Stiassi e Tantini/en

Logo Tabo

The Stiassi e Tantini company (which historically has gone through many name changes) is one of the oldest fountain pens manufacturers on the Italian market, but unlike the other major Italian brands its production has been deployed with a variety of different names, of which the best known are The Scotland and Tabo. The brand The Scotland is the older of the two, and dates back to 1920, the brand Tabo instead was adopted from the late '30s.

The company was active in Bologna and often is assumed that there are ties (in particular for the The Scotland brand production) with OMAS (but none is clearly documented). It is considered for the quality of its pens one of the most interesting historic Italian producers. The company produced high-quality fountain pens until all the 40s, but suffered heavily in the post-war from the effects the success of the ballpoint pen, and production ceased in the '50s.

History

The company's origins are between the oldest ones in Italy and at the Chamber of Commerce of Bologna the company appears to have been founded as Stiassi e Tantini in 1919 (12/17/1919) by Giuseppe Tantini and Giorgio Stiassi having a corporate purpose as Commercio di articoli di cancelleria e carta da scrivere (stationery and paper commerce). It was based in "via Combusti 5" and "via Nazario Sauro 1", in Bologna.

The Stiassi e Tantini activities remained predominantly in the field of the stationery commerce and the firm was until 1924 the only representative for Italy of Woodstok typewriters. The fountain pens production was presumably stared with the brand The Scotland, although some believe that this brand has been primarily used for marking pens produced by others (presumably OMAS and Montegrappa).

A Scotland Prismatica

The history of the The Scotland brand is still very uncertain.In 1920 the two Stiassi e Tantini members founded also A.S.C.A., acronym of Azienda Specializzata in Cancelleria ed Affini (meaning Company Specialized in Stationery and Related), and registered the company name The Scotland Italian Pen with the Chamber of Commerce of Bologna, presumably by virtue of the strong anglophiles trends in the Italian market, which at the time saw many brands using english names. The only other known document about the brand is a Frebuary 4, 1930 bill on behalf of the Armando Merighi company which depicts a fountain pen called The Scotland Self Filling Pen; the role of this company is not totally clear, but it was claiming to be the dealer for the italian distribution, and Merighi registered in the '40s the brand name Mercurio, often found on economic nibs.

The trademark registration was done in 1931 (Reg. Gen. N. 44193), and later there was a change in Scotland Italiana, registered in 1936/1937 (Reg. Gen. N. 54732), probably as the result of market trneds changes due to the fight against anglophile trends and the exaltation of the Italian naming made by the fascist regime propaganda. The link with Tabo is anyway confirmed by the presence of a oversize model marked Scotland Italiana - Tabo Mod 1926.

The earlier The Scotland fountain pen production was composed by safety models made both in black chased hard rubber than with metal overlay versions, using laminated gold metal decorated with geometric engravings. There are no known specific names of these models than those previously cited in the bill that gives the following names: special, junior, 9I safetj, zigrinato tipo Waterman 40.

The first celluloid models are, as for many other italian pens produced in the same period, Duofold imitations. To demonstrate the influence of anglophile names, these models were containing the inscripitions like The Scotland Pen and Self filling in two rows on the body, and gold nib was marked The Scotland Pen and Made in England, these were replaced in the '30s models by nibs marked Scotland Italiana and Made in Italy.

After these models followed, still from the '30s, new streamlined models fitted with the same type of clip and finishes of the previous Duofold imitations, but with tapered neds for cap and barrel. It seems, however, that there was an OMAS role in the production of some later models, known as The Scotland Prisma, that are fairly evident derived from the Omas Extra. The production of The Scotland branded pens seems to have stopped with the advent of World War II.

File:1943-Tabo-Trasparente.jpg

A Tabo advertising

The Tabo brand fountain pens production is rather late and goes back to the late '30s. The activities of Stiassi e Tantini results to be closed in 1939, but the two members founded the previous year a new company named "S.I.S.A.", acromym of Società Italiana Stilografiche e Affini (meaning Italian Company Fountain Pens and Related), that was remaned in 1940 (?) as "F.I.S.A.", acronym of Fabbrica Italiana Stilografiche e Affini (meaning Italian Factory Fountain Pens and Related) who was the company giving birth to the production of Tabo branded pens, another acronym used as an abbreviation for the term Tantini - Bologna. In later years the company name was changed again in Stiassi e Tantini S. A., wording that appears in the first Tabo pen advertising dating from the early '40s.

File:Tabo-Trasparente-Black-Capped.jpg

A Tabo Trasparente

The Tabo series of late 30's were produced in different versions depending on the filling systems as there are button filler models, called Mentis, and depression filler models, similar to the Vacumatic, called Trasparente, as well as models with the more ordinary lever filler with a faceted body, similar to the Omas Extra, identified by the number 1931. Finally there were also safety models, made in ebonite or with metal overlay, very similar to those found in the Montegrappa production, named with a four digits code number.

Oltre ai precedenti modelli marcati Tabo, che costituivano la produzione di maggior pregio e che non hanno nulla da invidiare sul piano della qualità alle penne degli altri principali costruttori italiani, l'azienda realizzò anche stilografiche di seconda fascia, ad un prezzo minore, utilizzando una serie di sottomarche come StyBy, Stibi, EsseTibi, S.T.B..

Una Tabo S

Nel dopoguerra l'azienda dovette affrontare la crescita della concorrenza e l'impatto dell'introduzione delle resine plastiche nella produzione di stilografiche, la cui diffusione andava rapidamente aumentando anche in Europa. Le linee vennero riviste passando al caricamento a stantuffo, venne introdotta la linea Vertex a pennino coperto (sostituita poi dalla Tabo V) e le due linee S e CO ad indicare rispettivamente i modelli con pennino scoperto e con cappuccio metallico (Cappuccio Oro).

Nel 1948 la Stiassi e Tantini si sciolse definitivamente, ma la famiglia Tantini proseguì per un certo periodo le attività con la P. Tantini & C Srl; venne aperta a Bologna una attività commerciale sotto questo nome, ma la produzione delle stilografiche non si estende oltre gli anni '50. Con la crisi derivante dal successo della penna a sfera usa e getta le attività dell'azienda si diversificarono nel commercio di inchiostri, materiale da cancelleria e chincaglierie, fino al fallimento avvenuto nel 1972.

Template:CronoMarche |- | 1919 || Fondata a Bologna la Stiassi e Tantini |- | 1920 || Stiassi e Tantini registrano il marchio The Scotland Pen Italiana |- | 1939 || La Stiassi e Tantini chiude, sostituta dalla S.I.S.A. (Società Italiana Stilografiche e Affini) |- | 1940? || La S.I.S.A. diventa la F.I.S.A. (Fabbrica Italiana Stilografiche e Affini) |- | 1941? || La F.I.S.A. diventa la Stiassi e Tantini S. A. |- | 1948 || La Stiassi e Tantini S. A. chiude le attività |- |}

Template:LegendaModelli |- | XX || 19XX || XX, ? |- |}

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