Myth and legend serve as inspiration for Dedalus, an exclusive collection celebrating the mythical exploits of Daedalus, Theseus and the Minotaur. This tale is a perfect representation of the archetypes of our culture and remains freshly relevant in contemporary times.
Daedalus characterises the man who is the master of his destiny and able to overcome obstacles thanks to his extraordinary brilliance. He is a sculptor, architect and inventor of amazing contraptions. After leaving Athens, he takes refuge in Crete, where he meets the king of the island, Minos, who employs him to make statues and objects of all kinds.
The Minotaur, Theseus and Ariadne
The Daedalus collection is inspired by the legendary story of the Minotaur, a monstrous figure with the body of a man and the head of a bull, born from the relationship between Pasiphae, the queen of Crete and a bull donated by the Sea God Poseidon. To hide and banish this frightening creature, King Minos commissions an unescapable labyrinth from Daedalus. Every year, seven boys and seven girls are sacrificed and fed to the Minotaur. To interrupt this macabre recurrence, the Athenian hero Theseus comes to Crete to perform the heroic feat of killing the monster. Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, falls in love with the valiant young man and, to enable him to find his way out of the labyrinth, gifts him a ball of string. After Theseus’ extraordinary feat and the slaying of the Minotaur, Daedalus, having himself advised the trick of the thread, is locked along with his son Icarus in his invention. Hence another myth of ancient Greece is born: Daedalus and Icarus managed to escape from the labyrinth thanks to the creation of wax wings, but it will be those very wings that prove fatal to the son who, intoxicated by the freedom of flight, will go ever higher towards the sun and fall to his demise.
The Dedalus collector's rollerball pen
In addition to being inspired by Greek mythology, the Dedalus collector’s rollerball pen gets its name from another source. Referring to the language of the storyteller Homer, the term daedalus denotes sculptures and objects made by hand and handcrafted. Child of this artistic tradition, the Dedalus rollerball pen reproduces the myth of the labyrinth of Knossos in every detail.
The pen’s enchanting blue shades are enhanced by handmade, chiselled filigree. The expertly made golden lines embellish the barrel with geometric representations of the labyrinth and the Minotaur’s bullhead. The careful goldsmith’s workmanship of the filigree envelops the translucent and luminous blue resin, made even more vibrant with the use of silver particles to recreate the starry sky as it shines down on the maze. The intricate labyrinth design is also replicated on the cap, while the clip is embellished with the Visconti logo that stands out on royal blue enamel. The metalwork is made of 18-carat gold and, thanks to the fantastic weave of the filigree, which runs all along the pen, gives it a sophisticated and elegant look reminiscent of the precious jewellery of ancient Greece. The collection consists solely of the spectacular Dedalus rollerball pen, featuring a screw cap and A40 Refill filling system.
The great value of a luxury collector's pen
Behind every Visconti creation, there is a long research and manufacturing process. It begins from the source of inspiration and concludes with the design of a new masterpiece that is not only precious because of the raw materials used, but also because of the history behind it. Each pen of the Dedalus collection takes our artisans several days to produce and requires meticulous and refined workmanship. They devote hours and hours to manually weave and solder the gold filaments to achieve a perfect design, as well as to find the ideal shade through the right combination of enamels and pigments.
Beyond the intrinsic value and refinement of the materials and manufacturing processes, it is worth remembering the symbolism that this masterpiece carries. The labyrinth becomes a metaphor for a twisted and profound journey into human nature and its inner monsters. This enigmatic and mysterious construction that recurs in many literary topos, represents, according to Jorge Luis Borges, the impossibility to reach absolute truth for man.
