A recent family trip to Hamburg [1]which was my first ever trip to Hamburg included a trip to Alsterhaus, a posh department store that very much reminded us of Harvey Nichols in Manchester.
The Alsterhaus sells many posh brands (think Armani, Chanel, Hermes, …), but unexpectedly we also found an extensive selection of stationery brands on one of the higher floors.
Some brands, like Graf von Faber-Castell, S. T. Dupont and Caran d’Ache take up large parts of the stationery corner’s luxury corner, but pens from other brands, like Pelikan and Kaweco, are also in stock.
Despite Alsterhaus’ general focus on luxury brands you can also find affordable stationery items for office and school use.
This includes a great selection of Lamy pens.
Faber-Castell, Leuchtturm and more were also available.
Thanks to my wife I walked away with Caran d’Ache’s Nespresso pencils (more about them at Pencil Talk) and my first ever “Les crayons de la maison” pencils (more about them at Lexikaliker, who discovered that this series is not quite what it is made out to be).
Prices were comparable to what you pay for these items in other shops or online.
This set seems to be the tenth edition, created together with Mizensir, a Swiss parfume firm.
When opening the plastic wrapping you can smell the strong smell from these pencils.
At this stage it is not completely clear whether the different pencils have different smells that are indistinguishable because they were together in sealed packaging or whether the different pencils have the same smell by design.
References
| ↑1 | which was my first ever trip to Hamburg |
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Alsterhaus seems to be far superior to Harvey Nichols! I love Hamburg, you’re very lucky to live near it (if you do that is!).
Amro
This is a very nice shop, to which I often go. Back in 2018, I bought a steeply discounted (maybe 40% off) 50th anniversary Lamy 2000 with the OB nib there, when they had sold out everywhere else. Aside from the stationery department, I particularly liked the restaurant floor with the stained glass ceiling. Lovely shop. I hope you enjoyed your visit.
That’s impressive – thank you for sharing your experience!
Wow, Matthias, that is so interesting.
I need to visit now, just to experience the scent of those pencils. and discover whether or not the scents differ from colour to colour.
I hope you, Ping Ping and Sebastian are keeping well and enjoying your life changes.
All the best to you all
Penelope
Another inspirational insight into the work of high class stationery!!!
Thank you.
stationery department is a rare breed these days 🙁
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