media campaign with actor Ian Blackwell Rogers, whom I had met as his alter-ego Poe at a local farmers' market the previous Halloween. This collaboration brought our Poe pens to a whole new level, and my coworker Leila has made a series of brilliant videos featuring the pens. The first one, focusing on The Raven 3 rollerball, co-starred our teammate, Lauren, and a sequel, featuring the fountain pen released later the same year, co-starred our teammate, Harsh.
[Photo credit: Leila Younes. Thank you to our Poe, Ian Blackwell Rogers!]
As described on our website, The Raven 3 "delves into the poignant dichotomy of Lenore’s death, capturing hope and despair. One side depicts an angel symbolizing peace in the spiritual realm 'Aidenn,' while the other side shows the 'bird or devil' representing pain and loss. The central motif of Lenore’s death is symbolized by a skull." A departure from the first two Ravens, this version featured rich purple textured lacquer, finished with antique silver accents. The finial was topped with the bust of Greek goddess Pallas Athena that the raven in the poem perched on while tormenting the narrator. The Raven 3 featured 575 rollerballs, followed by 345 fountain pens released several months later. The skull on the fountain pen glows in the dark!
Annabel Lee, released in August, 2025:
Annabel Lee marked a departure from our Raven-themed pens, and was inspired by the final poem Poe completed before his death in 1949. With this rollerball, Pen Boutique and Retro 51 introduced a new Tarot card inspired spin, using symbolism from The Lovers tarot card.
This Pen Boutique exclusive captures the tragic romance between two souls whose love was so deep that it was envied by the heavens. The Lovers are depicted at the center of the barrel, locked in a timeless gaze—destined for each other, yet doomed by divine jealousy. Surrounding them are symbolic daggers and skeletal hands, visual metaphors of fate and death reaching in to claim what the gods could not control. The shattered moon overhead represents the breaking of their world, a love story torn apart by cosmic forces.
The design is richly printed in full color against antique brass accents, with delicate details like the roses bleeding through the metalwork—merging elegance with an eerie mystique. The finial is topped with the Roman numeral "VI," representing the Lovers card in traditional tarot decks.
The Raven 4, released in October, 2025:
Our most recent Raven to date was released about a week before Halloween, and once again featured a team-up with our very kind and patient Poe, Ian Blackwell Rogers, who had to work with me this time in Leila's video campaign. This time, Leila also created two clever bonus videos. I love both the cool teaser and the comedic Chaplin-esque short where I didn't have to memorize any lines!
The Raven 4 is a numbered rollerball limited to 575, and continues the Tarot card -influenced turn begun with the Annabel Lee themed pen released earlier the same year. This pen, inspired by the Tarot card of Death, bears the Roman numeral XIII on the finial, while the "barrel unveils a striking scene — the raven perched upon Pallas, the Greek goddess of wisdom — evoking the unraveling of reason beneath the weight of grief and revelation. Rendered in spectral blues and metallic shadows, the design shimmers with ghostly roses and ornate Victorian details, creating a mesmerizing interplay of light and darkness" with a heavy emphasis on skulls, symbolizing not only death but the deterioration of reality and wisdom.
Breast Cancer Awareness
When I started working at Pen Boutique in November, 2021, I noticed that our store owner, Leena, wears a lot of pink and owns a huge collection of pink pens. In fact, pink seems to be her signature color. It wasn't until a little later that it sunk in for me why Leena loves pink so much. The color looks beautiful on her, but it's not just that. Leena is a breast cancer survivor and is extremely involved as a board member in our local chapter of the American Breast Cancer Foundation (ABCF). Pink ribbons, and the color pink in general, are an international symbol of breast cancer awareness, and express moral support for people with breast cancer. Leena benefited from early detection, and is a strong advocate of initiatives to expand access to breast cancer testing services.
Our "I am a SURVIVOR!" Parker Jotters, in the traditional breast cancer awareness ribbon pink, are ever-present in the store, and Leena donates 50% of the proceeds from these pens to the American Breast Cancer Foundation. She started the collaboration with Parker in 2018, and continued ordering the pens until 2020, when she bought all the remaining inventory Parker had in that color, so we will have plenty of this important pen for years into the future.
In October, 2023, Leena decided to take Pen Boutique's passion for the cause even further, and she teamed up to create our first store exclusive with Delta, the DV Original Rosa. There are two different variations of the pen, with a limited edition of 30 each. Both have the same beautiful deep pink opalescent barrel, shiny solid sterling silver trim with rhodium plating, and glossy black end finials, but the Rosa version has a two-tone pink and black cap, and the Rosa Doué has an all-black cap to contrast more sharply with the pink barrel. Rosa is completely sold out, but we have just a few Rosa Doué remaining at the time I'm writing this article.
Fall Favorites
In September, 2024, as part of our 20th Anniversary celebration, Pen Boutique teamed with Delta again to create a bold orange and black exclusive with two different variations, the Spaccanapoli Masterpiece in Palladium or Ruthenium. Each version was a numbered limited edition of 100. I thought the black nib and trim on the Ruthenium version was especially perfect for autumn!
The Spaccanapoli is very striking, but one of my all-time favorite Pen Boutique exclusives was our September, 2022 collaboration with Montegrappa: a numbered limited edition Venetia of 100 pieces in our exclusive color, Venetian Lagoon. The Venetia was a brand-new model for Montegrappa at the time, and I loved the vintage-inspired details and rich reddish-orange resin blend, even if I thought the name Venetian Lagoon was a little odd. I fell hard for this pen when I wrote a blog article about it, and I always sort of wanted one, but it was pretty expensive and I never sprung for one. I regret that now. What a stunner!
20th Anniversary All Year Long
Even though our 20th Anniversary year was a difficult one for Leena personally, it included many wonderful store exclusives to mark the special occasion. These began in May with one that is extremely special to my friend and For Your Penjoyment co-host, Leila. She had the honor of collaborating with BENU, one of her favorite brands, to design a store exclusive Talisman, Firefly Stone. You can read the touching story behind this fluorite-inspired pen in my blog article. Watching Leila's dream come true, and seeing her speechless awe and disbelief when she saw the pen in person for the first time, will always be one of my most dear Pen Boutique memories.
Excited by watching the process of Leila working with Luxury Brands and BENU to create Firefly Stone, I said to her, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could have our own For Your Penjoyment ink?" She immediately loved the idea, and we both had the same first choice of company to create our fantasy ink: Anderillium.
Anderillium is a small family-run American brand, and Leila and I both love their nature-inspired inks. I wrote a blog article about Anderillium when we first started carrying their inks, and had the pleasure of interviewing Karen, the mom of the family and Anderillium's operations manager. Bert Anderson, Karen's son, is Anderillium's founder, owner, and chief chemist. When he's not making inks, he's a high school chemistry and biology teacher. Since Leila and I are two women with a small YouTube show brought to you by the woman-owned and family-run company Pen Boutique, Anderillum seemed like a perfect fit for us! I emailed Karen to ask her if Anderillium would work with us, and she immediately said yes. Leila and I talked over her proposal with Leena and Raj, and then Leena, Leila, and I met with Karen at the Baltimore Pen Show to discuss the process, and Anderillium began creating our ink, a joyful purple that looks like the color that you see when you watch For Your Penjoyment.
I volunteered to create an image for the bottle's label, a challenge that was daunting for me, but that I also really wanted to do. It took me a little while to come up with my illustration, which I made using fountain pens, a watercolor paintbrush, and the ink itself, then touched it up on my computer. When I was satisfied with it, I sent the image to Karen, with instructions on what we wanted the label to say. As an ink fanatic, it was so exciting to see my idea turn into an actual bottle of ink, especially an ink that I truly love using in my own pens. I am proud to say that we are on our second batch of Penjoyment Purple ink now, and it always makes me happy and excited when I see someone buy a bottle.
Meanwhile, Leena was collaborating with Hiren Kanakhara of Magna Carta Pen to produce a store exclusive Mag 600 with a special True Flex nib. The Bumblebee was a limited edition of only 50, and our dear teammate, calligrapher Linda Pennington, was an especially big fan of this pen. It was so inspiring to watch her write with it during an interview in an episode of For Your Penjoyment shortly after the pen came out!
By the way, the pen on the far left of this article's cover photo is also a Magna Carta, but it wasn't an actual store exclusive. That pen was a prototype Leena had made, but ultimately decided not to pursue. Leena gave it to me in the bag of pens she loaned me for this article, and I included it in the photo as a cool piece of Pen Boutique history. It's really interesting looking, and I love that she still has it! Hiren is such a nice guy and a fun person to talk to at pen shows, so I'm glad she finally did an exclusive with him!
Our final 20th Anniversary store exclusive of 2024 was one that sold out in less than a day, so I didn't have a photo of it, and it was great to see it again and be able to take some nice pictures. Desert Eclipse is a Momento Zero crafted for us by Italian pen company Leonardo from special cellulose acetate, and they only had enough of the material to make 77 individually numbered pieces. It's a truly beautiful pen, and I can see why it disappeared so quickly on December 4th, 2024!
Rangoli
Speaking of Leonardo, Rangoli, our stunning and very memorable limited edition Momento Zero and Momento Zero Grande from August, 2023 was our first collaboration with the Italian pen brand, and also our introduction to Jonathon Brooks.
At the time, Leonardo was a brand we were just beginning to carry again at Pen Boutique (we stopped in the early days of the pandemic, when getting the pens shipped to us from Italy became too challenging), thanks in part to a connection I had made at the Baltimore show with Klarissa Maria, Leonardo's new brand ambassador. Not too long after the show, Klarissa called on the store phone to talk to me about Pen Boutique forming a relationship with Leonardo and possibly doing a store exclusive pen. Making decisions like that isn't part of my role, but I was very excited to bring it up with Leena, and I hoped that I could influence her decision.
When Pen Boutique's new relationship with Leonardo finally became a reality, I was delighted to meet with Klarissa and learn about the pens we'd be carrying. Leena ultimately chose Jonathan Brooks' vibrant PM4 material for our store exclusive pen, and decided to name it Rangoli, in honor of the striking art form native to the Indian subcontinent. Rangoli are geometric designs traditionally crafted using
Growing up, Leena loved seeing these captivating designs adorning the fronts of homes, showcasing creative depictions of peacocks, lamps, flowers, trees, and more. During festival times, the designs become even larger and more spectacular. This beautiful art form is further enhanced with the placement of a lamp, illuminating the design and bringing joy into our lives. Leena's family continues this tradition in their home, especially during the festival of Diwali.
When I saw the pens for myself, I immediately understood why Leena had selected this gorgeous material and named it in honor of her beloved Rangoli. Each numbered limited edition of 100 Momento Zero and 50 Momento Zero Grande (with silver or gold
Sailor Bora Bora Waters and Kagero Green
I don't have interesting stories about the rest of the store exclusives in the bag, as they were all before my time at Pen Boutique, except the one that had just been released when I joined the team in November, 2021. I will always remember the first time I saw the Bora Bora Waters Professional Gear. It was November 18th, during my second week at Pen Boutique. Leena had just received the pen from Sailor, and Raj asked me to edit its description on our website's listing. I told him I really needed to see the pen in order to do that properly, so I was given Leena's own pen to take outside in front of the store and experience in the quiet where I could concentrate and focus. Although it was November, it was a beautiful warm day, and the pen was breathtaking in the bright sunshine.
As I wrote that day,
This gorgeous Pro Gear, exclusive to Pen Boutique, evokes the inviting tropical waters of the barrier reef surrounding Bora Bora. Escape the pandemic and dream of floating in the sunlit ocean!
The finial, end cap, and section are all a transparent turquoise blue resin which conveys the clarity of the shallow water, and the body and cap are made of a more opaque gleaming turquoise resin which shows the beautiful color of the deeper waters. The trim on the pen is rhodium plated, like glints of silvery light on the waves, and the nib is plated to match. It is truly an exceptional combination that will make you feel like you are holding the tranquility of a perfect tropical seaside afternoon in your hand as your words glide across the page.
It really did evoke tropical reefs I've known, and made me a little wistful. Feeling very lucky to be trusted with such a special pen, I took a few photos. They aren't bad, but I took the opportunity to improve upon them for this blog article, and was reminded again how truly special this pen is. We still have some of our matching exclusive collaboration with Robert Oster, Bora Bora Waters ink.
We also still had some of our lovely exclusive Kagero Green Sailor 1911L and 1911S fountain pens for a few years when I was first with the store. This first collaboration with Sailor was released in August, 2020.
Our description of the pen explained the fascinating name and luminous translucent green color:
Pen Boutique has always been proud to offer Sailor pens to our customers, and we wanted to make sure that our collaboration with Sailor was something truly special that would look at home in any collection. After months of refinement and prototyping, we’re proud to introduce the Pen Boutique exclusive Sailor 1911 Kagero Green.
The name “Kagero” (kah-geh-ro) comes from the Japanese name for mayflies, a semi-aquatic insect that inspired the pen’s rich green color. Mayflies are notable for their unique life cycle, in which they may live as long as several years before molting to their adult form for one of nature’s most brief mating periods. For a single day in the spring or summer, they form huge swarms to mate all at once before laying eggs and dying. Besides being a fascinating natural spectacle, mayflies are an important part of the ecosystems where they live. They represent a significant part of the diets of many species in river habitats, and the presence of mayfly nymphs is used as an indicator of an ecosystem’s health, as they’re among the first affected by pollution and changes in acidity.
We chose this naturally inspired color because we appreciate the outdoors. We value efforts to protect the environment and educate the next generation about the importance of conservation.
Past and Future
I'll keep the final two exclusives brief, because this article is becoming a lot longer than I expected! Both pens were released in May, 2021, and one is a Retro 51 collaboration I sold many times in the store; the other is a very limited edition of 50 beautiful blue and orange swirled Edison Collier pens that I knew nothing about.
According to our archives, "the mix of amber, light blue, and cerulean resins found in the body and cap of the pen is known as Blue McCaw, a proprietary mix from McKenzie reflecting the distinct coloration of these birds." It's very pretty, and makes me wonder if we will again collaborate with Ohio natives Brian and Andrea Gray for a store exclusive handmade in the USA by Edison Pens! I think that would be pretty cool....
Our Retro 51 Apollo-Soyuz Project writing instruments were numbered limited editions of 975 rollerballs, 300 fountain pens, and 175 rollerball/pencil/fountain pen sets, dedicated to "an iconic symbol of international cooperation, reminding us of the incredible things we can do when we work together."
These writing instruments, and their matching Rickshaw pen sleeves, were inspired by the Apollo–Soyuz Space Project, the first crewed international space mission, which was conducted jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July, 1975. Millions watched on television as an American Apollo spacecraft
In this creative and inspiring design, the two parts of the pen represent the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft and the American Apollo. You can join the fountain pen cap and body to create a single functioning unit! Although we sold the final pen earlier this year, we still have some of the pen sleeves left, if you are a fan of space exploration and international cooperation.
What's next for Pen Boutique store exclusives? Another interesting Retro 51 or Delta? Maybe a second Benu or Edison? Or something new entirely? Only time will reveal, but it's sure to have a lot of fans, a lot of heart, and a lot of love put into the design. I hope you enjoyed this retrospective, as well as our beautiful new releases. See you next time!
-Laura P.
I love comments on my blog! Please leave comments if you like the articles, and, if you have any questions about this article, or any of the other blog articles, you can e-mail support@penboutique.com. Thank you!
