Namiki Kingfisher
Heritage & Inspiration
The dunhill-Namiki alliance was cemented when Clement Court, who established dunhill's French business in the 1920s, met a Japanese Namiki artist, Setsuji Wada, through Herbert Dunhill.
Impressed by the quality of the pens he saw when visiting dunhill's head office in 1927, Court embarked with Wada on a journey to Japan, an expedition using surface transportation rather than air, including the Trans-Siberian Express.
It conjures up thoughts of Jules Verne and Lowell Thomas and James Hilton, of adventurers who would drive from Paris to Peking. This journey resulted in an exclusive joint venture that combined Britain's most prestigious purveyor of luxury gentleman's goods with Japan's premier pen manufacturer - thus was born the dunhill-Namiki Maki-e Lacquered Pen. Since then dunhill and Namiki have created a number of these extraordinary pieces of art that marry Namiki's superior artistry and aesthetics with dunhill's signature standards of the very finest in function, form, style and substance.
The Finest and Most Coveted Writing Instruments Ever Created
Created by Namiki Maki-e master Seiki Chida and sold exclusively by Alfred Dunhill Ltd, the stunning design of the dunhill-Namiki Kingfisher pen is inspired by the mating rituals of the noble Kingfisher bird - resplendent in bright, naturalistic colours of blue and coral.
The striking illustrations - realised by the Japanese art of Maki-e lacquering - tell the story of the male kingfisher proposing to his female mate surrounded by pink flowers (a symbol of deep love in Japan) blooming by the riverbed.
The mating ritual of the Kingfisher involves the male hunting for fish and presenting his catch to his mate as part of his courtship. The slender stemmed flowers, featured with fringed pink blooms that surround the avian lovers, are known as nadeshiko in Japan; indeed, the Japanese use the expression yamato nadeshiko to describe a woman of great beauty, one who embodies the best and most refined traits of traditional Japanese culture. Only 25 of the dunhill-Namiki Kingfisher pen are created, each numbered to qualify its sheer exclusivity and delicately signed by the world class artist who created it.
The Art of Maki-e Lacquering
Maki-e lacquering literally refers to a 'sprinkled picture' and involves the sprinkling of coloured gold or silver dust over designs drawn in the lacquer surface while it is still damp and sticky.
This time consuming and meticulous art, typically requiring six months to complete a single pen, is a century-old technique in which sophisticated multi-layered patterns are drawn on the barrel and cap with urushi-sap from Japanese lacquer trees.
Clement Court's Photo Journal
Recently, dunhill was fortunate to discover the photo journal of Clement Court who, having established dunhill's French business in the 1920s, embarked on a remarkable journey to Japan with a Namiki executive, Setsuji Wada, to secure the dunhill-Namiki relationship. The 1930 journey, which was carried out using surface transport only (including the Trans-Siberian Express), took in Russia, Mongolia and Korea, and was captured by Court with images and postcards of Moscow and Tokyo, of villages and temples -- impressions of a long-lost era that belonged to Jules Verne and Lowell Thomas, to adventurers who would drive from Paris to Peking. They have also brought to life a story of two remarkable and pioneering executives and the close links they forged between East and West.
