Tabo/en

Tabo Logo

Tabo is the second trademark used by Stiassi e Tantini for fountain pen production. It was registered in 1940, so we consider this year the start of production for this brand. There no known evidences for a different production start date, nor the reason for changing trademark from The Scotland.

The Tabo branded pens, as for the previous The Scotland ones produced by the same company are high-quality and some model are made by very nice semi-transparent celluoid. Tabo pens seems to have a good success, because they are less rare than The Scotland but still are highly sought by collectors.

Tabo
Brand pages
Brand advertising
Brand photos
Instructions sheet
Other documents

History

File:1943-Tabo-Trasparente.jpg

A Tabo advertisement

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.

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 hard rubber or with metal overlay, very similar to those found in the Montegrappa production, named with a four digits code number.

In addition to previous Tabo marked models, which were the first tier production that has nothing to envy in terms of quality compared to pens produced by the other major Italian manufacturers, the company also made second-tier fountain pens, at a lower price, using a series of sub-brands such as StyBy, Stibi, EsseTibi, S.T.B..

A 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 (CO è l'acronimo di Cappuccio Oro).

La fine della produzione della Tabo viene fatta coincidere con quella della azienda madre (la Stiassi e Tantini) che chiuse le attività nel 1948. Data l'elevata qualità costruttiva, che non ha nulla da invidiare a quella delle altre marche italiane più famose, le penne Tabo sono considerate di elevato interesse collezionistico.

Template:CronoMarche |- | 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 |- | Trasparente || 19XX || XX, ? |- | S || 19XX || XX, ? |- | V || 19XX || XX, ? |- |}