Relation Of Omas With "king"/radius Of Turino

[OMASsimo]

I recently acquired a beautiful little safety filler with 18 k gold overlay made by "The King" in Turino. The nib's imprint reads "RADIUS / SUPERIOR / 585". I did some research and found indications that they had ties with OMAS in Bologna but there are contradicting statements about what these relations were. I'm sure there are some experts on board here to enlighten me what these relations really were. And most curiously, I've seen a 1930s OMAS pen with a RADIUS nib recently, which puzzled me even more. Any ideas or info?

[fabri00]

https://www.fountainpen.it/Radius/it

 

Is in Italian, sorry for that.

 

I do not think that having found an Omas with Radius nib will mean something. It was common to replace nibs with other brands one.

[OMASsimo]

Thank you for the link. I read that article a while ago already. Nevertheless, some people claim that there were at least business connections between Radius (or rather SAFIS) or the previous The King and OMAS. It could be all rumors but I wonder if there is anything more serious in known about this.

 

Of course, nibs were swapped (usually when damaged or if the pen was damaged) in the old days. But most of these replacements were made by the same manufacturer. Especially, because the nib has to fit the feed and those were not at all standardised in the 1930s. That's why I wonder why an OMAS, a very expensive pen, was fitted with a Radius nib. Of course, you might be right and it's just one more of the many oddities one finds with pens from that period.

[simp]

The article is also in english here:

 

https://www.fountainpen.it/Radius/en

 

Anyway if you want the big picture better look at the parent company:

 

https://www.fountainpen.it/SAFIS/en

 

In brief, yes there were connection, The King was using an Armando Simoni patent. But you want more details I think you need a time machine, what can be told for sure (from trademarks registration and chamber of commerce registration) is that SAFIS was the new name of the The King, and owned trademark Radius, Astura, and also after the war (when there were no more reason to avoid foreing names imposed by the fascist regime propaganda) The King.

 

But for commercial reletion between the two company you can have just traces, like the patent one, and a "penna del dottore" marked the king.

 

Anyway anything I know is in the article, if you have question I'll try to answer them, but I seldom read FPN, so be patient...

 

Simone