Stipula Passaporto fountain pen

Cute pen alert! Today I am going to review the adorable little Stipula Passaporto. This pen was first introduced to me by ShangChing in her review here, but I hadn’t had the chance to grab one for myself until now – and lucky am I!

It’s such an adorable little baby-sized pen, it was too difficult to resist not getting it when someone on the Singapore Fountain Pen Lovers Facebook group offered it up for sale. I met up with the guy near where I live to collect the pen, and it was really a little smaller than I had expected it to be! I had to be extra careful not to lose it, because I was on my way elsewhere after the meet-up.

The seller gave the pen to me together with a little glass dropper, and it is to be used to fill up this petite eye-dropper pen. What is an eye-dropper pen, you may ask? As the name suggests, the filling mechanism of sucha pen is via the use of a eye-dropper, which is really the same thing as the glass dropper that you see in the picture. The advantage of eye-dropper pens is that you can fill the entire barrel with ink, giving greater ink capacity! This is especially an advantage for such a tiny little pen, as cartridges really give very a very limited amount of ink.

So, equipped with my glass eye-dropper and J. Herbin Rouge Caroubier ink, I filled up the barrel.

Filling up the barrel with one hand and taking the photo with the other…

I don’t have any means to measure the amount of ink that I can actually place into the little barrel, but I am pretty certain that there is A LOT more than a typical international cartridge. I do believe I can write a long essay with the available ink in the barrel. Point of note: judge not a book by its cover, not a pen by its size…

The pen section and barrel have threads for screwing the two parts together. In fact, what I like about this pen is the way it has a little click to seal the ink in, before you screw the threads all the way through to further ensure that the ink does not flow out. Of course, don’t forget to add a little grease around the threads. There is already some grease on the threads and barrel when the pen arrived, so I did not have to apply any.

I don’t know if it’s because my hand is small, but the pen fits really snugly in my grip. The cap could be posted to extend the length of the pen for those who have bigger hands, but I thought that it tends to fall off easily, instead of staying posted. It’s not a huge issue for me since I hardly post my pens, and this little guy is really just right for my hand!

Ink sloshing in the transparent plastic barrel, with the brand name “Stipula”.

This little Stipula Passaporto does not have a clip, and it’s a characteristic of the Passaporto pens. Unlike the Kaweco Sport, I doubt you can buy a clip a la carte and plug it on. Stipula has released a newer version of this pen, called the Bon Voyage (which I don’t have… yet!), and it has a clip.

For the Stipula Passaporto, fret not about the lack of clip, because there is a cute little leaf embossed on the cap, which is sufficient to stop the pen from rolling off the desk! I love this cute little leaf. It’s small, adds a touch of design to the pen, and is functional as well.

Vital stats:

Length capped: 9.4cm
Length uncapped: 8.9cm
Length posted: 12.5cm
Type of cap: Screw cap

Unfortunately, the Stipula Passaporto doesn’t seem to be sold anywhere anymore. I found on Amazon.com a Limited Edition Miami Sunrise version, so you could try to grab that while you still can! Alternatively, check out the Bon Voyage pen which is the newer version with a clip, and here is an advertisement of the pen.

UPDATE:

Giardino Italiano seems to be carrying the Passaporto! It’s available in clear, blue, and black. Get yours here.

Maybelline

I am the founder of this website.
Chemist by day, slacker by night, fanatic of stationery all the time.
I write with my left hand, but can also do the same with my right hand – it just won’t look very pretty.

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