Aurora is one of the oldest surviving pen makers in Italy. Founded in Turin in 1889 as an importer of Remington typewriters, come 1919 they started to make fountain pens (history taken from the Aurora website). These days they are probably best known for two related models, the cigar shaped 88 and the flat topped Optima. Many, like this pen, are made using Auroloide, a form of celluloid, which over time has been reformulated to be more stable.