ENCRE ROYALE
The Art of the Written Word
Scroll
Paris Atelier · Est. 1923

Where Ink
Becomes
Immortal

Each pen is a singular act of devotion — carved, ground, and balanced by hands that have known no other calling.

103
Years of Craft
4
Generations
12
Pens Per Month
Fountain pen writing close-up — ENCRE ROYALE atelier Atelier Encre Royale, Paris VII — 1923
Our Heritage

Four Generations
of the Written Art

In 1923, Édouard Fontaine opened a small botteghe on the Rue du Bac, convinced that a fine pen was not merely an instrument but a companion to great thought. He began with a single tine grinder, a magnifying loupe, and the conviction that writing — truly considered writing — demanded a nib of absolute perfection.


A century later, his great-granddaughter Isabelle Fontaine carries the same loupe. The atelier has moved twice, but the philosophy has never shifted: twelve pens a month, each one signed, each one built to outlast its maker.

1923
Founded in Paris
4,800+
Pens Crafted
18K
Gold Nib Standard
37
Countries Served
Our Collections

Three Paths to Perfection

From heirloom ebonite to meteorite-inlaid barrel, each collection speaks to a different philosophy of the written life.

Classique Collection — ebonite fountain pen
+
Collection I
Classique
Vulcanised hard rubber and 18K gold. The enduring standard of Parisian penmanship, unchanged in essence since 1923.
From €2,400
Prestige Collection — luxury writing instruments
+
Collection II
Prestige
Lacquered resin, Damascus steel nibs, and hand-turned titanium. Forty hours of craft per piece.
From €8,800
Bespoke Collection — custom handcrafted fountain pen
+
Collection III
Bespoke
Mammoth ivory, meteorite, extinct wood. A single pen conceived entirely around one person's hand and calling.
From €22,000
Exotic Materials

Matter Worthy of the Message

We source only materials that carry their own history — substances that have survived millennia before they became a pen.

01
Ebonite
Hard Rubber · Germany
Vulcanised natural rubber, warm in the hand and charged with history. Develops a patina unique to its owner over decades of daily use.
02
Damascus Steel
Pattern-Welded · Toledo
Centuries of swordsmithing tradition reborn in the nib. Each damascus pattern is a singular watermark that can never be duplicated.
03
Mammoth Ivory
Fossil · Siberia · 20,000 BCE
Ethically sourced from permafrost deposits. Twenty millennia of geological memory transformed into a barrel that holds the warmth of a living hand.
04
Grand Lacquer
Urushi · Kyoto · Japan
Forty-seven layers of Japanese urushi lacquer, each dried in controlled humidity for a week. A surface that deepens in beauty with every year of use.
05
Celluloid Resin
Vintage Formula · Italy
Reviving the pre-war Italian celluloid formula: translucent depth that no modern acrylic can replicate, cast in sheets and individually turned by hand.
06
Grade 5 Titanium
Aerospace Alloy · France
Lighter than steel, stronger than most imagination. Anodised in deep spectral colours or left raw, it is the material of those who write without compromise.
The Atelier

Hand-Ground Nibs

A nib ground wrong will scratch. A nib ground correctly will write better than any other instrument ever made. We grind until it is correct — no shortcuts.

Calligraphy nib close-up writing
01
Alloy Selection & Annealing

Each nib begins as a sheet of 18-karat gold alloyed with iridium and rhodium. The sheet is annealed at precise temperature to achieve the correct spring before stamping.

02
Laser-Cut Slit & Tine Shaping

A single laser cut defines the slit width — typically 0.08 to 0.12mm — then each tine is individually shaped by hand using rhodium-tipped shaping tools under 30x magnification.

03
Iridium Tip Welding

A micro-sphere of iridium — harder than any precious metal — is welded to the tip by hand under a microscope. This single act determines the character of every future line.

04
Seven-Stage Grinding

From coarse silicon carbide through increasingly fine abrasives to 0.5-micron polishing compound. Seven distinct grinding stages across four hours, each verified by the writing sound on 80gsm paper.

05
Flow Calibration & Signature

The completed nib writes three pages of continuous text in the artist's own hand. If it sings — unhesitating, smooth, perfectly weighted — it is signed. If not, it returns to stage four.

Signature Inks

The House Palette

Each ink is compounded in-house using archival-grade iron gall and dye, formulated to write with perfect lubrication and fade only to beauty.

Midnight Seine
No. 001 · Classic
Archival
Deep midnight blue with a faint violet shimmer. The ink of poets and treaties. Iron gall base with archival permanence exceeding 200 years.
Bordeaux Dusk
No. 002 · Classic
Iron Gall
The colour of late burgundy in lamplight — deep, saturated crimson that dries with a micro-sheen on quality paper. Beloved by legal and literary minds.
Forêt Profonde
No. 003 · Seasonal
Limited
An autumnal forest green — neither grey nor olive but the precise shade of moss beneath fir. Shades dramatically between thick and thin strokes.
Ambre Impérial
No. 004 · Reserve
Reserve
Warm amber with gold undertone. Writes warmly on cream laid paper; one of only three gold-shimmer inks in our portfolio. Extremely limited production.
Atlantique
No. 005 · Classic
Archival
Ocean teal with deep blue shadows — inspired by the Atlantic at dusk as seen from the Bretagne coast. Extraordinarily smooth flow for wet-nib writers.
Nuit Violette
No. 006 · Signature
Signature
The house ink of ENCRE ROYALE. Royal purple, iron gall, and a single drop of gold suspension. Every commissioned pen arrives inked with Nuit Violette.
Bespoke Commission

A Pen Made Entirely for You

A bespoke commission is not a configuration — it is a conversation. We learn how you write, what you write, and what the pen must carry across your life before a single material is chosen.

I
Correspondence

A written exchange — by post, if you prefer — in which we understand the pen's purpose, your hand geometry, and your writing frequency.

II
Atelier Visit

You come to Paris, or we come to you. We observe your hand in writing for forty minutes across five paper types and three nib angles.

III
Design & Material

We present three material proposals with hand-cut samples. You choose, or you propose something we have never attempted. We prefer the latter.

IV
Delivery & Initiation

Six to fourteen months later, your pen arrives in a bespoke wooden cabinet. You write your first words with Isabelle present. Then it is yours, entirely.

Current commission waitlist: approximately 14 months. We accept twelve commissions per year.

Letters of Praise

From Those Who Write

"
★★★★★
I have written eleven novels. The first ten were written on whatever came to hand. The eleventh was written with my Encre Royale Classique, and I believe it is the best of them — not despite the pen, but because of what writing with it demanded of me.
Marguerite V.
Prix Renaudot Laureate, Paris
"
★★★★★
My mammoth ivory Bespoke commission arrived fourteen months after I placed it. I opened the cabinet and simply stared. Then I inked it and wrote for three hours without stopping. I have never written better letters in my life.
Lord H. Ashworth
Collector, London
"
★★★★★
To sign the papers that established my foundation, I used a pen that will outlast the foundation by centuries. There is no better instrument for marking the moments that must endure.
Dr. Kenji Muraoka
Philanthropist & Collector, Tokyo