Pens of Note

Novelli Augusta

 

In 2000, Marco and his dad, Augusto, started the planning of a pen to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the thier store, Novelli Pen & Pipe. The resulting pen, the Augusta had two main influences. Marco liked a pen Montegrappa had created, the Reminiscence, with a eight-side faceted body. Augusto liked a blue and bronze celluloid that was once used in one of the original Waterman Patrician pens released in the 1920s.

Together, they worked with the Italian pen manufacturer, Visconti, to create the Augusta fountain pen. Up to this point, Viscount had not produced an faceted pen, and this would be their first.

Karen and I first met Augusto in 1997. He wrote with a great offer: come to Rome and he would take Karen and I out to lunch. Why not! We enjoyed meeting him and he showed us the extensive collection of pens at the Novelli store. At that time, the store was actually located across the street from its present location. It was smaller, and I remember Augusto bringing tray after tray of pens from the back room. Of all the pens we say, we ended leaving the store with the Waterman Etoile Man 100 in sterling silver. We may have seen his son Marco, was working in the office upstairs accessed by a ladder from the store.

We returned to Rome in 2001 and received the sad news that Augusto had passed away. Marco, showed us many pens, including the Visconti Novelli Augusta pen. A Limited Edition, 300 fountain pens. I did not select the pen at that time, and I ways regretted that decision. Over the following years I would see one become available from time to time on e-bay, but I was never able to get the pen with the nib I wanted.

On our 2015 visit to Rome, Marco showed me a new release of the pen. Visconti had asked if he wanted to use of the remaining stock of celluloid they had. I quickly made the decision to acquire the Augusta pens. The pen produced in the original stunning celluloid was produced in two versions. One version had 24K gold trim. There were 300 pens produced. Some of this run were made available to pen stores outside of Italy. A second version was produced with sterling silver rhodium plated trim, and only four were created. Sterling silver and celluloid is a draw to me, and I have pen IV or IV.

How is the pen? Light to hold as the body and cap are made of celluloid. It is a large pen in size - 5 1/2 inches when capped and 6 3/4 inches when posted. It fills with a power piston filler mechanism and there is a clear ink view window to show the status of ink in the chamber. There is a double reserve ink chamber so ink can transfer to a second chamber for flights.

The pen has an incredibly smooth 23kt gold palladium nib. My pen has a Broad width, and it lays a solid line of ink on the paper.