Atlantica
1935-40
About This Model
There were many small fountain pen manufacturers in Italy during the vintage era, particularly in Torino and Bologne, and included Artus, Atlantica, Aurea, Imperiale, and others. The trouble is that there is almost no published information about them, except for the wonderful scholarship of Letizia Jacobini, who has managed to tease out most of the sub-brands and models from brands, a tremendously complex job. Most of the brands here were one purchase I made some years back to experience mid-level Italian vintage pens. They were almost all button-fillers, in celluloid patterns that I had never seen before or since. The nibs were almost all steel, responsive and often at least minimally flexible. Filcao started in the 1960s in Settimo Torinese, Italy, as a machine shop for metal parts. Crediting Richard Binder for the history, it's noted that by the end of the decade Filcao was producing cartridge/converter fountain pens, which then became its primary business. In 2004, Binder designed a pen for Filcao called “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,” an all-new button filler. It was followed by the Atlantica, the Nobile, and the Silvia. Filcao closed in 2012.
About This Pen
Atlantica was a brand of the Milanese firm called “Fabbrica Italiana di Penne Stilographiche”, a manufacturer of a wide variety of writing products, including fountain pens, during the 1930s and 1940s. This pen, a button filler from the late 1930s, is characteristic of their mid-level production. It is in red marbled celluloid, in good user condition with two gold cap rings and a chrome silver bowtie-shaped clip. There are some marks of use and age, but no serious blemishes. Among the 1935-40 pens I’ve shown here, it’s a little larger, measuring 13cm long capped and 1.1cm wide just below its cap. Its nib is, like a few others from the group that has been seen here, a Stilor Extra. This is not a typical Italian flexible writer; it writes a delicate, expressive line but not a flexible one. A fine pen but not a luxe pen, it’s sturdy for steady writing.
Price: $98 Sold