Stipula is back

Stipula has been missing from Giardino Italiano's catalog for quite a while now. And yet, the brand has always been there, alive and kicking.
I missed the Stipulas. They are beautiful, interesting, and charming pens. They remind me of those prim-and-proper ladies: they won't surprise you with the latest fashion, but will never look out of place.
I recently spoke with Luca Viti (a business partner and the head of the pens' department at Stipula), and he convinced me to reconsider a partnership. With the greatest of pleasure, I replied. However, I had a few things to ask him, and now I'll tell you how it went.

 

As some of you may recall, the company has had some years of great difficulty. In 2013, the business was purchased by Antiche Fabbriche Firenze. Despite great expectations of restructuring and innovation, Stipula didn't receive the necessary resources. They endured poor supply, poor production, poor marketing, resulting in great discontent and difficulty of all involved, dealers and customers alike. Later it was sold to Idea Prima, a Florentine group very active in the merchandising sector. They finally brought the company back in vogue.

Susanna Buffo: Dr. Viti, can you briefly summarize Stipula's history over the last 4-5 years?

Luca Viti: Stipula was in a coma for a few months in 2013 and then gradually recovered, focusing on a selected clientele. Producing mainly for exclusive distributors, as it has always done.
Maurizio Baschi is an experienced entrepreneur in fashion and communication from Idea Prima. Thanks to his aesthetic sensitivity and his sense of tradition, we were able to go down a new path of recovery of Stipula's historical contents and specific know-how of Florentine craft. He did that with the utmost attention to materials and modern service concepts.

Susanna Buffo: I see familiar names in the catalog: Etruria, Suprema, 22, Modello T, Passaporto, which were already there 5 years ago. What's changed?

Luca Viti: The historical collections continue to be "timeless" for Stipula; they truly represent key moments in the brand's evolution. It's clear to us that any new element must be inspired by our DNA, which is made up of classicism and great attention to detail.
However, many of the existing models have undergone technical refinements and improvements.

Susanna Buffo: Like nibs?

Luca Viti: Yes, this is Stipula's greatest pride. In 2014, we acquired Globus, a historic nib manufacturer from Bologna, which had ceased operations in the 1950s.
Now we make our nibs in-house! Finally free from the dominance of foreign manufacturers' cartels and their exorbitant costs. We are among the very few to do so, completely bucking a certain old approach that considered a quality pen as an essentially decorative accessory.
Today more than ever, we are confirmed that the nib remains the heart of writing, and Stipula nibs are now extraordinarily varied and high-performing.
They are handmade following the techniques used by master craftsmen of the '30s and '40s, and with that period's equipment. The stirrup casting of the virgin metal, the rolling, the forming of the sheet, and the application of the iridium tip: everything is calibrated and controlled freehand.

The historical Titanium T-Flex nib (a one-size-fits-all calligraphy nib, developed about fifteen years ago) is now flanked by the steel V-Flex, a flexible nib with an oversized cut (the cut goes from base to tip) and flexes with the natural pressure of writing. Its grade is between fine and medium (around 0.75 mm) and reaches up to a wide Stub (about 1.3 mm).
Even the gold nibs from the Sti-Flex family (14kt and 18kt gold) have a formidable elastic response, ensuring the flexibility that is so much appreciated today. It's due to the formulation of the gold alloy and the lamination technique - which leads to the dramatic differentiation between the tip and the base - and to their own shape, tapered towards the tip.

They are offered in many sizes. Starting from an Ultrafine (UF) - which corresponds to a line width of 0.45 mm - and an Extrafine (EF) - with a line width of 0.60 mm; then moving up to Fine, Medium, and Broad (B), with two calligraphic tips available, Stub 0.90 and Stub 1.10 mm.

Susanna Buffo: Great! I'm sure collectors will be eager to test this new family of nibs!
I see the Suprema pen back in the catalog, in new variations, which I remember as a beautiful (and quite expensive) pen, but had a history of loading problems.

Luca Viti: Suprema has been re-modelled after the Torricelli, the same vacuum system used by the Stipula. We have eliminated the junction problems between the handle and tank, and improved so many construction details that we can say that only the aesthetics, so classic and sober, and the name, have remained the same. There are almost no glued pieces: the pen is all threads and gaskets, and can be completely disassembled. This is a great advantage for cleaning and maintenance, which can be easily handled by the user.
Suprema still has a large ink capacity and is very balanced in weight: a real gem of mechanics.

Susanna Buffo: how come it's a lot cheaper then?

Luca Viti: We have changed our approach to beautiful, valuable, high-quality pens. Now it is offered initially with a steel nib instead of gold, and therefore the price is obviously halved.
Our steel nibs are still high-performing and also beautiful to look at; and then there's the V-Flex which, at the same price as a traditional steel nib, has a flexibility that many gold nibs would envy.

Susanna Buffo: How is Stipula preparing to re-enter the market?

Luca Viti: We never left the market. However, we have been focusing more on exclusive design and manufacturing than advertising.

On the tangible side, we now have a new production plant just a few minutes away from Piazza della Signoria in Florence. It features enhanced equipment and logistics to meet the speed and reliability demanded by the market.
Several new models are now in the pipeline and will be ready next year. But first of all, we must restart a dialogue with amateurs, collectors and all customers.

Susanna Buffo: Can you give us a hint about the new projects?

Luca Viti: We have always been fascinated by retractable filling systems: the hidden and unexpected movements that make the pen an authentic mechanical curiosity in miniature. We have produced retractable pens since the 90s (91, Etruria Retractable, the capless Da Vinci and Carbon T). Now we are about to take a further step in this direction: capless models of a different conception compared to the Da Vinci, and retractable piston systems.
And then research into materials, which increasingly leads us towards unusual applications of both metals and composite materials, with primary attention to recyclability, durability, and the possibility of reconditioning and maintenance. We work a lot with carbon fiber, for example.

Susanna Buffo: Anything else you'd like to tell us?

Luca Viti: Stipula today is a young team, led by some veterans. We have a lot of fun together and we feel that we don't belong to a past world, but are at the forefront of the beautiful renaissance of hand writing that is happening worldwide.

To celebrate this return together with customers who love and use fountain pens, until Christmas for every pen purchased, a free steel nib, chosen between a normal or V-Flex.
Happy writing!!!

Susanna Buffo
Giardino.it