This is a hard-to-come-by Limited Edition Pelikan M1000 Genji Set Maki-e Fountain Pens.  The following information is extracted from Pelikan website.

“The Tale of Genji” is Japan’s oldest novel written a thousand years ago. Pelikan’s fountain pen set “Genji” portrays the hero of the novel with the name “Hikaru Genji” and, on the other fountain pen, the heroine, “Aoi no Ue”. 

The fountain pen for the hero is decorated with clouds, wheels and the flower hollyhock, referring to central elements of the ancient tale. On the fountain pen of the female counterpart incense and vine are depicted. 

Maki-e is a traditional Japanese technique to create ornamental lacquer ware, and this technique was used to illustrate the Genji tale. In Maki-e, designs are drawn with lacquer using a special brush. Then gold foil, gold and silver powder are sprinkled or stuck onto the design. This careful and time-consuming process is repeated many times in order to give depth to the designs. 

In 1929, Pelikan registered the patent for the piston mechanism, a new fountain pen filling system. This technique, refined and updated, is still used today. The Pelikan fountain pen set “Genji” is a masterpiece with finely-chased 18 carat gold nibs accentuated with a rhodium décor. The Pelikan logos on the crown, limited edition number and artist’s signature are drawn in by hand with the Maki-e technique.

With the honed experience of decades and excellent craftsmanship, the impressive fountain pen model Souveraen 1000 is produced in Germany and then decorated in Japan, thus creating a perfectly crafted product that is more than the sum of each part... a little bit of magic has slipped into it...

The fountain pens are encased together as a set in a traditional Japanese gift box which is made of Paulownia wood. The M1000 is ideal for people who write a lot as it has the biggest ink capacity of any piston fountain pen in the market today.
The “Genji” Set, released in the year 2002, was available in a limited edition of only 60 sets worldwide and is now sold out at Pelikan.  This is 2nd set of limited maki-e fountain pens made by Pelikan and is one of the most sought after maki-e set from Pelikan.  This is for serious Pelikan collectors.  Buy them before they are gone.

Genji Set