Info on Ungaro fountain pen would be appreciated

[JWG J]

Who of you, PF-specialists can provide specific info on this Ungaro pen? I know of Emanuel Ungaro and their gift pens, and mine probably is a gift pen. But is writes well, so I don't care. But I would like to have more details on this pen. The nib is an aspecific "Iridium point Gernany" one. The feed is marked with "K". The box is transsectionally oval shaped, and is marked "UNGARO".

[txomsy]

The K point of the nib stands for Kugel, ball shaped, it should write well like a ball point, i.e. well from any direction.

 

Other than that, I am sorry that I cannot be of much more help.

[JWG J]

Thanks; indeed it writes well from any direction, in between F and M, somewhat more M than F.

[fabri00]

10 hours ago, txomsy said:

The K point of the nib stands for Kugel, ball shaped, it should write well like a ball point, i.e. well from any direction.

 

Other than that, I am sorry that I cannot be of much more help.

If the K Is on the Feeder, i do not think It has the meaning you mentioned.

The nib from the picture look like a standard chinese nib marked "iridium point germany".

[txomsy]

You are right, and it may well be the case that the K means otherwise.

 

Ungaro seems to be mainly selling design products.

 

According to Amazon.com the maker seems to be Plastoria, which on their page claims to be an European (Belgium) designer and maker of luxury accessories (like, e.g., Cerruti, with which they have a long term relationship). Fountain pens, notepads and briefcases became a central part of their offer in the 80s. Recently they claim to have agreements with Festina or Hugo Boss and encompass all fields of fashion. They talk about competing with Asian production in their history page.

 

So, there, another EU maker to learn about in the market. Only this one is not seen in the shelves by its own name, but through luxury brands.

 

Therefore, it does not seem like a Chinese made pen. But rather a pen made for luxury brands by an European maker with relatively long experience making and designing (fountain) pens, but which makes them to be sold under other brand names. It seems logical that they are discreet.

 

I suppose if one wants to learn more about their quality, one should look for reviews of their rebranded pens. OTOH, if they are sold as luxury products, one may imagine these resellers would not risk their reputation offering a terribly bad product (though one may expect them to look for the largest margin, if all they cared were margins and looks, they'd produce in China, so, likely, a decent minimum quality may be expected, otherwise Plastoria would not be expanding their resellers). But this is largely speculation on my part.

 

 

 

[JWG J]

Indeed, Ungaro is a luxury fashion house; I agree that the fact that the pen clearly is marked “Ungaro” indeed means in my view that the pen cannot be of poor quality, because Ungaro would then not risk its name associated with it. I have several fountain pens; the quality of this, relatively heavy, pen looks like good to me, and the pen case seems a quality case.

Undaro sells pens with a name of the type of pen, e.g., “Ungaro Augusta”, comparable with Waterman and Laureat (make /brand and type). The fact that I cannot determine the type of this pen is intriguing; all of my other pens with a name of the brand on it I have been able to identify the type...

[JWG J]

10 hours ago, fabri00 said:

If the K Is on the Feeder, i do not think It has the meaning you mentioned.

The nib from the picture look like a standard chinese nib marked "iridium point germany".

The K is on the feeder similarly / at about a similar location as the F and M  nib type designations on the older  Parker Sonnet and Waterman Ideal Gentleman, so my hypothesis is the K is indeed a designation of the nib type..

[Number99]

I too am curious where the designer brand fountain pens that often show up on second hand sales websites come from.

Plastoria website.

Regarding manufacturing, it states that only prototypes of leather products are made in Belgium.

It also states that the pens are manufactured in Taiwan.

QUARTIC INTERNATIONAL LIMITED of Hong Kong also claims in its terms and conditions to have a similar Brand Trademarks to Plastoria and advertises its products in the same video.

https://plastoria.com/en/

 

B2Bgifts (QUARTIC) website.

https://b2bgiftsshop.com/

 

You can see the Ungaro Augusta fountain pen here

https://b2bgiftsshop.com/products/fountain-pen-augusta

 

*The relationship between these companies and products and the designer brand "Emanuel Ungaro" is unknown.

These products are not marked "Emanuel Ungaro" and the "U" logo is not visible.

However, to me, the writing style of "Ungaro" looks exactly the same.

 

Emanuel Ungaro's website.

https://www.ungaro.com/

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Number99

[JWG J]

Thanks!, I've sent an e-mail to Plastoria, will report any info I will get (if any)

[JWG J]

Plastoria confirmed they produced this pen for Ungaro several years ago, but they seen not be able to give any further info or to provide a catalogue of that time, with this pen in it...