Identification Help? Montblanc Triple Selectable

August 1, 2017

Hello!
I was just given this pen by my mother-in-law (from France) who knows I love anything vintage. I've wanted to get a MB pen for quite some time and always admired her collection. I'd love to get new ink for this so I can actually use it, but... I don't know what model it is. I even contacted MB and was told by a rep that she didn't think it could be an MB pen because they never made one like this. (I think she must be rather new there to not realize there's a lot of pens they USED to make, but do not anymore.)

So on to the details:

It appears to be chrome over brass (or another non-magnetic metal, possibly just solid stainless).

It has three sliding switches which once you begin to slide one down, it will release whatever tip was currently selected and locked in. To just retract the tip, you select one of the other two sliders and slide it about 1/4 of the way down, and the extended tip then springs back up into the pen body.

One of the selectors is a pencil, and to extend the lead, you slide the selector all the way out and hold it, which makes it protude about 1/2" and then you can rotate the pencil tip and it pushes more lead out. Then release the slider and the pencil tip just protudes from the pen body about 1/4".

At the top of the pen is the MB snowcap, as part of a thumb-screw, which can be undone by hand, this removes the triangular spring clip which has the stamping "MADE IN GERMANY". Once removed, you can see the top of the retracting springs inside the pen body. There is a small brass set screw under the spring clip, but when I removed it, the mechanicals of the pen did not seem to come out easily, so I just left it be.

At the top of the body is the name "MONTBLANC". No other words or numbers can be seen.

It may be that the pen units are replaced by unscrewing them, but I didn't want to try this, for fear of damaging the unit.

Does anyone have any knowledge of this piece?

Merci Beaucoup!

August 2, 2017

Nice multipen! I'm afraid I know nothing about this pen, but looking at the design, it looks as if the refills might just be friction fitted into the mechanism, as there seems to be no other easy way of replacing them. Have you tried simply pulling them out from the front? Obviously, you don't want to damage the pen, but it might be an idea to try GENTLY pulling on one of the refills to see if it eases out. Often, multipen mechanisms feature several thin metal tubes (usually brass) that hold the refills in place by friction alone.

August 2, 2017

On further investigation, there is a very similar Montblanc multipen on Italian eBay currently. It's a pretty expensive 1950s vintage pen. The seller states that he will supply the pen with new refills loaded, so you'll definitely be able to source refills for the pen. It looks to me as if it takes standard D1 multipen refills, which are widely available from any number of manufacturers, including Lamy and Pelikan.

August 8, 2017

These type of vintage multipens does take a D1 refill, and they are friction fitted. To change them, you simply extend the refill that needs replacement and pull on it. Although if you're pen has been long in storage, this may be hard to do due to rust.

The most prominent manufacturer of this type of pen is Fend from Germany, and I've read somewhere that Montblanc ones are actually also manufactured by Fend. There are also Norma pens, but I haven't read up on the relation of these to the Fends. And later, there are Japanese ones with brands such as Kanoe. A quick search with any of these names + "multi pen" will turn up lots of results with pens of a similar design.

I've had the pleasure of fixing one of these pens, and I'm amazed by how simple the mechanism was. It's simply 4 sliding tubes and a single perforated roll of metal.

Edited August 8, 2017 by stuck-in-time