Product Description
Type Limited Edition Fountain Pen, #522 of 911.
Product Name Nettuna Superba
Manufacturer and Year Stipula, Italy (1996). We understand the Nettuna name was later bought out by Delta, but this is the first "revival" and the pen is very high quality.
Length 5-1/4"
Filling System Unusual filling system(s) - cartridge/converter or button filler. See below note for more information.
Color Lovely green marbled celluloid with gold plated trim.
Nib 18k medium nib with some feeling of softness, but no flex.
Condition Excellent + condition. There is microscratching on the cap and barrel. No cracks, scratches, or chips, and the gold-plated trim looks fantastic. We understand that some of these Superbas had a problem with the gold plating and some owners report imperfections and flaking. We examined the gold trim very closely and it looks good to us. The imprints are crisp and clear.
Notes on filling this pen:
A special shortened converter has been installed in the pen, allowing you to fill it as you'd expect to with a piston converter (Important: the full-length piston converters won't fit, so do not lose this modified converter as we cannot replace it).
There is an additional insert that allows you to use the pen as a button filler. After removing the converter, screw on the sac mechanism to the section and reassemble the pen. Then unscrew the blind cap about 1/8" (don't go too far!), and press and release that button several times. Please wait a second or two between presses, to allow time for the ink to be sucked up into the sac. Note that a fair bit of hand strength is required to compress the sac. Additionally, you'll hear some slightly alarming sounds when you reattach the barrel with this mechanism installed, which is from the rubber sac rubbing against the interior of the barrel. This is okay. The button filling mechanism works, though we'd recommend this for a more experienced fountain pen user. Ultimately, we think that the idea of including two different filling mechanisms in one pen was interesting, but they should have tested this more and refined it before release, we think the button filling mechanism could have been done better.
