Ana Reinert is the creator of 
The ASC BOLOGNA Wild Celluloid ($745) is my first opportunity to try one of the higher end Armando Simoni Club fountain pens.
The pen shipped in a matte paperboard outer box with an interior, magnetic closure box. Inside, the pen floats in magnetic closure, clear, thin rubbery sleeve. The sleeve is interesting but unfortunately, the material became a little clouded so it looked a little unpleasant. The idea behind the packaging was cool but the execution didn’t quite meet expectations.
The Wild Celluloid is available with gold or rhodium trim and both feature a matching toned 14K nib in either medium or music nib. For this review I was sent both the gold and rhodium trimmed pens, both with medium nibs. Maybe someday I’ll get to try the music nib.
The black celluloid, shot through with ivory reminds me of licorice and white chocolate. The ivory accent is a creamy ivory color and the black is completely opaque. Aesthetically, I find the material very appealing and the celluloid feels weightier than some of the other polymer materials.
While I love the gold nib, I think I prefer rhodium trim on the Bologna Wild Celluloid pen.
The pen fills via a captured converter. The cover over the converter is etched and beautiful. I don’t know the longevity of cartridge converters but I enjoy looking at this one.
I love the etched nib. The design is beautiful, yet simple. So elegant.
The Bologna Wild Celluloid is one of the higher priced pens that I’ve reviewed. As such, I don’t have a great deal of experience or points of reference in which to compare this pen and it’s performance to other pens in this higher priced tier.
The Bologna Wild Celluloid is definitely a large pen. It’s one of the largest pens in my house at present.
The ASC Bologna is about the same width as an Aurora Optima and similar in length to an M600 (probably more so to an M800). Capped, the ASC Bologna is about 5.5″ long and uncapped is just slightly longer than 5″.
All the pens are post-able though I don’t think the ASC Bologna really needs to be posted though. Posted, the ASC Bologna is 6.75″ long.
The ASC Bologna is weighty at 48gms capped and filled and 36gms uncapped.
However, once I started using this pen, it was clear to see that it performs at a higher level than lower priced pens. The 14K nib is so smooth and delicious to write with. It’s listed as a medium but writes more like a European F or a Japanese MF. The gold nib gives a little bit of flex to the writing but it’s more bouncy than flexy.
Because the nib is finer than the average Medium nib, there is a little tooth to the nib so that it is not so slippery that I feared the nib would get away from me but at no point did it feel scratchy. It wrote well from just about any angle I held the pen (overwriting, underwriting or side writing — lefties try it all).
I really don’t know what else to add to this review. If you have a spare $745, I would firmly recommend this pen. I’m certainly starting to save up for a ASC Bologna.
Original Post: The Well-Appointed Desk: ASC BOLOGNA Wild Celluloid (Gold & Rhodium Trim)