Montegrappa Scarabeo Limited Edition Rollerball

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Een bericht gedeeld door Appelboom Fountain Pen Experts (@appelboompennen)

Like standing breakfasts, hotel shower alarms and long business socks, Scarabeo is an Italian tradition rarely seen beyond Italian borders. Invented by the Milanese journalist, novelist, and war correspondent, Aldo Pasetti, this year marks sixty years since the toy manufacturer Editrice Giochi introduced the popular board game to the market.

Marketed under the eccentric tagline, “the only word game with the scarab”, Scarabeo is often confused with a similarly named American game. Yet, for Italians, there is no question of its legitimacy. As well as being finely tuned to the Italian language, its local availability predates that of Scrabble by more than twenty years. It remains one of the country’s most popular and board games – a 20th-century icon.

Issued in limited editions of 300 fountain pens and rollerballs, the Montegrappa Scarabeo carries all the charm and playfulness of the game that inspires it. Its silhouette is an evolution of Quattro, realised in ion-plated palladium steel, sapphire crystal and premium resin in two finishes.

Alongside a custom-engraved spatula clip, key design differences are a slotted, all-steel barrel and removable blind cap. These purpose-built parts allow owners to create their own words – and scores – by changing out the letter tiles inserted in the barrel. Sets of additional letter tiles are sold separately.

The finishing on the Montegrappa Scarabeo is superb, with an authentic woodgrain resin used for the grip section and enamelled letter tiles, as well as striking, all-over ‘jumbled letter’ engraving on a scarlet resin cap. Fountain pens from the edition are cartridge/converter and carry a 6mm, 14K gold nib customised with the signature “O” device from the Scarabeo logo.

Custom packaging emulates the original board game box with deluxe laminated paperboard and contains a velveteen letter tile pouch. Fountain pens are supplied with a bottle of ink with a custom-engraved, colour-filled scarab cap.

Italy's first pen producer, Montegrappa, began manufacturing pens in 1912 in its factory in Bassano del Grappa in Italy. Utilizing natural celluloid and precious metals,Montegrappa combines traditional methods such as die-casting with more recent innovations as low-relief engraving to form their precious art objects. Whether Montegrappa use colors reminiscent of the master painters or ornamentation suggestive of Baroque palaces, the Italian heritage and romance is infused into each product.