Graf von Faber-Castell “Ottoman Culture” Pen of the Year 2024 by Serdar Glgn

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“I am a translator. I translate the old into the new. It is a process of recapturing the obscurities of the past and reinventing them in the light of the future.” Serdar Glgn

As a historian of Ottoman art, I have always loved a period called The Turquerie. This is a period when the Ottomans met the Europeans and mutual influences began. Turquerie is a tale of turbans, tents, and tassels in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century.

The Tughra Tughra is the signature of the Ottoman sultan, which – like the handwritten signature and seal of Western rulers – was written and painted, but also used in relief and reproduced mechanically as the sultan’s imperial signum.

The Tughra of Sultan Ahmed IIIAhmed III (1673 – 1736) was the 23rd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1703 to 1730. His reign is sometimes referred to as the ‘Tulip Era’, as the flower was very popular in Constantinople at the beginning of the 18th century. Art and literature flourished under his patronage.

Pen of the Year 2024 Ottoman culture – Splendor under the canopy of a tent. Ottoman-inspired tents adorned numerous European parks and palace gardens during the “Turquerie movement, while entire rooms in castles and stately homes were furnished in the Turkish style. Those blue-and-white striped tents, adorned with tassels and arrow patterns, were my greatest source of inspiration for the Pen of the Year.

Priceless Adornments. Rubies, Gold and Tulips. To adorn jewelry, weapons and precious items, the Ottomans used generous amounts of sparkling gemstones. Likewise, the barrel and cap of the Pen of the Year are adorned with 18 rubies, each 2.2 millimeters in diameter.

The engraved tortoise in the domed end piece of the Pen of the Year not only represents the luck it promises, but also recalls an event from the Tulip Era. Ottoman sultans fastened candles to the shells of live tortoises and watched the animals wander leisurely through their magnificent tulip gardens at night, casting a mystical light on the flowers in homage to contemplation and taking things slow.

A genuine treasure is also hidden inside the Pen of the Year 2024: the platinum-plated inner sleeve is decorated with embellishments and becomes visible when the barrel is unscrewed.

• The barrel and cap areadorned with 18 syntheticrubies (size per stone: 1.1 mmheight, 2.2 mm diameter)
• All metal parts areplatinum plated and highpolished
• 18-carat MagnumBicolor gold nib
• Domed end cap withengraved turtle symbol a lucky charm in theOttoman culture
• Guilloched barreland cap with bluelacquer inlays
• Cap with symbols ofcrescents and tassels
• Caps end piecereminiscent on a tentdome
• Guilloched frontpiece with bluelacquer inlays
• To activate the piston system, the entirebarrel needs to be unscrewed – the innersleeve is adorned with eleborate decorations