A Tale Of The Lesser Flagships Of Montblanc Along With Pelikan And Pilot

[sannidh]

My holidays rarely match with others’ in the family. So, last afternoon, while I was staring at the chessboard to play yet another game, I thought of putting the board to a better use than just moving the pieces against myself. So, why not take three big nibs out of their temporary resting places and give them a try. In this fast-paced world, fountain pens have most certainly embarked the sail of luxury, consistent with properties of both time and money. These days, keyboards – physical, on-screen or speech-engine ones have taken over a Pen’s traditional space-time. Thankfully, notebooks and writing pads are still there to keep them alive, even if people have started to take notes in their tablets, phones or phablets.
Not being a fan of very big pens, I usually go for the minus-1 flagship models. They seem to be appealing from both perspectives of cost and convenience.
Rather than writing everything down, I have left it to the reader to decide the verse through pictures, mostly.

 

The pictures lose resolution with time, as I am using a free service. Please feel free to navigate to the same topic in my blog :

Tale of the lesser flagships

 

A briefer history in time

http://s25.postimg.org/5h2xulkiz/image.jpgMONT BLANC

I came across a real Montblanc pretty much later in life, though used to love a pen called Camlin Premier during school days. It came with a 1-pen leather pouch, an additional screw-fit nib and it did have the striped ink windows. I say I loved it, but never wrote with it since it belonged to my dad and I was a kid. Back in 1999-2000, it cost around USD 5.00 and it was a hefty price tag for a locally made fountain pen . Later I did realize that it was yet another MB 146 inspiration, when I went to a pen store in Calcutta.

As most of you would know, Montblanc was started in 1906 a Hamburg banker, Alfred Nehemias, and a Berlin engineer, August Eberstein as Simplizissimus-Füllhalter which means Simplistic Fountain pens, after they learnt about fountain pens with ink tanks from the US. By 1908, three other people by the name of Wilhelm Dziambor, Christian Lausen and later Claus Johannes Voss had taken over the business and the company took the name “Simplo Filler Pen Co.” which referred to a fountain pen design with a built-in ink-tank.

In 1909, a safety fountain pen made up of hard rubber called “Rouge et Noir” was launched, which actually means Red and Black. The pen consisted of a red cap and a black body, perhaps inspired from a card-game. You can also find a limited edition of the same. In 1910, the company became Mont Blanc, inspired by the highest peak of the Alps (4810 m) and a pen called Montblanc was introduced with a white tip (which would later evolve into a white star in 1913). In 1926, the Meisterstück was launched. By 1929, the nibs were engraved with 4810, the official height of Mont Blanc peak, as an allusion to supreme quality and craftsmanship. The flagship Meisterstück 149 was launched in 1952, evolving from celluloid & brass mechanism to resin & plastic mechanism over the years. For the Meisterstück 146, the ink windows were modified to striped version somewhere around the 1970s from clear blue window and the the two-tone nib was introduced in 1993-94.

You can find a brief history of Pelikan here and Pilot here.

 

146_{in Pictures}

http://s25.postimg.org/vuzqt8oj3/DSC_1786.jpg

http://s25.postimg.org/vd4lddyy7/DSC_1801.jpg

With m805, Custom 823_{in Pictures}

_{http://s25.postimg.org/cm2o384dr/DSC_1803.jpg}

_{http://s25.postimg.org/9c6bx63ov/DSC_1805_1.jpg}

http://s25.postimg.org/aeyffaz3j/DSC_1809.jpg

Dimensions

http://s25.postimg.org/zc1sw7nlb/DSC_1819.jpg

http://s25.postimg.org/3ly2j18a7/DSC_1819_1.jpg

http://s25.postimg.org/a0x3fpezz/DSC_1819_2.jpg

Writing

The writing experience is simply superlative although I do find the pilot custom 823 and m805 equally good when it comes to non-flex nibs.
Custom 823 with a medium nib & a wet-ink, is still able to draw a line, tad thinner than both 146 and m805 with fine points. Personally, I prefer the widths of 146 and m805.

 

http://s25.postimg.org/comjq281b/DSC_1825.jpg

 

Ratings
With my own biases*

 

http://s25.postimg.org/xigz8aptb/146_FP_rating_scale.jpg

 

References

 

http://www.montblanc.com/en-us/discover/history.html
http://www.gentlemansgazette.com/montblanc-meisterstuck-fountain-pen/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonydemarco/2013/05/08/leadership-changes-at-montblanc-and-jaeger-lecoultre/

 

Thank you for your time; hope you like the chessboard too ,

Sonik

Edited February 1, 2015 by soniknitr