Some Vintage Italians

[MarcShiman]

Over the last few months, I've become very interested in vintage Italian pens. My interest comes from the fascinating celluloids and the remarkable flex nibs that you find on them. I've taken two trips to Italy over the past 4 months, the last one just for a day, but I've managed to accumulate some pens.

 

Here is a shot of some of my most recent acquisitions. The photography isn't all that, but the pens are very cool (most in need of restoration). Thanks for letting me share my newest!

 

 

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2678/4346530758_73a69b22ec_b.jpg

 

 

From left to right (expert corrections on my descriptions welcome):

 

1) Columbus Extra button filler. This is a Wahl Doric look-a-like, a hair shorter than an O/S Doric first generation. The nib may be wrong, it says "Ideal 14k Golden Pen" and is very flexible. The plating on the furniture is awful. My crappy camera skills don't do justice to the gold threads running through the celluloid

 

2) Kosca large fat pen, with a nib I'm almost certain isn't right. Its tiny with the markings "Sarc. Tago's" or "Saratoga" (I can't tell). The plating held up much better on this one.

 

3) The King (someone told me Omas make?) with a transparent barrel and a HUGE cap band. I'm a little worried the barrel is crystalizing, and I can't tell if its a bad set of threads or a pull cap. Its filler is a cross between a Dunn or Omas and a Vacumatic

 

4) Black Radius Superior with a 4 size nib. It looks like NOS as the barrel is perfectly transparent.

 

5) Tabo Transparente with a very clear barrel. Tabo did a lot of pens that had the stripes like Vacumatics, and it fells like a sturdy well made pen with a nice flexy nib

 

6) Elmo Extra (made by Montegrappa) - flexy steel nib

 

7) Aurora (Novum?) with a flexy steel nib. Really weird basketweave celluloid.

 

8) Imperial Doric lookalike with a need color celluloid. A really weird clip that actually has a piece intended to grab the shirt. You need to squeeze the clip or you can't remove it from a pocket. If I can clean it up and take a closer picture of it, I will.

 

9) Radius Extra Doric lookalike in a really nice golden basketweave celluloid. There are some cracks in the cap lip. Its a plunger type fill mechanism and it has a huge Raduis Superior 6 nib

 

10) Simplo Doric Lookalike. Its a blue celluloid that looks like the Doric Burma pattern. I pulled the nib and feed yesterday - the nib is a #9 size nib - and the feed is about as long as a Wahl Bantam pen. Giant.

 

11) Radius Superior. I think this is the Italian pen that really got me going. I bought this from an ebay seller, and its really gorgeous using the "arco" celluloid in silver.

 

12) Tabo transparente. This one is much more opaque than the first one, and the lines are vertical rather than the barber pole lines of the first one. Its got a huge 9 nib in it, although the plunger is absolutely frozen in place.

[eric47]

Well, now I know who's been snatching up all of those vintage Italians. Very nice, thanks for posting.

 

  On 2/10/2010 at 5:01 PM, MarcShiman said:

7) Aurora (Novum?) with a flexy steel nib. Really weird basketweave celluloid.

 

That looks like an Amica. I believe "Amica" is etched in the section and nib.

Edited February 10, 2010 by eric47

[blopplop]

Nice!!

[Mauricio]

Very nice collection i vintage Italians indeed!

 

  On 2/10/2010 at 5:15 PM, eric47 said:

Well, now I know who's been snatching up all of those vintage Italians. Very nice, thanks for posting.

 

  On 2/10/2010 at 5:01 PM, MarcShiman said:

7) Aurora (Novum?) with a flexy steel nib. Really weird basketweave celluloid.

 

That looks like an Amica. I believe "Amica" is etched in the section and nib.

 

Agree with eric47. Pen (7) does look like an Aurora Amica. The ones I have seen have the Aurora logo and Amica imprint on the section and came with steel nibs marked CISEA. They are good vintage pens!

[rroossinck]

Great finds, Marc! You definitely managed to grab a nice assortment of pens there!

 

That Kosca may be an Omas-manufactured piece, although you're right...the nib probably isn't original. Saratoga was a vintage Italian brand from Milan (I think...someone correct me if I'm wrong on this?), and they supposedly made some good stuff. If the nib is a gold one, I'd imagine that it's from one of Saratoga's higher-end products. Cool piece, regardless of origin!

 

In some research that I did a year or two ago, I think I remember that The King was a brand under the S.A.F.I.S. umbrella, and the name was later changed to Radius (something to do with pro-Italian sentiments during their self-sufficient period in the mid-30s?). Either way, they're regarded fairly highly in terms of quality, if I remember correctly.

 

One of these days, I'm going to get ahold of Letizia Jacopini's books on vintage Italian production. This stuff is too cool!

[AEntreri0]

What a drool-worthy collection. These are your 'most recent acquisitions,' eh? I wish I had your luck!

[eric47]

  On 2/11/2010 at 11:51 PM, AEntreri0 said:

I wish I had your luck!

 

Ahem....you seem to be alright from what I've seen. :ltcapd:

[ralphawilson]

Gorgeous collection. Can you provide approximate dates for any of these lovelies?

[MarcShiman]

  On 2/11/2010 at 11:51 PM, AEntreri0 said:

What a drool-worthy collection. These are your 'most recent acquisitions,' eh? I wish I had your luck!

 

Most of them came in a purchase at an antique shop at Rome - not finds in the wild, mind you - the proprietor had them "professionally" appraised.

[MarcShiman]

  On 2/12/2010 at 12:12 AM, ralphawilson said:

Gorgeous collection. Can you provide approximate dates for any of these lovelies?

 

Personally, I can't - I'd have to do research. But I would guess everything falls from the mid 30's to 40's.

[LetiziaJac]

UUUHHH!

You were really lucky!

You got a very nice and interesting group of Italians!

Here are some pieces of information for you:

1) Columbus extra: nice pen of the late 40s, part of Columbus'less expensive range. You find these pens with gold plated nibs,steel nibs ( with nickel trim), less usually with gold nibs.

2)Koska, from the mid/late 40s, produced in Milan by the Kohler und Schaefer company. It should have a large Koska gold nib . If your Saratoga nib is gold, you found quite a rare piece, although wrong for this pen.

3)The King from the 1950s. One of the latest The King products, probably produced by SAFIS.

4) Radius superior from the 50s, nice serious piston filler. These were sturdy pens, mostly in black, with fantastic gold nibs.

5) Tabo Trasparente: one of the most beautiful models by the Bologna-based company. Although black ( you can find these pens with fantastic vacumatic-look-alike celluloids), a terrific find! Filling is through an aluminium vacuum filler mechanism.

6) Elmo- Montegrappa, low-end model of medium quality from the late 40s.

7) Aurora. It is not a Novum, but it could be an Amica, an OLO or a Cisea ( most likely - anyway an Aurora product) Early 40s. Check imprints on the section.

8) Imperial Doric: this is one of the many minor Italian brands which produced medium/low quality pens with beautiful celluloids imitating more famous products. They generally have steel or gold plated nibs. Late 1940s. The strange clip is an imitation of the more famous Aurora clip used for the Novum model

9)Radius Trasparente: a beautiful model produced by the SAFIS company from Turin. Unfortuntely most of these pens do crystallize. Caps are very delicate and you very often find them with cracks. To achieve transparency they seem to have thinned the material too much! It was produced in red, bue, yellow and green ( and maybe other hues). It is actually a button filler and not a vacuum-filler. Mid 1940s.

10)Simplo Doric - If the imprint on the barrel reds Simplo,... mmmh, never heard of it. It is however another Radius/SAFIS related product from the 1940s.

11) Tabo Trasparente: same model as your number 5 but with a trim variation ( Tabo Trasparente were manufactured both with three cap bands and with greek key bands) early 1940s.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Letizia

[MarcShiman]

Wow, thanks for all the help! I'm really enjoying these.

  On 2/12/2010 at 9:19 AM, LetiziaJac said:

UUUHHH!

You were really lucky!

You got a very nice and interesting group of Italians!

Here are some pieces of information for you:

 

1) Columbus extra: nice pen of the late 40s, part of Columbus'less expensive range. You find these pens with gold plated nibs,steel nibs ( with nickel trim), less usually with gold nibs.

 

Actually, its spelled on the barrel "Colombos" - a friend suggests this is merely a copy of a Columbus pen, and low value.

 

 

 

  Quote

2)Koska, from the mid/late 40s, produced in Milan by the Kohler und Schaefer company. It should have a large Koska gold nib . If your Saratoga nib is gold, you found quite a rare piece, although wrong for this pen.

 

Is there anyone that tends to have parts and/or original nibs for Italian pens?

 

  Quote

7) Aurora. It is not a Novum, but it could be an Amica, an OLO or a Cisea ( most likely - anyway an Aurora product) Early 40s. Check imprints on the section.

 

It is an Amica

 

  Quote

8) Imperial Doric: this is one of the many minor Italian brands which produced medium/low quality pens with beautiful celluloids imitating more famous products. They generally have steel or gold plated nibs. Late 1940s. The strange clip is an imitation of the more famous Aurora clip used for the Novum model

 

The nib is unmarked other than a 14k and 585. There's something that looks like the sun, but no other words. I'll pull the nib once I get my tools back, and see if its plated or not.

 

  Quote

9)Radius Trasparente: a beautiful model produced by the SAFIS company from Turin. Unfortuntely most of these pens do crystallize. Caps are very delicate and you very often find them with cracks. To achieve transparency they seem to have thinned the material too much! It was produced in red, bue, yellow and green ( and maybe other hues). It is actually a button filler and not a vacuum-filler. Mid 1940s.

 

This is interesting. The section is not friction fit but threaded, and there is a breather tube. It is a button on the top under the blind cap, but there appears to be packing material in the barrel. There's no pressure bar, and the section has no nipple for a sac. It would seem like the world to be a vacuum type filler if not for the button on the top.

 

The thing about these Italian nibs is that even the steel ones have remarkable flexibility, so even if a nib is plated, it isn't easy to tell just by feel.

[LetiziaJac]

As regards the Radius Trasparente, they used a very small and tiny sac, which was placed in the upper part of the barrel. You would so fill the pen as a button filler and the lower part of the barrel would be filled with ink throught the breather tube, as if it had a vacuum mechanism. Quite an ingenious system to achieve transparency with little technology....

Edited February 13, 2010 by LetiziaJac

[georges zaslavsky]

very nice batch of vintage pens thanks for sharing

[karmakoda]

Quoting rroossinck:

  Quote

One of these days, I'm going to get ahold of Letizia Jacopini's books on vintage Italian production. This stuff is too cool!

 

Are there any online resources with information about vintage Italian pens?

The pens featured above are an excellent and compelling introduction.

Thanks for the great photo!

[karmakoda]

  On 2/14/2010 at 9:23 PM, karmakoda said:

Quoting rroossinck:

  Quote

One of these days, I'm going to get ahold of Letizia Jacopini's books on vintage Italian production. This stuff is too cool!

 

Are there any online resources with information about vintage Italian pens?

The pens featured above are an excellent and compelling introduction.

Thanks for the great photo!

 

Look no further than the FPN, of course.

I just found the list of Italian Fountain Pen Manufacturers at the intro area of this category. Good reading, lots of information.