The Italian clip: a brief review.
It’s an accepted fact that most original and functional ink filling patents were firstly projected and adopted by American pen companies, particularly by the “Big Four”. A similar observation can be made about barrel, nibs and clip design. This reinforces the fact that the fountain pen was born in the USA.
As general rule, most Italian pen companies were influenced by any innovation coming from the USA, and it’s for this reason that they often borrowed the characteristics of the most famous American fountain pens . This practice from the late 20’s, produced a great range of gorgeous fountain pens; particularly by the most famous Italian makers, such as Omas, Ancora, Columbus, Radius, Williamson, Tabo, Tibaldi, Aurora and others. Nevertheless, Italian pen designers (particularly those working for the most famous brands) introduced some interesting, gorgeous and innovative additions in building their products. It’s probably for this reason that some Italian pens can be considered among the best writing instruments ever produced.
Of great interest is the ink filling technique adopted by Omas in 1936 for the Lucens and Extralucens. A similar patent was adopted by the Dunn pen company around 1920 - figure 1 shows an interesting comparison .
Figure 1
I like also to underline the “Manhattan” celluloid look of Parker Vacumatics which have been adopted by numerous Italian pen makers, such as Williamson or Radius Superior (Fig.2).
Figure 2
Italian pen makers often borrowed the Doric look. Because of this , they were able to produce gorgeous pens such the Omas extra, Columbus extra or the Prismatica extra (Prismatica was a Radius sub-brand) (Fig. 3).
Figure 3
Concerning ink filling techniques, I like to remember the Vacumatic mechanism adopted by Tibaldi and Tabo (Fig.4).
Figure 4
However, the primary aim of this article is to show you a series of Italian clips, particularly those adopted by the most famous Italian brands.
The roller clip
It’s well known that the roller clip came from the USA and became famous
on Wahl’s pens.
In Italy, several pen makers adopted this type of clip. The following pictures
show you the most famous.
The Omas roller clip was very similar to the F.A.C.S.E.N. and Prismatica (both
them were probably Radius sub-brands), at least in the superior extremity (Fig.5).
Figure 5 from left : Omas extra, Lucens, FACSEN and Prismatica
The roller part was made differently by the two companies. In my opinion the Prismatica and FACSEN clip seems to be more actractive than Omas ones. Figure 6 shows an example of F.A.C.S.E.N. and Prismatica extra pen. These pens were probably produced by Radius. In fact, F.A.C.S.E.N. means: Francesco Auletto Commercio Stilografiche Estere e Nazionali. This pen store, founded by Mr. Francesco Auletto, was based in Turin like the Radius company.
Figure 6
Of great interest are the roller clips adopted by the Milan’s pen companies, such as Columbus and Omega (Fig.7).
Figure 7
Further types of Italian clip
Many pen collectors know that my main interest is in Radius pens. The Radius
clips were very well made and present a nice look (Fig. 8).
Figure 8
Still of great interest are the clips which have been produced by the other and less known of Turin’s pen makers. To this regard I would like to show you the Gold-Michel clip (Fig.9; from top the Napoleon model and the 810 lever-filler pen). This pen company was founded by Walter Engel and it was based no far from Turin. If you are interested in further information about this brand, please contact Giovanni Abrate who is an expert in this Turin’s brand.
Figure 9
Still another clip of great interest is the early Ancora clip. This pen seems to be an excellent copy of the Parker Duofold Flat-top Junior. This Ancora is made of red hard rubber and the gold-filled band is really gorgeous (Fig.10).
Figure 10
Still another clip of great interest was installed on the Columbus 134. It’s a superb pen of high quality. It’s 14 centimeters long when is capped. The 134 production started during the 40s, and they clearly borrowed the Eversharp Skyline look. Figure 11 shows a comparison.
Figure 11
Several other brands borrowed the Parker’s “arrow” clip; to this regard I would like to mention the Columbus extra 40 and the Williamson clip (Fig.12). Too the Omas Extralucens clip was made like an arrow.
Figure 12
Of great originality can be considered a group of clips, such as those installed on the Ancora lusso or on the Aurora 88 pen (Fig.13)
.
Figure 13
I really hope that Pentrace readers will find these pictures interesting.