Beautiful print on the wooden box's lid

Montegrappa's exclusive technique of low-relief engraving on precious metal
is used to commemorate a story filled with passion and diplomacy that
embodies the noble game of chess. This story is played out in images etched
in exquisite detail into the cap and barrel above a chessboard background.

Montegrappa elaborate presentation

Taking its shape from a chess square, the pen's unique four-sided footprint
extends into an impressive pen that lies very comfortably in hand. Its
sterling body is accented with crimson resin (Marostica's
color) at the ends of the cap, the front section and the blind cap (which
takes the form of a Rook).

Marostica's outer box

This piston-fed fountain pen is endowed with an 18k gold nib with platinum
overlay and iridium tipped. The oversized reservoir and hand-carved ebonite
feed combine to ensure an ample, steady supply of ink.

Outer box, wooden box and paper

Montegrappa brings a boldly playful approach to the new millennium with the
unconventional shape, luxurious materials and uncompromising attention to
details manifested in the Marostica, the Game of Chess -The Pen of Choice.

Wooden box

Marostica, The Game of the year 2000 A special pen for a special year.
The chess game of Marostica, a beautiful small town in the district of
Vicenza, and only two steps away from Bassano, where Montegrappa has it's
premises, is the ideal symbol of the perpetual historical traditions in
which the pride in one's own identity is effectively manifested by the
realisation of something that the whole world admires and envies. This is
why Montegrappa has recognised it as a synthesis of values in
which it can identify and therefore choosing it as the theme for the annual
edition of the year 2000, the first of the new millennium, to begin a Game
for the future with experience and wealth, our gift from the past.

Marostica's CD-ROM

Chess, a traditional noble game History and legend constitutes, without doubt, part of the charm that the chess game has always exerted, even on those who know little or nothing about the moves of the pieces or the rules that govern the unfolding of the battle that takes place on the chessboard, a fight, that is capable of
sometimes taking on, a truly epic profile.

Overview of the pen

The antiquity of the game, of which the origins go back to India during the
dark ages, contribute to the mysterious aura that has formed around chess.
The legend says, in fact, that its inventor, as a prize for his idea, asked
the King, who had commissioned it, for a grain of corn for the first square,
two for the second, doubling the contents of the preceding square each time,
until arriving at the sixty-fourth square, so cheating in this way the poor
King, who had thought he had made a bargain. 

Length 5.7" (cap closed)

Apart from all this, chess today represents a real and true culture. In the 1900's the great development in chess theory placed in evidence the scientific aspect of the
game itself, the synthesis and representation of all the strategic aspects that each challenge between the two contenders contain. But chess also conserves, as a fundamental characteristic an agonistic aspect , the two players, who find themselves engaged in a no holds barred struggle, must, during the game, draw on all their energy and a considerable amount of technical knowledge in order to meet each challenge. 

Length 5.3" with the cap removed

Science, art and pure competitive spirit are therefore the three fundamental components of the "nobil ziogo" ( noble game) that at Marostica has found the perfect scenario in which to root itself. Marostica, a scenic town on fertile hills, the profile of the walled belt perched on the Pausolino hill and the scanned towers dictate the direction of one's gaze, it is only two steps away from Bassano, the seat of Montegrappa. At first glance Marostica is striking for how it has declared itself as a true town, since ancient times. 

Beautiful low relief filigree

Even today the visitor is fascinated as he admires the splendid town wall, that preserves the medieval habitat, precious and bewitching on it's green hill. Marostica has always seemed to strut, independent and proud in it's own territory that excludes all else on the outside of the walled belt. An almost unearthly dimension, from a past that recalls to the mind knights, arms and love. Poetically speaking it is: A town that has known how to arrive at the dawn of the third millennium proudly preserving the vestiges of it's own history and it's own traditions.

Close-up of the cap section. A clever recess for the pen clip 

The "Game " in the World : Tradition and the Italian Spirit. The story of the game is simple but beautiful, a tale capable of marrying love , conflict and a spectacular solution in perfect harmony with tradition, was recuperated around 1923 and began to be portrayed in Marostica's central square in the 50's Every two years the whole town mobilises itself to prepare for the event, the dimension and incredible eye for detail has made this an appointment awaited with impatience. Over 600 costumed figures rehearse professionally and patiently for a couple of months as knights and ladies, maids and pages, soldiers, minstrels and dancers, halberdiers and standard bearers and finally the chess pieces, Black and White... The sight in the square is extraordinary, moments such as the parade of the characters and their courts, the lighting of the chessboard and the start of the challenge, when the lower castle inflames to seal Vieri's victory and the firework finale are all moments that make the spectator feel that he is in an other dimension, in which temporal distance is annulled.

Close-up of the nib. 18-ct solid gold nib with platinum inlay

It is for this reason that the game has not only attracted local and tourist interest but has even received invitations to represent Italy, its history and traditions in world wide events, such as the Brussels Expo in 1958 and Vancouver in 1986.The Game and Marostica with it, has travelled halfway around the world, involving and fascinating spectators who have found themselves admiring and getting to know the history, the costumes and the characters of Medieval Veneto.

Unique Castle design 

Montegrappa : on the chessboard of history A game of chess is won by the player who is able to balance his strategy between defence and attack, where audacity is tempered with prudence. If we think of when, in 1978 the Aquila family assumed control of Montegrappa, the historical company that produces pens in the ancient town of Bassano, it was in fact a strategically winning move, based on secure presuppositions, the love for the fountain pen and high workmanship that had already become ingrained in the Aquila's family experience. At the same time the brand Montegrappa represented (and still represents) in this sense, an amply confirmed symbol.

'1912' on the top of the cap

In fact, the company in Bassano in 1912 was the first fountain pen factory founded in Italy, Since then in the large building, readapted from an old thermo-electric plant that houses the company, pens have been manufactured, that, if during the war gave a significant contribution to the writings of the soldiers at the front, also enjoyed the historical approbation of Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos, the two famous American writers who worked for the Italian Red Cross during the Great War. Innumerable models have been constructed by the house of Bassano throughout it's history, always with an acute market sense and with particular attention paid to marrying technical reliability to refined elegance. On the base of this the Aquila family has been able to renew the historical successes, enhancing the brand with extremely refined, high quality products. In this way projecting Montegrappa to the summits of the World market.

Some of the smaller details on the filigree - Sterling silver filigree

A game won thanks to courageous choices, such as the use of precious metals,
highly accurate manufacture and untiring imagination in model design. It is
for this that Montegrappa has through out it's history known how to project
itself as ambassador to the refined good taste of the Vicenza artisan