Marco Zanuso, for Aurora

MARCO ZANUSO (Milan, 1916–2001) for AURORA.
“Hastil & Thesi Silver Jubilee” set, ca. 2000.
Limited and numbered edition of 2,525 sets.
“Hastil” fountain pen and “Thesi” ballpoint pen in polished 925 sterling silver.
Fountain pen with a rhodium-plated 14-karat gold nib.
Comes with the original case, outer box, and documentation.
Unused. The box has a slight defect.

The “Silver Jubilee” set is of particular interest because it brings together, in a commemorative edition, two of Marco Zanuso’s most significant writing instrument designs for Aurora. The company conceived this edition to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of both models’ inclusion in museum collections.

The “Hastil,” designed in the late 1960s, reduces the fountain pen to a slender cylindrical body of great formal purity; the MoMA holds an example designed in 1969 and manufactured by Aurora. The “Thesi,” for its part, features a radically flat structure and an elliptical cross-section, making both instruments paradigmatic examples of Zanuso’s quest for a precise correspondence between form, ergonomics, and industrial production.

Marco Zanuso was a key figure in postwar Italian design. An architect, designer, and theorist, he combined technical innovation, materials research, and a focus on industrial processes for more than five decades, developing projects for firms such as Arflex, Brionvega, Kartell, and Aurora. His work is part of the collections of MoMA in New York and the Triennale Milano.