Pelikan Raden Green Ray – When Japan Meets Germany

There are few things as appealing as seeing an industrial product that meets an high end manual processing. Usually these kind of collaboration give birth to a product with perfect utility but also emotional and aesthetic appeal. The Pelikan Raden Series represents all of this, and the newly released (and already Sold Out) Green Ray might be the coolest ever made.

Collection Background

The marriage between Pelikan and Japanese Traditional craftmanship has always been a huge success.

We have to go back to 2011 for the launch of the Raden Series. Pelikan was already known for some of the most astonishing and precise Maki-E Editions on the Market, which is pretty special, considering that Maki-E is a traditional Japanese craft with an heritage that is more than 7000 years old. In 2011 it all started with the M1000 Raden Moonlight, and then evolved into a collection that was developed throughout the years. The reason why it didn’t make it for a release every single year might be found into the fact that each single piece of the collection is produced by hand by the same artist. Master craftsman producing these standard of Raden are often not the youngest artist and therefore might not always been working Full Time due to health problems. But my feeling is that this is exactly what gives a spirit to each single piece of the Raden.

To let you understand better the flow of the Raden Collection i have prepared a comprehensive list hereafter:

2013 : M1000 Sunlight

2014 : M1000 Starlight

2016 : M1000 Sunrise Red

2017 : M800 Royal Gold

2018 : M800 Royal Platinum

2020 : M1000 Green Ray

The Art of Raden

Let’s not make it too complicated. I will try to give you a brief and understandable explanation.

Raden is a style and a technique used in Japanese lacquerware (also known as Urushi), just like Maki-E, Ikkanbari or Sunkei-Nuri. It’s the Art of using inlays of shell like Mother-of-Pearl or Abalone to decorate items that might have different kind of base like Wood, Ebonite, or even Resin.

Raden Green Day

After some Background information, let’s come to the new release. It’s useless to say that the Green Ray is a hit. Even if “De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum” one can only admire the colors, the shades, the craftsmanship and the union between the German and the Japanese culture.

The Raden Green Ray is a Limited Edition of 400 pieces worldwide and that makes it one of fastest Sold Out Editions that usually hits the Market. Just think of the fact that 95% of Retailers don’t get more than one piece of this Edition.

The Raden Artwork, which is made by japanese artist Hoshukai, is inlayed on the resin base of a Pelikan M1000 with golden accent and features the signature of the Artist on the bottom of the body, and the golden limitation number on the top part of the cap.

The Green Ray is recognizable by the intense green-blue shades and by the thicker mother-of-pearl stripes used for this edition.

Our take

In conclusion i’d like to mention that if you’re planning to collect premium Fountain Pens or even a specific Series you might want to consider starting with collecting all of the Raden. There are not too many out there yet, and there are surely new exciting Editions coming in the future. I have the feeling that the more the industry of Writing Instrument will grow, the more this collection will attract interest of potential new collectors or buyers.

What I can say at this point is… I can’t wait to see next years edition.