On June 12th I attended my third Utrecht Pen show and I must say that the organizers demonstrated how the two essential aspects of a successful pen show are: public and exhibitors

A short review on the differences of Omas nibs used from the 1980’s to 2014

Bologna was one of the major “pen cities” in Italy from the early 1900’s till WWII and beyond. It was the city where Nettuno, Colorado, Omas, Tabo, the Scotland and a few more famous brands were manufactured, but also the place where a few very important nib manufacturers were located.

In the early 1990s the passion for fountain pens experienced a powerful revival in Europe and in Italy in particular.

Pen collecting became a very  fashionable hobby and many Italian manufacturers started producing their first limited editions, which flanked their standard production.

Pen makers such as Delta, Stipula, Visconti, Marlen, Montegrappa, Tibaldi, Omas and a few others, manufactured some of their best products ever.

Publicity creators of the past often found a powerful source of inspiration in the world of animals, exploiting this realm of images and logical association to create refined and sophisticated advertising messages.

Fountain pen collectors and users prefer smearing their fingers and struggling with ink bottles instead of adopting pens with a cartridge filling mechanism.

A visual comparison to check wether you are buying a fake Montblanc Boheme ball pen.

Year of production: 2005

Number of pieces: 905

Universal pens were produced in Milan by the Cavaliere Company.

The company’s logo was the outline of a horseshoe (Cavaliere in Italian means Knight). The logo can be found either with the horseshoe only or with a nib which goes through it.

I have had this Uhlmman Eterno’s catalogue for years and have often wondered if the facetted pens it shows were Uhmann pens or not. They looked like Ancora pens to me.