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.

EXTRA derives from Latin and its meaning is “ beyond the scope of, in addition to what is usual o expected”

Extra is actually the comparative of “Ex” which means “external”, “out of”.

One of the most common uses of the suffix extra is in the adjective “extra-ordinarious”, meaning extraordinary, unusual.

A very evocative limited edition

Year of Production: 1993

Number of pieces: 4692

1948 was a year of deep transformation in Italy: on Jan. 1st the Italian Constitution became effective and in April the first elections since the fall of the Fascist regime took place.

92% of the people with a right to vote expressed their preference choosing the party which would lead the young Italian Republic into the future. In the picture is shown one of the many queues of people waiting to vote.

During the 1990’s, when I was gathering information on Italian brands and their origin for the History of the Italian Fountain Pen, I was lucky enough to interview a number of former sales agents and pen shop owners who gave me precious information on many brands.

One of the most difficult brands to catalogue was WELCOME/WELLCOME which was found both on celluloid pens and on pens with semi-precious overlay.

The Cruise line is the last series Omas manufactured before stopping production

Within the scenario of embellishments on Waterman safety pens, many overlays exist which represents mythological, literary or historical scenes with high relief decorations.

Sometimes the decoration is present on the cap only, sometimes it is distributed on the entire barrel of the pen.

Part 2 deals with the analysis of a few overlays which were not included in the book Waterman in Italy and review of the variations found on filigree and cherub patterns.