The Scotland

Logo The Scotland

The Scotland is the first trademark, the oldest one, used by Stiassi e Tantini for their fountain pen production. Many hypothesis are made on The Scotland pens origins, attributing their production sometime to Omas, sometime to Montegrappa or both.^[1] The only confirmed evidence is the brand relation with Stiassi e Tantini who was the owner of the trademark registration, and without a documented evidence, production by other brands is just an hypothesis.

The Scotland branded pen have a very high general quality, in par with the production of the more famous Italian producer of that time. Because the short live of the brand, these pens are quite rare, and so highly sought by collectors.

The Scotland
Brand photos

History

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 Pen Italiana 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. There are no know information about when production was effectively started, but it's generally assumed to be in the '20s.

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 trends 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 only other known document about the brand is a February 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 himself registered in the '40s the brand name Mercurio, often found on economic nibs.

The earlier fountain pen production by The Scotland was composed by safety models made both in simple black chased hard rubber or with metal overlays, these ones 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 reports the following names: special, junior, 9I safetj, zigrinato tipo Waterman 40.

I primi modelli in celluloide sono, come per molta altra produzione dello stesso periodo, imitazioni della Duofold. A dimostrare l'influenza della produzione anglosassone, si tratta in questo caso di modelli recante le incisioni The Scotland Pen e Self filling su due righe sul corpo e pennino in oro marcato The Scotland Pen e Made in England, che nei modelli degli anni '30 verranno sostituiti da pennini marcati Scotland Italiana e Made in Italy.

A questi modelli seguono, databili anche questi agli anni '30, dei modelli ogivali dotati dello stesso tipo di fermagli e finiture dei precedenti modelli imitazioni della Duofold, ma con testa del cappuccio e fondo del corpo affusolati. Pare invece esservi un coinvolgimento della Omas nella produzione, probabilmente successiva, di modelli sfaccettati ispirati in maniera abbastanza evidente (e forse derivati) dalla Omas Extra, denominati The Scotland Prisma. La produzione di penne a marchio The Scotland pare essersi interrotta con l'avvento della seconda guerra mondiale.

Dalla fine degli anni '30 il marchio pare essere stato abbandonato, in seguito alle trasformazioni societarie della Stiassi e Tantini che riprese la produzione delle stilografiche agli inizi degli anni '40 utilizzando il marchio Tabo. Per la qualità delle penne e la relativa rarità delle stesse, il marchio The Scotland risulta molto interessante dal punto di vista collezionistico.

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) |- |}

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

Note

↑ recently also to SAFIS, else if SAFIS was founded later, but to now no documented evidence is known and similarities by models o works cannot considered a proof.

Riferimenti esterni

nessuno per ora

[1] recently also to SAFIS, else if SAFIS was founded later, but to now no documented evidence is known and similarities by models o works cannot considered a proof.

[1]