The creation of the Communist State after the coup d’état of February 1948 brought a centrally planned economy. As a result, the pen company Ripet, founded in 1919 in the city of České Budějovice, became part of the already mentioned public enterprise Centropen (founded in 1941 by Mr. Stejskal and Mr. Novotný and nationalized in this same year of 1948).
The instruction sheet includes the names of several pen brands: Ripet, and Centropen; and Koh-i-Noor/Hardtmuth as the mother company. The coexistence of these three names shows this pen belonged to the 1948-1950 period in which the brand Ripet was kept alive within the Centropen operation.
The name Ripet was preserved for just a couple of years. By 1950 all traces of it had disappeared from Centropen. But between 1948 and 1949 both names coexisted on catalogs and other related documents.
Such was the case of the Ripet Popular 90D. The instruction sheet carries the name of several pen brands: Ripet, and Centropen; and Koh-i-Noor/Hardtmuth as the mother company. The coexistence of these three names shows this pen belonged to the 1948-1950 period in which the brand Ripet was kept alive within the Centropen operation. The pen, on its side, is a very interesting piston filler, as the letter D indicated. It is made of celluloid from the UMA plant (within the Synthesia national company) in Pardubice, also in Bohemia.
This factory, created in 1942, had been spared from the bombings and its state-of-the art machinery could produce high-quality celluloid, among other plastics, for both domestic and foreign markets. Aurora and Montegrappa used this Czechoslovakian celluloid on some of their models. The UMA plant was destroyed by an explosion in 1984. It was reconstructed afterwards, but that event marked the end of the fountain pen industry in Czechoslovakia. On its side, this country disappeared on January 1st, 1993.
These are the dimensions of this Ripet Popular 90D:
Length closed: 119 mm
Length open: 110 mm (this pen does not post)
Diameter: 12.5 mm
Weight (dry): 13.9 g.
Ink deposit: 1.1 ml.
This text was elaborated with information provided by Fountain Pen Network member Khufu.
My thanks to Mr. Álvaro Romillo.
Montblanc 221 – Pelikan 4001 Royal blue
Bruno Taut
Madrid, December 18th, 2012
etiquetas: Checoslovaquia, Ripet, Centropen, Koh-i-Noor - Hardtmuth, Aurora, Montegrappa
Bruno Taut
Madrid, December 18th, 2012
etiquetas: Checoslovaquia, Ripet, Centropen, Koh-i-Noor - Hardtmuth, Aurora, Montegrappa
4 comments:
My name is Anna Kroutl, and I am grandaughter of one of the men who founded Ripet in the 1920's. Interestingly, I have been reading this morning a police protocol about our family house search in 1958. They were looking for golden tipped pens and ultimately confiscated a lot of my grandmother's gold jewelry, accusing her of "hoarding gold stocks"; she received an 18- month prison sentence but did not serve it because she was over 70 and in poor health. Her brother-in-law served 6 years in a the uranium-mine labour camp.
Thanks for the story, Anna Kroutl.
BT
My name is Patrik Elias and I'm the grandgrandson of the second founder, Ludvik Kroutl. I have the telegram from communists about confiscation of Ripet. Unfortunately I can not add it here. Can you contact me Anna Kroutl, please?
Hi, Patrik,
How could Anna Kroutl contact you? You could email me directly at katsura.rikyu at gmail.com or through the contact form on this blog..
Cheers,
BT
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