My desire is to try to document and finally define the chronology of the production of Italian reels marketed under various brands for the Mord American market.
Starting from the early 1950s, several Italian companies, such as ZANGI, ALCEDO, CARGEM, NETTUNO, OFMER, found a large market thanks to the demand that came from companies in the USA.
For this reason models have been produced and marketed exclusively for this market.
Among the various Italian brands, ZANGI was the most important company for the number of models produced; it was able to transform itself over time by improving materials and design and for this reason it has produced spinning reels for various North American and European brands.
This is the current list of companies that have requested ZANGI to produce under their brand, I hypothesize that there may be other minor brands still to be cataloged, such as the company that requested the "Bermuda 100":
- ABU
- ORVIS
- TED VILLIAMS
- SEARS
- PESCADOR
- HERTER'S
- OLD PAL
- HOLLIDAY
- TRUE TEMPER
- WEBLEY
Over time I have met fans of old Italian models almost everywhere in Europe and only more recently have I realized that there are many also in the USA.
Regarding the models produced for Cortland, I will publish a specific post because they are very particular models made by Alcedo, the most well-known brand abroad.
For the moment I can anticipate that the rare spinning models made for Cortland have also continued in the subsequent production made by CopTes which in 1975 acquired the ALCEDO brand and, in 1972, the ZANGI brand (competing brands that were both based in the city of Turin). On the body of the reel that was produced for Cortland, a mechanically improved reel for the European market was subsequently born, called MARINER (I add two images even if not of good quality).
Thanks for your interest in these old Italian models.
, and some others. I did, though, end up with the Zebco Cardinal 6 that was said to be one of, if not, his favorite freshwater spinning reel and an LOA from Jeff.
