The Meisterstück 149 Calligraphy Appreciation Thread

[txomsy]

I would only suggest to make sure 'a's are closed so they cannot be mistaken with 'u's. Other than that, I think you have a wonderful hand.

[Detman101]

On 9/21/2022 at 12:42 PM, fpupulin said:

With no there pen I have so much fun...

 

Today our second grandson, Artur Ottavio, arrived home after a few days spent in the Neonatology ward to check that the bilirrubin levels were within the normal range. Done!

 

Goodness gracious....that is just BEAUTIFUL!!!
🤩

[fpupulin]

On 10/12/2022 at 10:28 PM, mywatchgr said:

 

@como you are so modest, that is a virtue which is not so easily recognisable by others in this hard world we live in!

But let me say the following: you do deserve to be mentioned, you just don't believe it yet.

 

On the matter of our object of appreciation, it has been 2 weeks of full use and a couple of permanent blue ink fills, I must say that this ink is just a tad dry, and the cause of this dryness is that my strokes are still a bit faster and a bit harder than they should be. So, out of laziness, i changed to ASA-GAO (Pilot) and it has been way better both for everyday usage and calligraphy workout.

The MB permanent blue has an amazing vintage tone and shade, and very good properties. As for the ink flow, it just needs patience and exercise to be mastered (which I do not posses, yet) so back at it...feel free for any advice on my below...much appreciated.

 

We are here to play, mywatchgr, and you played very well with your 149 Calligraphy. I like your writing, and I like the effect of this almost electronic blue with that nib!

 

I second txomsy suggestion about the open "a".

 

You may try to execute them in another way. You may begin at the middle of the right curve, going up with no pressure until you reach the top of the oval, then you will go down with a light pressure along the left curve, down to about the middle, where you will release any pressure on the nib to complete the curve. As the Calligraphy nib release a lot of ink when is under pressure, you need to relieve pressure to give it the time to "dispose" of the remnant ink before you begin the ascendent curve. When you reach the bottom of your oval, you may begin going up again, with no pressure at all, to reach the initial point at mid-way of the right curve.

 

At this point you can lift the nib of the paper to write the stroke of the leg. You begin, firmly, with light pressure, going down to about the middle of the leg, where you release the pressure, complete the stroke and goes up with no pressure at all. 

 

It works...

[fpupulin]

On 10/12/2022 at 2:31 PM, como said:

 

[...]

 

I can say that this thread is the single most interesting thread in the whole of FPN (at least for me), rich in member participation, contribution, so many fantastic and meaningful discussions. 

 

 

I also have a lot of fun wandering around the pages of this thread, my dear friend como! And I really like to see that, from time to time, new owners of this charming pen flock here to exchange their views, bringing a fresh wind of novelty. 

[fpupulin]

Some time ago a very dear friend and botanical painter - who since some time I have been converting to calligraphy - gifted me some sheets of hand-made paper created in the Ruscombe Paper Mill of Margaux, France. It is a paper of extraordinary beauty, which I reserve only for the best occasions. It has an irregular and slightly rough surface, on which the nib sometimes gets stuck when it meets some thicker fibers, but it has a splendid texture to the touch and an almost "crunchy" appearance. 

 

Here I have used it to pen a complete alphabet of uppercase and lowercase letters, written with my 149 Calligraphy and the MB Black Permanent, except for the capital letters F and P and the signature, which were made with the OMAS EXTRA nib of my Ogiva Arco filled with Pelikan Brilliant Brown ink.

 

I shot the sheet hanging from one of the ceiling beams of the house, and again, from above, on a table in the room so that its dimensions can be appreciated.

 

 

[Carrau]

As an occasional, non-calligrapher visitor here, I never cease to be amazed, not only by the lovely writing and photography, but as much by the generous, civil, respectful, and humble discourse that the thread’s members manage to maintain, all the while patiently nurturing any who care to learn.  What a trove of riches to be learned from!  Thank you all.

[fireant]

On 10/4/2022 at 7:19 AM, tanalasta said:

Stunning calligraphy. 

I’ve tried to source a 149C in Australia but apart from the gold leaf versions (ouch) have hit a brick wall. Are there any of these left anywhere?

 

I found two earlier last month, one for myself and I know they had another instock because a friend also bought one.  But I just checked, and it looks like they are out of stock. Still it might not hurt to occasionally check the Stilograph Corsani website.

 

[fpupulin]

An exercise in calligraphy and an exercise in photographic lighting, to celebrate the spirit of friendship that accompanied this thread, now over one hundred thousand hits, dedicated to an extraordinary pen.

 

 

The paper is Amatruda from Amalfi, the ink is Rohrer & Klingner Alt Goldgrün.

[N1003U]

1 hour ago, fpupulin said:

An exercise in calligraphy and an exercise in photographic lighting, to celebrate the spirit of friendship that accompanied this thread, now over one hundred thousand hits, dedicated to an extraordinary pen.

 

 

The paper is Amatruda from Amalfi, the ink is Rohrer & Klingner Alt Goldgrün.

I approve wholeheartedly of the pen, the ink, the paper, and the camera…👍

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

16 hours ago, fpupulin said:

An exercise in calligraphy and an exercise in photographic lighting, to celebrate the spirit of friendship that accompanied this thread, now over one hundred thousand hits, dedicated to an extraordinary pen.

 

 

The paper is Amatruda from Amalfi, the ink is Rohrer & Klingner Alt Goldgrün.

Beautiful calligraphy

[fpupulin]

16 hours ago, N1003U said:

I approve wholeheartedly of the pen, the ink, the paper, and the camera…👍

 

Thank you, N1003U, for your kind approval. Appropriate tools are not only useful for accomplishing the task, but also deeply inspiring! 

[fpupulin]

1 hour ago, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

Beautiful calligraphy

 

Thank you. There are errors here and there, small indecisions and hesitations, but this imperfection is testimony of true manual work, of the hand's humanity.

[fireant]

I love your calligraphy and especially love how beautiful the R&K alt grun-gold looks in your work.

[max dog]

On 7/15/2022 at 4:39 PM, fpupulin said:

It is such a pleasure writing with this pen...

 

She has been in constant use for 28 months now, without a day of rest!

 

 

On 7/16/2022 at 6:12 PM, fpupulin said:

 

Thank you very much, como, for this post, which largely reflects my own experience.

 

For 43 years, the Montblanc 149 has been, for me, "the" fountain pen. I bought my first 149 in 1979, just turned 19. Since then, the 149 has been my pen measure, I would say in every sense: due to its physical dimensions to which I - obviously - got used to after so long time, and as a reference measure to judge other pens, in terms of aesthetics and functionality.

 

First of all a Montblanc 149 is, in my view, a pen that always works. Over the years I have owned 9 pens of this type, and with the exception of one whose nib was not suitable for my writing - a medium oblique - all of them have always been perfectly functional writers for me: never an uncertainty, never a dried ink in the barrel, never a problem. I've had 149 from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2020s, with different nibs and different feeders - all of them work wonders.

 

I didn't say, however, that the nibs of my many 149s were perfect. Functional, yes, honest, yes, very honest indeed, but not perfect as far as the pleasure of writing is concerned. For that pure pleasure, I was convinced, I had to resort to vintage fountain pens, in particular my beloved Omas from the 40s, 50s, 60s of the last century. I ended up owning a number of them, and even some modern pens fitted with Omas nibs from those times.

 

Not that this was a problem, but I was somehow resigned to the fact that my passion was a coin made up of two sides: my perfectly functional pens (the 149s and a few other similar sisters) and the perfect writers, of bygone eras.

 

Then, in 2020, the 149 Calligraphy arrived, a pen that closed the breach. 

 

The Montblanc Calligraphy nib is exactly what should have been mounted on my first 149, an EF, over forty years ago. A perfect (or almost) nib on a physically and functionally perfect pen. Perhaps, in that case, I would not have bought any other pen.

 

As como says, the 149 Calligraphy set the bar for every other pen, and it is no coincidence that after the 149 Calligraphy (28 months ago) I bought only two other pens, one of them another 149 Calligraphy (because you never know ...). But it is not only this.

 

The 149 Calligraphy made me rediscover the taste for beautiful everyday writing, for calligraphic practice mixed with everyday writing: all there, in a single pen. And the taste for beautiful writing brought me back to my other pens, to rediscover the characteristics and qualities of each one, not for their indisputable beauty, but for the grace of their writing.

 

como is right: 149 Calligraphy has almost monopolized my writing time. But only almost. The rest of the time, which Calligraphy leaves free, has been in the last two years a time of rediscovery of each of the other pens in my collection. They have sorted themselves into groups: those that are, for me, perfect for some writing reason, those that do not go wrong, and those that - despite their beauty - I no longer use because their nib has no grace when compared with the Calligraphy.

 

So thank you, nice pen, functional pen, with your perfect nib. I wouldn't do without her anymore. I'm sorry she didn't arrive earlier, but I thank Montblanc for making this fantastic pen. And for also giving me some new friends.

Hi Franco, so eloquently stated, I couldn't agree more with everything you said.  The Montblanc 149 Calligraphy is perfection, a superb vintage flex pen with all the benefits and practicality of a modern fountain pen.  Over 2.5 years later, it is the only pen I use.  The excellence with which you do everything here from your stunning calligraphy, all the beauty and elegance you evoke, and superb photography, it is all very inspiring always.  Thanks so much! 

[fpupulin]

Everyone on this forum already knows that the Montblanc 149 Calligraphy is a very special pen for me. Since she entered the house, more than two and a half years ago, she has really put aside many pens that do not have, in my opinion, the same ductility and has ended up being the darling always in use, perhaps with five or six other pens, the one that never fails. She has her own dedicated desk pen holder, and it must have been months that I haven't used its cap: simply, she is always there ready to write, and she always writes and does it well.

 

The only flaw of my 149 Calligraphy is that she has become too precious to me. For me she is such a trustworthy and so useful pen that I am worried that something might happen to her: accidents, you know, are unpredictable. I know that here and there people keep saying that the 149 Calligraphy continues in production, but I think that's not true. No shop has been accepting pre-orders for this pen for more than half a year now, the few that were online have long since disappeared, and the very few that still remain on eBay command prices that seem difficult to digest. In December the new 149 of the "Expression nib" series is expected to be released, with the curved or fude de mannen nib type, which will definitively sanction the retirement age for the first of the series, the vedette of our story, with her flexible nib.

 

So, thanks to the concern, thanks to the rarity, thanks to a really good offer found quite by chance from a dealer I've known for fifteen years, I couldn't resist, and I bought my second 149 Calligraphy. A couple of days ago I finally tried the nib, to compare it with the only other 149 Calligraphy that I have experience.

 

I used a nice sheet of laid paper that I had bought in Milan and a splendid Blue Greek ink that Montblanc produced in a limited edition at the time of the launch of its Homer pen (Homer) and that a dear friend recently gave me. The two pens write in an almost identical way, perhaps with a slight margin of greater narrowness in the stroke of Number 2, but little thing. Both nibs are wonderfully flexible and springy.

 

I am very happy with her. I cleaned Number 2, washed her thoroughly, and put her away. She is not a pen that I intend to use for the moment. She is a precious reserve, which I now know writes just as well as her sister Number 1. Who knows, sometimes if I would like writing something calligraphic in two colors I can briefly put her to work, but for now, with her beautiful calligraphic sticker still intact, she will remain at rest: she's a nice security.

 

 

[Seney724]

7 minutes ago, fpupulin said:

Everyone on this forum already knows that the Montblanc 149 Calligraphy is a very special pen for me. Since she entered the house, more than two and a half years ago, she has really put aside many pens that do not have, in my opinion, the same ductility and has ended up being the darling always in use, perhaps with five or six other pens, the one that never fails. She has her own dedicated desk pen holder, and it must have been months that I haven't used its cap: simply, she is always there ready to write, and she always writes and does it well.

 

The only flaw of my 149 Calligraphy is that she has become too precious to me. For me she is such a trustworthy and so useful pen that I am worried that something might happen to her: accidents, you know, are unpredictable. I know that here and there people keep saying that the 149 Calligraphy continues in production, but I think that's not true. No shop has been accepting pre-orders for this pen for more than half a year now, the few that were online have long since disappeared, and the very few that still remain on eBay command prices that seem difficult to digest. In December the new 149 of the "Expression nib" series is expected to be released, with the curved or fude de mannen nib type, which will definitively sanction the retirement age for the first of the series, the vedette of our story, with her flexible nib.

 

So, thanks to the concern, thanks to the rarity, thanks to a really good offer found quite by chance from a dealer I've known for fifteen years, I couldn't resist, and I bought my second 149 Calligraphy. A couple of days ago I finally tried the nib, to compare it with the only other 149 Calligraphy that I have experience.

 

I used a nice sheet of laid paper that I had bought in Milan and a splendid Blue Greek ink that Montblanc produced in a limited edition at the time of the launch of its Homer pen (Homer) and that a dear friend recently gave me. The two pens write in an almost identical way, perhaps with a slight margin of greater narrowness in the stroke of Number 2, but little thing. Both nibs are wonderfully flexible and springy.

 

I am very happy with her. I cleaned Number 2, washed her thoroughly, and put her away. She is not a pen that I intend to use for the moment. She is a precious reserve, which I now know writes just as well as her sister Number 1. Who knows, sometimes if I would like writing something calligraphic in two colors I can briefly put her to work, but for now, with her beautiful calligraphic sticker still intact, she will remain at rest: she's a nice security.

 

 

Wow, congratulations!

Lucky you!!

[ak47]

I agree with you fpupulin. Have you had the possibility to use the 146c black or solitaire? Is it the same of 149c?

[Seney724]

5 minutes ago, ak47 said:

I agree with you fpupulin. Have you had the possibility to use the 146c black or solitaire? Is it the same of 149c?

Great question.  At the current time, the 146c remains available for purchase at some Montblanc ADs. 

It would be terrific if we had an assessment of them from @fpupulin.

[fpupulin]

1 hour ago, ak47 said:

I agree with you fpupulin. Have you had the possibility to use the 146c black or solitaire? Is it the same of 149c?

 

1 hour ago, Seney724 said:

Great question.  At the current time, the 146c remains available for purchase at some Montblanc ADs. 

It would be terrific if we had an assessment of them from @fpupulin.

 

My pen friends: I had the opportunity to try a 146 Calligraphy some months ago, the pen of a dear friend of mine, for a few minutes.

 

I would say that the specimen I checked released a stroke just a bit finer than my 149 Calligraphy, and I had the impression that the nib was just slightly less flexible and just slightly more elastic. You know that I like using these two terms together to describe a "flexible" nib, where "flexibility" denotes the easiness, the responsivity to pressure, with with the tines are spread apart, and "elasticity" means the easiness, the quickness, with which the tins returns to the original, resting position, once the pressure is released.  

 

In this sense, I would say that the nib of the 149 has the same flexibility of my Omas Extra nibs, but less elasticity. The nib of the 146 Calligraphy has the flexibility of some of my Omas Extra Lucens nibs (which are a bit less flexible than the Extra), and grossly the same elasticity.

 

I would guess, on the basis of my very limited experience, that the nib of the 146 Calligraphy is well suited for calligraphy, maybe using a size of the letters a bit smaller that the one I prevalently use with the 149 Calligraphy (8-10 mm).

 

The geometry of the 146 Calligraphy nib is very different form that of the 149, much more "rhombic", and it is obviously smaller. I am so used to the ergonomics of the 149 (I own one since 43 years...) that I largely prefer its size to that of the 146, not to speak about the glorious appearance of its nib. But I felt the nib of the 146 Calligraphy a very good tool for calligraphy, and probably also for everyday writing.

 

I hope that this may help. 

[Seney724]

2 minutes ago, fpupulin said:

 

 

My pen friends: I had the opportunity to try a 146 Calligraphy some months ago, the pen of a dear friend of mine, for a few minutes.

 

I would say that the specimen I checked released a stroke just a bit finer than my 149 Calligraphy, and I had the impression that the nib was just slightly less flexible and just slightly more elastic. You know that I like using these two terms together to describe a "flexible" nib, where "flexibility" denotes the easiness, the responsivity to pressure, with with the tines are spread apart, and "elasticity" means the easiness, the quickness, with which the tins returns to the original, resting position, once the pressure is released.  

 

In this sense, I would say that the nib of the 149 has the same flexibility of my Omas Extra nibs, but less elasticity. The nib of the 146 Calligraphy has the flexibility of some of my Omas Extra Lucens nibs (which are a bit less flexible than the Extra), and grossly the same elasticity.

 

I would guess, on the basis of my very limited experience, that the nib of the 146 Calligraphy is well suited for calligraphy, maybe using a size of the letters a bit smaller that the one I prevalently use with the 149 Calligraphy (8-10 mm).

 

The geometry of the 146 Calligraphy nib is very different form that of the 149, much more "rhombic", and it is obviously smaller. I am so used to the ergonomics of the 149 (I own one since 43 years...) that I largely prefer its size to that of the 146, not to speak about the glorious appearance of its nib. But I felt the nib of the 146 Calligraphy a very good tool for calligraphy, and probably also for everyday writing.

 

I hope that this may help. 

Yes, thank you @fpupulin.  This is terrific!!  And much appreciated, too.