Last year the Pen show in Bologna was a big success! Nobody thought that it could be, but it’s true. Why? Because 24 collectors and dealers attended to the show from Germany and the Netherlands…but we must start from the beginning.

Like every year the Bologna Pen Show is November 16, in the Sofitel Hotel near the train station, a very nice and old luxury hotel. I love Bologna and Italy, and I never pass any reason to come there because of the food, the wine, my friends and nice pens.

Ten days before I spoke with my good friend Gerhard Brandl from Regensburg, Germany that I will attend the Bologna Pen show, he said…”ME TOO…and with 24 other people!” I said nice! This year the German Pen Club, CAS (Collegium Ars Scribendi...founded in 1996) ( www.cas1996.de ) organized a trip to also visit OMAS, the factory is in Bologna.

This very nice pen show is organized by Mr. Marco Vanzi. His trip started from Hamburg and finished in a small village 15 km (cca 8 miles) from the centre of Bologna, Saso Maronne. In the group was Tom Westerich, David Parisi, Jürgen Kuhse and many more. The beautiful old hotel is decorated in old wood, with a good restaurant and most important very nice wine. When I heard this information, I also made a reservation in the same hotel.

When I came on Saturday evening we all had a nice dinner together. My friends have fun to see Pen World magazine with the interview of Miroslav Tischler, the only pen boy from Zagreb, Croatia. We spoke about visiting the OMAS factory and we all had a lot of nice impressions. The OMAS factory made one special limited edition for the CAS to commemorate our visit to the factory.

After dinner we stayed at our tables and enjoyed a really nice young wine Rufino.
We also had our own small pre show and made some nice trades. We were all happy and we enjoyed our Saturday evening with pens, good wine and friends. Come midnight, our pre show was over…we went to sleep and we were dreaming about Sunday morning.

The show started at 10 am, but we were there at 9 am. At the show, 20 dealers attended from Italy, 20 from Germany, 4 from the Netherlands and 1 from Croatia…. Me! This is a lot of people for one small show!

We all made nice deals with pens. Italian collectors are interested in Italian pens like OMAS, Montegrapa and Aurora. German collectors looked for Pelikan and Montblanc. I also saw a few very nice Parker Duofold.. I saw one very interesting “pen” that looks like a black hard rubber Waterman safety filler, but inside it is not a pen ...inside is a shaving blade!!

In Italy you can very often find a large selection of beautiful Waterman 42 safety filler with gold or goldplated overlay. I can’t believe how nice and great designs are made in the beginning of XX century. German dealers bring a great selection of Pelikans. I showed a rare lizard pattern in two versions, one has chrome plated rings and the second one gold plated. Also, different versions of Tortoise 100 N, some Osmia and Matador pens.

By noon time, somebody brought one box of first class champagne Moet & Chandon to the table in the middle of the room! We really enjoyed to drink this famous champagne.

At 1 pm the room was empty and everybody left the hotel for lunch. In Italy it is unusual to have lunch in 1 pm. Also, German friends left the show, because they had a long trip ahead of them.

After lunch, I looked around to find something interesting for myself…I found some nice parts for my pens…and that’s all for this show.

I must start driving my car to Zagreb…I have around 300 miles to my hometown.
I have a nice road to travel, nice weather and great music in my car…I drive home and listen to Lucio Dalla play the famous Caruso songs.

© text and photos Miroslav Tischler