Dating Montblanc 149s

[entertainment]

^Unfortunately, that is not the latest version. If you compare the piston variations with post 576, they are different.

[cgreenberg19]

Nice!

[markh]

Kai (sunnerd) and I have teamed up! We've consolidated his images and my chart, as follows:

 

http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/DKbRS/Pens/MB149Dating-2.jpg

 

I know this was a very long time ago, but there is an awful lot of useful information to be covered with the photobucket spam.

Anyone have this image in a way it could be re-posted for current viewing??

 

thnx,

 

 

[zaddick]

 

I know this was a very long time ago, but there is an awful lot of useful information to be covered with the photobucket spam.

Anyone have this image in a way it could be re-posted for current viewing??

 

thnx,

 

 

That version is out of date and incomplete.

[zaddick]

The trends table is better.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/324519-updated-montblanc-149-trends-table/page-2?do=findComment&comment=4305007

[Darcy1978]

Hello, I have a Montblanc 149 and am trying to date it. It has a two-tone 18k nib so that makes it early 1990s I think. The clip band says W Germany. Does anyone know when the W was dropped?

 

[zaddick]

W was dropped in 1991 although they continued to use already made clips. Early 1990s is about right.

[Dragan]

First, I want to greet all the members of this large community of fountain pen lovers. I have a couple of interesting examples of Montblanc fountain pens and this is one of them.

Is this the first plastic (resin) model?

Thank you.

Dragan

[zaddick]

the feed is not the first resin version feed. That is definitely 1960s, but not super early. The earliest resin models can have breather holes in the cap, a "MADE IN GERMANY" on the cap resin above the bands or the clip and the full grooved ebonite feeds. Yours just has the grooves on the feed "face," which is later.

[Dragan]

Thank you for your reply.

Is the full size "0" in "NO 149" a common for that period?

Edited January 29, 2021 by Dragan

[zaddick]

4 hours ago, Dragan said:

Thank you for your reply.

Is the full size "0" in "NO 149" a common for that period?

These were hand done in that era so there is variation. I've see NO, No, and No. on the bands. The location of the umlaut on the U is also variable.

[Dragan]

Thanks again.

It's clear to me now.

[stoen]

On 4/21/2020 at 2:35 AM, zaddick said:

 

The trends table is better.

 

Hello,

I have written on the Trends Table thread a post about some incondistencies there:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/324519-updated-montblanc-149-trends-table/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-4359953

 

I have a MB 149 with a three-color 18C nib and split ebonite feed purchased in 1974 as new. According to the Table this pen shouldn’t have existed, because such a nib is shown to have stopped being manufactured long before the feed has even been designed. The pen underwent no repairs or part exchanges meanwhile.

🙂

So, there’s probably more to it than the table shows so far...

[zaddick]

18C tri-tone nibs were made until about the mid 1970s but I have typically seen them with the solid ebonite feed, not split. It's possible you got one of the later 18C tri-tone nibs and one of the earlier split ebonite feeds. 

 

What is the nib width? Sometimes older nibs were used if the size was uncommon. 

[stoen]

18 minutes ago, zaddick said:

What is the nib width? Sometimes older nibs were used if the size was uncommon. 

EF - not that uncommon

🙂

[zaddick]

4 hours ago, stoen said:

EF - not that uncommon

🙂

Nope, that's not helping my case. 😁

 

So unlikely but not impossible.  

[stoen]

2 hours ago, zaddick said:

Nope, that's not helping my case. 😁

 

So unlikely but not impossible.  

Thanks for your contribution, sure it is possible, perhaps even likely, because it is real - perhaps only not that frequent. 

I am just trying to contribute to the “common case”, that the knowledge base in dating this important pen model gets enriched and improved. I’ve been the first and only owner of this pen, purchased new.

 

 

This pen’s year of manufacturing must have been between 1972 and 1974.

 

Thanks.

🙂

[Barry Gabay]

Hello, Split ebonite feed for 149 appeared in 1981 in Europe and North America.  I bought 149s in Amsterdam and NYC in 1981. Both had split ebonite feed. The year before in several US shops, the 149s I saw  (and one I purchased) had solid ebonite feeds. 

 

Good luck with your research. We all try to contribute information about this great model 149. 

 

 

[zaddick]

There are so few of these older 149s of members here that are also the original owners. Each is a useful data point.

 

For a while I was under this false impression there was some linearity to the evolution of parts, but after a short while it became clear there was a blending of characteristics across transition periods. Unlike a pen such as the Parker 51 with a date code imprinted on the barrel, it is a fool's errand to try to get overly precise with dating a 149.

[stoen]

On 2/19/2021 at 6:18 PM, Barry Gabay said:

Split ebonite feed for 149 appeared in 1981 in Europe and North America.

How can one be so sure?

If so, how come that I got a pen with this feed seven years before it “apeared”? It was purchased in Vienna.

🙂

Time-warp machines and wormholes are cool, but I don’t remember having seen any of them close to my pen.

🙂

All the best!