We control our surroundings in so manyways that we sometimes forget it’s a two-way street: our environment shapes us, too.

Take Giovanni Santini as an example. The fact that hewas born 55 years ago in Turin, Italy, explains a greatdeal about his career in pens, for this area is the historicseat of Italian pen making. Turin is the home of Aurora(see p. 68) and not far from the home of Ancora, two ofItaly’s oldest brands, both founded in 1919. SettimoTorino (a town seven miles outside Turin—hence itsname—but now more like a suburb) was once home toscores of fountain pen manufacturers. So it was the most natural thing in the world thatSantini would gravitate to pens. He attended an arts col-lege, shaping models and creating drawings and alsostudying architecture and art history. After college, hetried several jobs before opening a stationery shop, andthat’s when he truly fell in love with pens. He soonbegan selling and repairing fountain pens, and aWaterman salesman led him to the next step of hiscareer: he told Santini about a well-known pen shop inTurin that was for sale. “That was my dream by then,”says Santini. “I didn’t wait a moment and bought it!”

The shop, which had been established in the1950s, came with a stock of vintage spare parts andmaterials, including ebonite, celluloid, lever-fill mech-anisms, nibs, and tools, many of them handmade bythe previous owner. Santini built his skills in penrepair, began collecting mostly Italian pens, andattended pen shows in the United States. Ancora had stopped producing pens in 1975,and Santini saw an opportunity not only to createhis own pens but also to bring back an importantpart of Italy’s fountain pen history. He bought thedormant brand in 1998, and the first pen he pro-duced there was the Unica. “A pen made by me!The dream came true!” Santini marvels. “Ancora was my baby,” he continues, and Santiniapplied himself to learning the entire productionprocess. A few years ago, a Russian company pur-chased the Ancora brand for the express purpose ofcreating pens for the Russian market. Santini initiallyoversaw production for the new owners and in factstill works with them on occasion. But Santini needed a new avenue for his ownpen making, and that is when Santini Italia wasborn in Confienza, roughly halfway between Turinand Milan. Santini thinks of it as simply a continua-tion of his work: “The story of Ancora and the storyof Santini Italia are the same thing: my work withdifferent names.” That is why the Santini Italia logocarries the founding date of 1998, the year Santinipurchased Ancora.

Giovanni Santini, at home with his wife, Katrina, and daughter, Giulia.His Giotto Tower writing instrument is hand enamelled with sterlingsilver overlay and covered in over 220 minute decorative motifs.

Santini Italia:Writing a New Chapter

BY LAURA CHANDLER

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Santini takes pride in the fact that his pens are made at hisown facility, including the nibs. “I think it is important whenyou buy a pen that its heart is Italian, too!” he says. “Will youbuy an Italian car if you are aware that the most important part,the engine, is from a foreign producer?” All Santini Italia fountain pens are cartridge/converter filling,although Santini created a special “depression-filling” mechanismfor Ancora, which works similarly to Parker’s Vacumatic. For thetime being, Santini plans to stick with the cartridge/converter fillerbecause he thinks today’s customers prefer its simplicity, but heallows that perhaps in the future, the company might make a shortlimited edition with the Ancora-style mechanism. A proprietaryfeed is in the planning stages. Against tough competition from major, well-establishedbrands, how did Santini carve out his place in the pen market? First, the prices are very reasonable. A large pen with a big 18karat gold nib carries an SRP of only $230, and limited editionslike the Giotto Tower and the Taj Mahal—made of solid silverwith 18 karat gold nib—retail for only $650. “Nowadays pens are too expensive!” Santini explains. “If wewant a future for pens, we have to attract more young people, andhow can we attract them if a simple pen with a gold nib costsalmost the same as a high-end mobile phone? We have to be a rea-sonable choice for potential buyers. They are our future!” Besides reasonable pricing, Santini Italia offers a wide varietyof colors and patterns, which are created using a proprietaryprocess. For fear of being copied, Santini declines to give specificsexcept to say that the color process comes from another field ofmanufacturing, that it is a manual process, and that it allows himto change colors and patterns easily and at very little cost. It alsoproduces color that varies a bit from pen to pen, so that no twopieces are exactly alike. Customers can also request special colors.

Color is so important to Santini Italia that one of its mostimportant lines is called the Color collection. In creating it, thecompany was aiming for a pen with an unusual pattern but thathad “all the features of a classy pen,” says Santini, meaning a largepen with a large, 18 karat gold nib. Slightly above the Color collection is the Scottish collectionwith a solid silver cap. The Classica collection has a solid silvercap and hand-enameled decor.

In the tradition of Turin pen making, Santini controls all aspects of production,including nibmaking.

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The Giotto Tower limited editionof 88 pieces evokes Florence’s 14th-century Giotto Tower with its squareshape. “We made small plates ofengraved bronze that are decoratedcompletely by hand, repeating exactlythe same decoration of the GiottoTower—a piece of Italian history inyour hand,” says Santini. The Taj Mahal is equally time-intensive because of the degree of handwork that goes into it. On the cap,which is shaped like the mosque of theTaj Mahal, is an Arabian prayerengraved on four sides; the top is handenameled. “The body is machined froma solid silver rod and then into that, asilver filigree strip is hand cut and handadapted. Four layers of lacquer fill in thefiligree,” says Santini. All that work is done by a staff of only eight people working at full efficiency. In this way, Giovanni Santiniand his staff are writing a new chapterin Italian fountain pen history: with afond glance back at their beginningsand respect for the roots from whichthey sprang, but also with a clear andsteady gaze toward the future.

Visit santini-italia.com.

A manual coloring process allows Santini to make affordable pens invaried barrel designs for his Colors collection. Both fountain pen androllerball versions are available. Fountain pen has an 18 karat goldnib in sizes from extra-fine through broad.

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The newest in Santini-Italia’s line ofluxury limited edition fountain penspays tribute to the most famousEgyptian Pharaoh. Tutankahmun’sTreasure is an eight-sided piece ofsterling silver, hand-enameled inrich blue. “The highlight for us wasto give the pen the impressive andrich features of the Tutankhamungold sarcophagus and mask, probablythe most common image that comesto our mind when we think of thePharaoh,” Santini says. More than 30 engravings are hand-filled with blue enamel. A further 80 cavities are filled with threeother colors. Gold fill represents Tutankhamun’s gold mask, and the cap features hieroglyphic cartouchesand a clip in the shape of a cobra. The nib is a large 18 karat gold beauty engraved with the Santini Italialogo. Tutankhamun’s Treasure is limited to 88 fountain pens and 88 rollerballs.

Taj Mahal limited edition fountain pen comesin two versions: rhodium-plated filligreeframed in gold vermeil and rose gold filigreeframed in silver.