The Matador Thread

[christof]

Once I found the same imprint on a Pelikan nib:

 

18 Karat, importé d'angleterre

 

Pelikan 100 18 Karat Nib Kugelspitze von -C.M.Z-

 

maybe, these came from the same factory?

 

C.

[Christopher Godfrey]

Nothing since August 2020?  Hmmm...

 

Someone wrote, many pages back: <I can't believe I fell upon this thread only now! Will post some pics soon....>  Likewise, myself!

 

What pen is of almost exactly the same dimensions (well, length, not girth) as a 149 (MB, of course!) and, additionally, has a nib of almost the size of a Waterman's 58?  Well...

[Christopher Godfrey]

I should never have thought twice about Matador, until pomperopero suggested a couple of years ago that I might love them, knowing of my love of vintage Pelikans -- muchas gracias, Iñaki!  Months ago, I saw this intriguing pen offered in the classified section of that famous website FPN!  I cannot remember who sold it to me and why on earth he should have conceived of parting with it; but...my gain.  (Didn't anyone else see the advertisement?)

 

At some point in its life, this nib was removed without due care and there are some mild scratches on the nib, near the tip, as you can see in one photo.  They are not severe and do not detract much from its beauty.  In the photo of the three nibs, the Waterman 58 #8 at the back is somewhat reduced by perspective, but the 149 nib shows the relative sizes perfectly well, I think.  

 

Needless to say, I <love> this pen and its enormous, flexible nib.

 

Apologies for rotten photos.

[pomperopero]

Dear "Cristobal" 😉 very happy to see you finally got this model. And what a model!! A big one amongst the biggest Matador pens.

 

I'm sure yoy adore it.

 

On 1/15/2021 at 9:03 PM, Christopher Godfrey said:

I should never have thought twice about Matador, until pomperopero suggested a couple of years ago that I might love them, knowing of my love of vintage Pelikans -- muchas gracias, Iñaki!  Months ago, I saw this intriguing pen offered in the classified section of that famous website FPN!  I cannot remember who sold it to me and why on earth he should have conceived of parting with it; but...my gain.  (Didn't anyone else see the advertisement?)

 

At some point in its life, this nib was removed without due care and there are some mild scratches on the nib, near the tip, as you can see in one photo.  They are not severe and do not detract much from its beauty.  In the photo of the three nibs, the Waterman 58 #8 at the back is somewhat reduced by perspective, but the 149 nib shows the relative sizes perfectly well, I think.  

 

Needless to say, I <love> this pen and its enormous, flexible nib.

 

Apologies for rotten photos.

 

[yettham]

On 1/3/2017 at 2:16 PM, kawuska said:

Hello Don,

great pens!I've got faceted 962 too and it is one of the most gracious pens I have.Don'tnk that Degussa nib originally came with this pen though.Who made Matador nibs, any information about this brand?It has yet to be discovered.Maybe some dark cellar in Germany hides documentation sheets used by the house owner to wrap glass jars with jam in it?Time will tell..

My recent research on the Matador Company has convinced me that MATADOR bought nibs from DEGUSSA. (At least they did this among buying from other sources). I have proof of that (a letter from Degussa stating that Siebert&Loewen/Matador had been their customers for many years) and I have evidence from numerous MATADOR Pens which came to me with DEGUSSA nibs - I can´t believe that former owners replaced so many original nibs by Degussa nibs.

[yettham]

On 10/27/2015 at 10:00 AM, christof said:

In another thread at the photography forum, some members mentioned that it would be apreciated to have an own thread for the German brand Matador.

Matador is a somewhat unknown brand for some collectors, but there are lots of informations (specially on German board penexchange.de) if you take time for searching.

 

This thread should not content historical facts about Matador as a main topic. The idea of this thread is to show a picture or two of YOUR Matador and share the informations you have about it with us.

 

I only have a few Matadors in my own collection, but I'd like to start with this:

 

 

It's a Matador Express 815, probably made during the 30's (pre WWII), and is fitted with a huge #6 nib, made in New York. The really special thing about this pen is that the cap top and the mechanics as well are made of the same celluloid as the rest of the pen. I have never seen this before.

 

I also have some others, but need to do better pictures. Please feel free to jump in with your Matadors in the meantime. This will become a fun thread!

 

C.

Although Christoph - according to his opening post from 2015 - wanted this thread to be a showroom for pens I dare to post two recent findigs:

 

Here comes what is closest to a catalogue and I hope is new to the majority of you: I was lucky to get PDFs of two MATADOR-leaflets from the 1930 (as I tend to believe). The originals are still property of a descendant of the former company owner - and he would not give them away. So enjoy!

Matador_IVs_kompl.pdf Matador_VIIIs_kompl.pdf

[OMASsimo]

14 hours ago, yettham said:

Although Christoph - according to his opening post from 2015 - wanted this thread to be a showroom for pens I dare to post two recent findigs:

 

Here comes what is closest to a catalogue and I hope is new to the majority of you: I was lucky to get PDFs of two MATADOR-leaflets from the 1930 (as I tend to believe). The originals are still property of a descendant of the former company owner - and he would not give them away. So enjoy!

Matador_IVs_kompl.pdf 3.29 MB · 3 downloads Matador_VIIIs_kompl.pdf 6.77 MB · 3 downloads

 

What an awesome find, thank you for posting! These old adds are an excellent source of solid information. Particularly interesting are the prices, but also the advertising strategy.

[OMASsimo]

14 hours ago, yettham said:

My recent research on the Matador Company has convinced me that MATADOR bought nibs from DEGUSSA. (At least they did this among buying from other sources). I have proof of that (a letter from Degussa stating that Siebert&Loewen/Matador had been their customers for many years) and I have evidence from numerous MATADOR Pens which came to me with DEGUSSA nibs - I can´t believe that former owners replaced so many original nibs by Degussa nibs.

It’s great that you found proof for this! Degussa bought the nib factory from Osmia and kept producing excellent nibs for the industry. Many, mostly smaller, manufacturers bought their nibs from Degussa or several others like Rupp, Ruf, or Bock. They would provide the nibs with the imprint that was demanded by the buyer usually but also sold nibs with their own imprint. So, if I find a pen with a Nib with Degussa imprint, I still would assume that it’s a replacement nib because the original nibs probably had the “M” Matador imprint even if they were made by Degussa. Do you know whether or not Matador even had a nib factory?

 

On a more general note: i found so many German 1930s pens with all kinds of replacement nibs that I have to disagree with your last statement. Due to WWII there was a severe shortage of basically everything in Germany from the late 1930s on. And pens were used on an everyday all day basis. Thus, pens had to be repaired with whatever parts were available. I think I found as many older pens with newer nibs as newer pens with older nibs. And if the original branded nib was made by Degussa (or one of the other nib providers) it could be replaced easily with a non-branded nib showing the imprint of the actual producer.

[markiv]

On 4/11/2021 at 4:47 AM, yettham said:

Although Christoph - according to his opening post from 2015 - wanted this thread to be a showroom for pens I dare to post two recent findigs:

 

Here comes what is closest to a catalogue and I hope is new to the majority of you: I was lucky to get PDFs of two MATADOR-leaflets from the 1930 (as I tend to believe). The originals are still property of a descendant of the former company owner - and he would not give them away. So enjoy!

Matador_IVs_kompl.pdf 3.29 MB · 7 downloads Matador_VIIIs_kompl.pdf 6.77 MB · 7 downloads

 

All the collectors have been very generous with their contributions in this thread but your's with these pages from the catalog is on a different level. This is a first for me who have been following the brands for several years. 

Cant thank you enough!!

[Christopher Godfrey]

@yettam: first thing -- welcome here!

 

Secondly, as others have said above -- brilliant!  Thanks so much.

[kawuska]

[Christopher Godfrey]

I have just noticed, however: no price for the Garant 998...why?

[joseluismartinez]

On 4/11/2021 at 11:47 AM, yettham said:

Although Christoph - according to his opening post from 2015 - wanted this thread to be a showroom for pens I dare to post two recent findigs:

 

Here comes what is closest to a catalogue and I hope is new to the majority of you: I was lucky to get PDFs of two MATADOR-leaflets from the 1930 (as I tend to believe). The originals are still property of a descendant of the former company owner - and he would not give them away. So enjoy!

Matador_IVs_kompl.pdf 3.29 MB · 20 downloads Matador_VIIIs_kompl.pdf 6.77 MB · 18 downloads

 

Awesome stuff. Thank you very much. 

[Parcival]

He's already traveling to me. The big gun! It wasn't cheap and there was bad ink damage /celluloid coloring/, but still an extremely rare pen and I couldn't miss it for my collection of Duofold-like pens. Oversize Matador Ideal Gold pen with # 5 Ideal nib, 1929...

 

[como]

@Parcival Beautiful and faithful replica of Parker Duofold like pens by Matador! It’s a very interesting collection theme you have, yet not surprising at all. Early Duofolds must be the most copied model of all time. You can find virtually a copy of some sort in all early pen makes. Would you mind sharing a few examples in your collection of this theme? Must be very cool to see!

[Parcival]

2 hours ago, como said:

@Parcival Beautiful and faithful replica of Parker Duofold like pens by Matador! It’s a very interesting collection theme you have, yet not surprising at all. Early Duofolds must be the most copied model of all time. You can find virtually a copy of some sort in all early pen makes. Would you mind sharing a few examples in your collection of this theme? Must be very cool to see!

There are many Duofold-like pens in Europe, mostly German and Italian, and less French. A special topic can be made for them. There are none in the United States because of the patent.

First photo - Matador 931

Second photo:

1. Uhlmann's Eterno, Italy

2. Selector 80, Netherlands

3. Azura 15, French, but probably made in Germany by Kaweco

[como]

10 hours ago, Parcival said:

There are many Duofold-like pens in Europe, mostly German and Italian, and less French. A special topic can be made for them. There are none in the United States because of the patent.

First photo - Matador 931

Second photo:

1. Uhlmann's Eterno, Italy

2. Selector 80, Netherlands

3. Azura 15, French, but probably made in Germany by Kaweco

@Parcival That first Matador is especially beautiful! Thank you very much for sharing. 👍

[markiv]

On 12/15/2021 at 3:18 PM, Parcival said:

He's already traveling to me. The big gun! It wasn't cheap and there was bad ink damage /celluloid coloring/, but still an extremely rare pen and I couldn't miss it for my collection of Duofold-like pens. Oversize Matador Ideal Gold pen with # 5 Ideal nib, 1929...

 Congratulations!!! 

I had never seen or heard about a duofold style Matador - love it. 

[BenJoeM]

I recently bought some pens at an estate sale.  The gentleman who owned the estate was from Hungry and all his pens came from his time in Hungry. I began restoring some of the pens and I came across a pen that I believe is a Matador. Or at least the nib is.  What are your opinions?

The pen has zero markings so maybe it just a cheap Hungarian but the nib is very interesting and has an M with a circle on it. Only issue is there appears to be a line through the circle which I have not seen in my Matador research.