CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2016 25W
hile his famous ballpoint pen began its
conquest of the world in the middle
years of the 1950s, Marcel Bich spent
his summers on the French Riviera.
Eventually, his Liuzzi runabout was to direct him
towards the challenge of the America’s Cup.
His family boat inspired a photo album and a record
of those happy days, as the period coincided with two
great industrial and sporting ventures. The boat was also
noteworthy as a rare model stemming from a small-scale
and special boatbuilder located in a chic suburb in the
west end of Paris, near the River Seine.
In 1950, Marcel Bich was making and beginning the
export of his Crystal BIC ballpoint by the thousands
every day and to every corner of the world. Even then,
the huge impact on the world of traditional writing tools
was becoming apparent. As early as 1952, he was
rewarded with an advertising Oscar for his highly
innovative ad campaigns. Today, the BIC ballpoint, with
its original and never-changing design, is lauded as a
statement of the marriage of form and function – so
much so that it has entered the common language and
the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art
in New York. By deeply democratising the writing
instrument on a global scale, Bich, who had noble family
roots in the Italian Savoia and Turin, is considered by
many a pioneer of the consumer society.