S.T. Dupont Orient Express Limited Edition 2013

S.T. Dupont Second (French) Empire

Happy New Year!!! Let start the year with a red color pen for good luck, good fortune and joy.

Last year (2012), S.T. Dupont Annual Néo Classique  Limited Edition pay tribute to the Second French Empire (1852 - 1870).

This limited edition was crafted based on great furniture houses of the Second French Empire, also known as  Napolean III style. It is a term also used elsewhere in the world for this style.  The Second Empire Style not only impacted French, it also major impact on design throughout Europe and the United States.

One of the distinct feature of this style is the design mainstream is the decorative arts of Europe with influence from Spain to Sweden and Russia.

Rumours, Rumours S.T. Dupont Dragon Limited Edition

We "don't know what to say" when we first saw the these picture of the S.T. Dupont Dragon Limited Edition 2012.  It look like a deep sea creatures or monster that Sailor should have painted for their Creatures of the Deep collection.

S.T. Dupont Chinese Lacquer

BE AWARE OF FAKE FOUNTAIN PEN!!!

About two weekend back, I met a friend at China Square flea market. While browing at the flea market, I found a S.T. Dupont chinese lacquer gold dust roller ball shown here.

I examined the pen for a very long time. The rollerball pen tip is too far out and look funny. Initially, I was under the impression that it uses the wrong refill. I was wrong, it uses the S.T. Dupont refill.

ST Dupont Limited Edition HOPE: help the victims in Japan

The ST Dupont Limited Edition HOPE to help the victims in Japan is now available locally.

This limited edition HOPE is based on a Défi pen and a Ligne 8 lighter, both conceived in bright lacquer red, with blossoms a Sakura tree on both side of the pen.

S.T. Dupont Opera Garnier, Paris

This is the third and last pen in the Collection d’Exception second series. The first two pens were Washington ( United States Capital), and Venus de Milo (Louvre Museum,Paris).

The S.T.Dupont Collection d’Exception was the creation of a successful partnership between S.T. Dupont and Philippe Tournaire. Philippe is a designer and jeweller for more than 38 years. His has boutique in Paris Place Vendôme, United States, China and Switzerland.

S.T. Dupont Defi HOPE Japan Limited Edition

In order to support and help one of the world most important market, S.T. Dupont created the HOPE limited edition to put forward their support for the Japanese.

The Sukara trees is imprinted on Dupont red Defi ballpoint, and finished off with rich lacquer layered on the pen. S.T. Dupont also created a lighter using the same design.

According to S.T. Dupont, all profit (namely 50 euro per product) will be donated, through to France Red Cross, to the Japan Red Cross, as a appreciate for their support.

S.T. Dupont Venus de Milo

Aphrodite of Milos, better known as the Venus de Milo, is a ancient Greek marble statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek Sculpture. It was created between 130 and 100 BC.

This a marble sculpture is slightly larger than life size at 203 cm (6 ft 8 in) high. Its arms and original plinth have been lost. It is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Anthios.

S.T Dupont Magic Wishes

This S.T. Dupont Magic Wishes limited edition is the prelude to the  "One Thousand and One Night"  Limited Edition which will be released later part of the year.

Addadin and his Magic Lamp is one of the most successfull Disney animation ever make. It is love by people of different ages.

S.T. Dupont Washington - United States Capital

With the successful of the S.T. Dupont - Tournair partnership, they worked togather again to create the second series of architectural writing instruments, which was inspired by famous monuments all over the world.

The United States Capitol - Washington is the one of the three architectual writing instruments.

S.T. Dupont Samurai Limited Edition

The samurai, also know as bushi), were Japanese warriors who were the members of the military class. They uses a many type of weapons, such as bows and arrows, spears and guns, but their most famous weapon and their symbol was the sword.

Samurai were a elite class of warriors who were supposed to lead their lives according to the ethic code of bushido ("the way of the warrior").

Strongly Confucian in nature, Bushido stressed concepts such as loyalty to one's master, self discipline and respectful, ethical behavior.

During the Edo Period, the sumurao stood at the top of the official hierarchy of social castes, followed by the farmers, artisans and merchants.

There were hierarchies within each caste. All samurai were forced to live in castle towns and received income from their lords in form of rice. Masterless samurai were called ronin and caused minor troubles.

Year 1615, Osaka Castle falled. The Tokugawa's last potential rival was eliminated. Japan enjoyed relative peace for about 250 years.

As such, the roles and responsiblity of sumurai decreases, and the importance of martial skills declined. Many of the samurai became bureaucrats, teachers or artists.

In 1868, Japan's feudal era came to an end, and the samurai class was abolished.

S.T. Dupont’s Samurai Limited Edition Neo-Classique Limited Edition pays homage to the greatness of samurai spirit by taking inspiration from the splendour and sophistication of their katana swords.

Andy Warhol

A self-portrait by the late 'pope of pop' Andy Warhol sold for a record S$44million (USD32.5 million) at Sothey's in New York on May 12 2010. It reminded me of a S.T. Dupont that was released in 2004 paying tribute to the "Price of Pop Art".

S.T. Dupont - Shanghai 中国上海

Shanghai had always been a major city in the past. During the First Opium War, it was occupied by the British till the signing of the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, which open it ports for international trade.

It then follow by the signing of the Treaty of the Bogus in 1843 and the Sino-American Treaty of Wangsia in 1844. It is the start of foreign nations achieve extraterritoriality on Chinese soil ...


... the start of the foreign concessions ... 2009 Shanghai is known as the Peral of the Orient, a city not only well know for it rich history, and collection of buildings and structures of various architectural styles, but also well know as the center of finance and trade in mainland China.

Nothing is impossible for French

In 2008, S.T. Dupont released limited edition pens, lighter and ashtray encouraged by Place Vendome.

This square received its name from the fact that the Duke of Vendome had his residence here. It is located very near to the famous Louvre museum and the Church of la Madeleine, by foot about 5 minutes. It was built between 1687 and 1720 to surround an equestria statue by Girardon dedicated to Louis XIV, later destroyed during the Revolution. Jules Hardouin-Mansart built it as an octagonal square flanked by colossal facades displaying the Corinthian order and harmonious Classical proportions. They have tall basement with cross wall pierced with semi-circular windows and above this column or pilaster stretching up past two storey or more, and crowned, on the roofs, by numerous dormer-windows.

There are important buildings in this square today: Hotel Ritz (No. 15), the house where Chopin died in 1849 (No. 12) and the residence of Eugenia de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III.

During the Empire, Napoleon followed the footsteps of Roman emperors by having a commemorative column erected (1806 – 1810) in the style of the Trajan Column. It took the bronze from 1,200 enemy cannon to clad the 44 meters column. The column was elected by Gondouin and Lepere in honor of Napoleon. On top of the column, Antoine-Denis Chaudet erected a statue of the emporer which was destroyed in 1814 and replaced by that of Henry IV. However, later in 1863, a statue of Napoleon was put back in place, but eight years later again, at the time of Gommune, the status was taken down once more, only to be replaced once and for all by another replica of Nepolean in 1873. On the column itself is the low relief carved by Etienne Bergeret representing the 1806 campaign.

In order to simulate the square, Dupont created 3 items; lighter, pens and ashtray. The design of the lighter was created to look like the building with semi-circular windows and above them are columns stretching up past two storey. The pen suppose to represent the famous Colossian column, without the low relief carving of the 1806 campaign. It was replaced by Napoleon’s famous quotation “Impossible n’est pas francais”, which mean “Nothing is impossible for French” … I guess the Quote help us to explain a lot of things that we don't really understand …

The pens and lighters are limited to 1810, which is the date the Vendome column was erected. The ashtrays are limited to 810 pieces. Each pen featured eight hematite stones hand placed into the cap. The pen is not of resin, steel or sterling silver, but palladium. If you have a deeper pocket, S.T. Dupont has another version of the set (pen and lighter) just for you. It is set with white diamonds on pink solid gold. The Ligne 2 lighter is setting with 192 diamonds, and the pen is setting with 160 diamonds. Both the lighter and pens are limited to 35 pieces each.

There was an article in PenCraft issue 6 on the same pen.