Montegrappa Mille Miglia FP

[Vicary]

After a three week delay with our fine friends at the US Customs, my latest Italian arrived last week. This one is a 1998 vintage Montegrappa Cosmopolitan LE celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Italian Mille Miglia road race.

 

I have a regular production Cosmopolitan, in the Baroque pattern, and have been looking for one of the LE versions to complement it. Being a huge automobile fanatic, the Mille Miglia seemed to be a good one to shoot for. Unfortunately, it's an older edition long sold out. I've been watching the lists and Ebay for about a year now and finally found it in one of Karen Chia's postings. New pen, but posted without the box. As luck would have it, though, it did arrive with a box. I guess Karen didn't count it though because years of storage in Hong Kong's hot and humid climate had caused the inner and outer box to sort of fuse together. But after some time spent prying the outer box with a knife, I managed to get into the inner box and the real goodies- warranty cards, papers, polishing cloth, and a little velvet pen pouch.

 

The pen itself is really cool. It's the size of a standard Cosmpolitan, rendered in marbled red resin with sterling silver overlays on the cap and barrel. All the trim is also sterling silver. The cap and barrel are engraved with cars (mostly vintage Alfa Romeos) and places (such as Florence's Palazzo Vecchio and the Colosseum) associated with the Mille Miglia race. The Mille Miglia logo is also there, as well as a checkered flag and the LE number. According to the papers, the engravings were done by Brescia's finest, at the 'Engraving shop of Cesare Giovanelli.' The engraving is very precise and detailed, and is interesting in the sense that you can zero in on specific areas you can see very distinct objects, but zoom out a bit and the pen takes on a nice general engraved look. It wraps fully around the pen, with no particular area being more or less interesting then the rest.

 

It's a great writing pen to boot. Like most Montegrappas of this vintage, it has an expressive 18k two toned nib supported by an ebonite feed. This one is free flowing, smooth but with a bit of tooth, and gives a bit of variety to the line. It's a piston filler and seems to hold a good amount of ink. For a 10 year old pen that's never been used, it didn't take long to get everything primed up, and it's turned out to be a very nice writer.

 

Now I'm really looking forward to the Cosmopolitan Africa that's on its way from Karen right now....

 

The pen, capped. That's the Palazzo Vecchio halfway down the barrel:

 

The pen, open:

 

 

Close up of one of the Alfas:

 

 

 

[Leigh R]

Not a racing fan, but wow. That pen is just wow.

[Deirdre]

This is an absolutely stunning pen. What a cool grail pen!

[Ghost Plane]

That's just plain pretty!

[handlebar]

Very nice indeed!! I'm a sucker for silver pens and wish i owned more.

 

Jim

[Tom L]

Doug,

 

Dibs on this one when you tire of it.

[Vicary]

Doug,

 

Dibs on this one when you tire of it.

 

Har, Har. That might not happen for a while, though. You may want to seek out your own! Maybe in DC...

 

[Bananafish]

Wow the red and silver look spectacular together! Nice engraving too. This pen looks like it has some heft to it yea? Maybe like the Pelikan Toledo? Wouldn't sterling silver be hard to maintain? I mean like silverware, which needs regular polishing. I find metal difficult to photo well, good job!

[Vicary]

This pen looks like it has some heft to it yea? Maybe like the Pelikan Toledo?

 

The Montegrappa Cosmopolitan pens are very comparable to the Toledo in size. Capped or uncapped they're virtually identical in length and width. Cap posted the Montegrappa is a bit longer, mainly because the cap sits higher on the barrel. The weight of the Montegrappa is a bit more than a Toledo, primarily because the Cosmopolitan has a silver overlay on the cap as well as the barrel. But compare the weight and feel of the barrels and they're pretty much the same. It's a very comfortable pen to use, and sort of the inverse of a lot of modern LEs- resin on the section and silver on the barrel. Much more comfortable to hold than a silver section...

 

[feiye]

Very nice pen you have there! That red is stunning!

 

Is the nib a standard size 6 Bock nib like the ones on the Symphony or is it an oversize like the Extra?

[Vicary]

Is the nib a standard size 6 Bock nib like the ones on the Symphony or is it an oversize like the Extra?

 

It's the standard sized nib, not the oversized Extra nib. I don't think Montegrappa has used that big nib on many of their LEs. I think the Euro pen had one, and maybe one other. But most of the LEs use the regular nib. The Stradivari LE they recently released actually uses the nib and feed from the MB Writer's Series/4810 LEs...

[JFT]

Congratulation!

 

Your pen is gorgeous

[bugmd]

I have a couple of the Cosmopolitans and they are wonderful pens. I have the Africa and the Arabia. They are heavy but very comfortable to use. They have the smaller nib used on the Symphony/Harmony as opposed to the larger nib on the Extra. Congratulations on a beautiful pen.!!!!!!

 

The poor quality image is of my 2 Symphonies, Cosmopolitans and my Extra. I also have a vermeil Reminiscence that rounds out my Montegrappa collection, I think.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/bugmd/DSCN5376.jpg

[Vicary]

I have a couple of the Cosmopolitans and they are wonderful pens. I have the Africa and the Arabia. They are heavy but very comfortable to use. They have the smaller nib used on the Symphony/Harmony as opposed to the larger nib on the Extra. Congratulations on a beautiful pen.!!!!!!

 

The poor quality image is of my 2 Symphonies, Cosmopolitans and my Extra. I also have a vermeil Reminiscence that rounds out my Montegrappa collection, I think.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/bugmd/DSCN5376.jpg

 

I love those Cosmopolitans. I have that Africa coming from Karen Chia as we speak. In fact I should have it tomorrow. I wanted to get the Arabic too but with the DC show right around the corner I had to rein in my spending. Maybe next time around. It looks really nice!

 

best,

Doug

 

 

[bugmd]

I bought mine many years ago at a much better price than they are fetching now. IIRC I may have paid 300-350 for each of mine but certainly no more than that. I remember the late "Brother Bob" being excited about getting one with the factory stub nib just before his passing. IN years gone by I had considered selling mine but thanks to my laziness I did not, lucky for me.

[Vicary]

My Africa came yesterday, so I snapped a pic with my other sterling Montegrappas.

From left to right: Mille Miglia LE, Cosmopolitan Baroque, Cosmopolitan Africa, Eleganza, Privilege Deco

 

 

 

Also snapped a picture of some of the celluloid models I have:

Symphony yellow, Miya Blue, Miya Yellow, Extra 1930 Tortoise, Extra 1930 Bamboo, Emblema red. I really like the Tortoise celluloid from the Extra 1930. Really nice...

 

 

 

[Bananafish]

Wah you sure have lots of lovely pens! The Extra 1930 Tortoise looks very nice indeed. I also like the Bamboo Black. These Extra 1930s seem to bear the golden ratio like the Visconti Divine Proportione line; are they as large? I couldn’t find any info on their sizes anywhere. They seem to taper to a wider middle tho; must be a comfortable grip.

[feiye]

 

Oh. My. Gosh.

 

You'll have to excuse me while I continue to drool in front of my computer. What a beautiful collection of Montegrappas you have there! :clap1:

 

I really like the tortoise celluloid on the Extra 1930 as well but I find that the bamboo black is more unique (ok, I'm biased since that's the one I have).

 

I don't see a Miya Argento anywhere...

[Ghost Plane]

I'm still in ecstasy over the silver ones.

[Vicary]

These Extra 1930s seem to bear the golden ratio like the Visconti Divine Proportione line; are they as large? I couldn’t find any info on their sizes anywhere. They seem to taper to a wider middle tho; must be a comfortable grip.

 

Compared to the Visconti DP the Extra 1930 is shorter but a little beefier. Comparable in heft. The nib is broader but not longer. It also has an ebonite feed, unlike the Visconti. It's a very comfortable pen for me though I'm not nuts about the silver section. I wish it were celluloid to match...