www.aurorapen.it

While awaiting the entrepreneurial history of previous generations, which the non-profit association, Aurea Signa, is concentrating on, it has to date been possible to go back to 1871, the year the Grand’Ufficiale della Corona d’Italia, Cesare Verona, was born.

In 1889 Cesare Verona, having obtained his sales licence, in America, from the typewriter company, Remington, opened a sole trader company which would continue in business until the start of the Second World War. Verona, from his small office in via Ospedale 14, Torino, in just a few years succeeded in opening a further hundred branches and depots in Italy. Soon he moved his office to via Carlo Alberto 20 where it would remain for more than fifty years, flanked over time by the warehouse – repairs workshop in corso Moncalieri 23.

Cesare Verona did not restrict his activity to selling only Remington but also offered Monroe, Smith Premier and Monarch typewriters as well as Edison mimeographs, extending his activities in all directions related to writing instruments. Hence, as of 1892 he also managed a copy bureau, then a “ten finger American system method” typing school; subsequently sales included measurement and calculation instruments: lever (Brunsviga) and keyboard (Barrett) calculators, the arithmometer and the famous Remington Wahl, the “complete writing, adding and subtracting machine”.

His familiarity with the American market made it possible for Verona to also offer products outside his own field of expertise, albeit for limited periods: in 1911 his publicity adverts offered Remington bicycles and original American office furniture; in 1921 Hardman Peck pianos from New York. Recognition of this versatile entrepreneur’s business acumen also included, in addition to the Paris Gran Prix for typewriters, awarded in 1901, his nomination as Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia in 1906 and subsequently Commendatore (1922) followed by Grand' Uffiziale dell'Ordine della Corona d’Italia (1925).

In addition, as of 1907, Cesare Verona was statutory auditor for the company “Stearinerie Oleifici Lanza”, was numbered among precision machine experts and was also a partner in a variety of education and charity institutes. The company flourished for fifty years thanks to the ability of its founder who died in 1945. It would be his nephew, Franco, who, taking over the reins of Aurora in the 1960s, would once again focus the company’s energies on writing instruments.

Aurora was established in 1919 with the name of “Fabbrica italiana di penne a serbatoio – Aurora” and began advertising the following year in the Marzorati Paravia guides. The factory was initially located in via della Basilica 9, in Torino, and produced fountain pens, objects which, at that time, were mainly imported from abroad. The name was probably chosen to mark a new beginning following the recent dark years of the First World War.

Though starting by imitating foreign production models and making use of various licences, Aurora soon began experimenting and competing with foreign companies and in 1925 patented a “pen without a cap”, which would be produced some years later. Other patents were filed in those years, the most famous certainly being the A.R.A. (Automatic Refill Aurora) model which, using a small lateral lever, made it possible to load ink much more effectively than the previous pressure system.

At the same time, the idea of a modern pencil was conceived and patented as “lapis automatico” in which the leads were contained inside the hollow body of the pencil. These revolutionary models were followed by many other objects such as, for example, writing desk instruments (Aurotavi) and various brands targeted for specific market segments (OLO – more economical, Asco – used as promotional gadgets), displaying great awareness of the most modern marketing techniques from the 1920s on. In addition, the company immediately looked beyond the borders of Piedmont, regularly taking part in the Milan Trade Fair, where the Aurora stall soon became well known, positioned near the entrance, but also promoting the company abroad e.g. at the Leipzig Trade Fair and subsequently in Switzerland, Spain and Poland, as well as nearby France, with which the company had such close commercial relations that it succeeded in obtaining the exclusive

licence for production of the Edacoto continuous lead pencils.

In 1930 Aurora introduced the Novum model and the Asterope pen to the market, a realisation of the original pen without a cap patent which had been repatented in 1934: using a lever located laterally it was possible to move a hatch and withdraw the nib. This period also saw other models like the famous Etiopia, equipped with a white barrel to avoid accumulating heat and with ink in tablets which could be dissolved, thereby avoiding evaporation. Naturally, company analysis and research did not neglect the main part of the fountain pen i.e. the nib. This was usually made of 18k gold though also in some other materials like Platiridio, a steel alloy invented during the Fascist period in order to make greater use of common metals.

At the end of the 1930s Aurora changed its name to S.A.P.E.M. Società Anonima Penne e Matite. In 1942, in addition to understandable fears when allied bombing began relative to the position of the factory, Aurora’s production volume increased so much that it was necessary to find another site. The location in strada dell’Abbadia di Stura 200 was therefore chosen. This is still the current headquarters of the company but at that time it hosted an oil cloth company which had been established at the start of the century as a spinning mill. The selection proved providential given that restructuring work had not yet been completed when the factory in via della Basilica was seriously damaged by allied bombing. The post war period saw the relaunch of Aurora in line with Olivetti entrepreneurial theories, opening up to international markets and using leading designers in the industrial world.

In 1952 the publishing company, Aurora Zanichelli, was founded in Torino, concentrating on technical subjects and educating youngsters, with its most famous title being the AZ Panorama encyclopaedia. The company was active until 1960.

Collaboration with leading industrial designers led to the production of highly prestigious pens which allowed Aurora to extend its fame to America. Indeed, it was the creativity and flair of Marcello Nizzoli that led to the world famous Aurora 88, piston-loading and with a gold or silver plated cap on a barrel in celluloid and hard rubber.

In the mid 1950s it was finally possible to exploit the idea born many years earlier in Aurora i.e. ink cartridges as a definitive replacement for droppers and inkwells, thanks to the discovery of polyethylene by Giulio Natta. A discovery that gave rise to the 888, the version of the 88 with cartridges, and the highly popular Auretta, aimed at students, with barrels and cartridges in coloured plastic.

Under the management of the Verona family, Aurora also introduced ballpoint and roller pens on to the market, thereby extending its production without, of course, forgetting its fountain pens.

And it is the fountain pen that yet again symbolizes Aurora’s success in the 1970s: Hastil and Thesi, designed by Marco Zanuso, form part of the permanent collections in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in recognition of their great artistic value.

The company, still owned by the Verona family, has today opened up even more to foreign markets while maintaining production at its historic factory in Abbadia di Stura, convinced as it is of the superiority of Made in Italy design and craftsmanship. The current Chairman and Managing Director is Cesare Verona.