MINERVA Piston filler - gray pearl celluloid
Minerva pens were introduced by Omas in the early 1930's as a subbrand or better as a parallel line of writing instruments t diversify their offer.
Early Minerva pens were button fillers, very similar in shape and finish to Parer Duofold streamlined models.
In 1932 the Minerva Classica series was introduced; it comprised only lever fillers and pens were produced in fancy celluloids with a wide variety of colors and combinations. A few years later, Minerva piston fillers were marketed to meet the demand of the market for more modern filling mechanisms and ink visibility. They were offere din two sizes only, standard and oversize.
They remained on the market only for a few years and were discontinued immediately after WWII.These pens are nowadays very rare especially the oversize models.
The range of colors of Minerva piston fillers comprised gray pearl, tortoise brown, green marbled and black.
During war years Minerva pens, like all Omas models, were produced with chrome trim and fitted with steel nibs ( namely Permanio) as the use of gold was forbidden in Italy. Later on many wartime models had their nibs replaced with 14 ct gold ones
This wartime Minerva piston filler is not only very rare but it is also a fantastic writer as its nib offers nice flexibility and is very smooth.