Pelikan Revival M150/481 Green Black. The Italian text details instructions for filling the pen. Photo courtesy of Cristina (a.k.a. catanai on eBay Italy)
If you frequent the Pelikan forum over at The Fountain Pen Network, you may have noticed a thread from last month asking about the Pelikan Revival series. The paucity of authoritative answers demonstrated just how little is actually known about the topic making it the perfect fodder for a post. Pelikan has accumulated many such stories that have fallen into obscurity over the past 180 years. Before continuing, I have to give special thanks to two long standing Italian retailers and their staff who aided my research on this topic; Marco of Novelli and Vito of Casa della Stilografica. If you frequent the secondary market, you may encounter Pelikan pens identified as Pelikan Revival. This is particularly the case when looking at pens that hail from Italy. What is so special about the Revival line you ask? Read on because the truth of the matter may just surprise you.