The Meisterstück 149 Calligraphy Appreciation Thread

[txomsy]

As stunning as usual, your art never ceases to amaze me.

[Vintage_BE]

On 4/8/2024 at 6:26 AM, fpupulin said:

Back to the main topic...

 

Message to all 149 Calligraphy Flexible owners: have a try to the Diamine Golden Brown ink.

 

Dry enough, lubricated enough, with a LOT of shading. You will not regret trying it.

 

 

Looks a bit like walnut ink. I will give it a try… on a postcard.

[fpupulin]

[fpupulin]

On 4/8/2024 at 9:24 AM, pix said:

 

I, too, would really like such a modern reissue.

 

Also for the 100th anniversary, no reissue of the 139... Who knows for the celebration of 110 years of Meisterstück? Spes ultima dea...

 

However, together with a friend, we quibbled a lot about the 149 Origin, and we finally agreed that Montblanc put quite an effort in this pen. They had to create ex novo the metal cone and the metal upper end tailored for a 149, they designed and produced a new clip (even though we consider it the weakest element of the entire design), they maintained the beautiful shape of the 149 body and cap quite sober in color, and they adapted a retro design to the celebration elements required for the nib engraving. Montblanc did not design this pen from a "purist" point of view - which is what the regular 149 and Hemingway are - but from a different philosophy, trying to put in different elements from the Montblanc earlier years into one single pen that represents Montblanc's heritage.

 

So, here are the pro:

- the 149 shape, without the bling bling (relatively speaking);

- the retro cap imprint, a well done design;

- the retro nib imprint pretty well executed, with the 100th anniversary designation.

And the cons:
- the ball clip. The shape is odd and inconsistent of the ball clips found on vintage Montblanc pens, where the "arch" is in the middle of the "bridge". Yes, the design is likely more aesthetically compatible with the cigar shaped 149, but ball clips were almost always found on flat-top or dome-top safety and button-fillers pens.

- the metal piston knob. It is a "lazy" design, already adopted in a lot of other "special" Montblanc pens. You can close your eyes and open them again to read the advertisement as "149 La Bella Vita", or "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", and you will note that there are not specific elements of the design to connect it with Meisterstück's 100th Anniversary.  

 

So, in the end, can we let go of the opportunity to celebrate 100 years with a new Meisterstück 149, being lucky enough to be here right now, neither too early nor too late, but exactly when was the time to celebrate the most iconic pen of the most important writing instrument house? Can we give up having the legendary 149 in the most unusual  dress that this dark pen has adopted in its history? 

 

Well, everyone will have their own personal answer. We two friends, after much deliberation, have found ours.

[dftr]

For years, I had avoided MB b/c I found the brand pretentious and quite frankly overpriced for what they offered... until the MB Calligraphy series.  The Flex was my first MB purchase... 

It is a shame they didn't produce something similar for their 100 year anniversary...  I had hopes they would offer the flex nib again but this time w/ a writers pen... the nib is the soul of the pen.  I hope whoever runs MB remembers that.  

[fpupulin]

1 hour ago, dftr said:

For years, I had avoided MB b/c I found the brand pretentious and quite frankly overpriced for what they offered... until the MB Calligraphy series.  The Flex was my first MB purchase... 

It is a shame they didn't produce something similar for their 100 year anniversary...  I had hopes they would offer the flex nib again but this time w/ a writers pen... the nib is the soul of the pen.  I hope whoever runs MB remembers that.  

 

In my opinion, the flexible Calligraphy nib was the most interesting innovation presented by Montblanc in over half a century. However, its production must have involved some special technical difficulties, because it really would not seem logical to assume that a company does not want to produce a product that everyone wants, unless it is economically unviable. What better occasion to put a few more thousand flexible nibs on the market than the 100th Anniversary of Meisterstück?
Or, as we've asked ourselves many times, why not offer it as a standard option for the 149?
I definitely believe that, unfortunately, the production of Montblanc's flexible nibs was too technically complex (and probably expensive) to make it part of the company's mainstream offering.

[marlinspike]

I was told in Hamburg they will periodically turn out more 146 flex nibs but not 149. I think it's more about collector value raised the price the brand can demand for everything than anything production related

[torstar]

2 hours ago, dftr said:

For years, I had avoided MB b/c I found the brand pretentious and quite frankly overpriced for what they offered... until the MB Calligraphy series.  The Flex was my first MB purchase... 

It is a shame they didn't produce something similar for their 100 year anniversary...  I had hopes they would offer the flex nib again but this time w/ a writers pen... the nib is the soul of the pen.  I hope whoever runs MB remembers that.  

 

you can run and hide, but you can't stay away if you want to spend MB-level $$$ 😁

[fpupulin]

Okay, okay, I know... This time 149 Calligraphy is very much in the background: she only wrote the "signature" at the top, in a somewhat improvised gothic font that in the end I quite like .

 

The rest is done with another 149, a pen from 1984 with a BB nib, and with a flat brush that my wife lent me and which the Lamy Crystal Rhodonite ink stained indelibly pink...

 

The blue lettering is done with Rohrer & Klingner Salix, an iron gall ink.

 

In any case, long live Meisterstück! Happy 100th anniversary!

 

[ak47]

8 hours ago, fpupulin said:

Okay, okay, I know... This time 149 Calligraphy is very much in the background: she only wrote the "signature" at the top, in a somewhat improvised gothic font that in the end I quite like .

 

The rest is done with another 149, a pen from 1984 with a BB nib, and with a flat brush that my wife lent me and which the Lamy Crystal Rhodonite ink stained indelibly pink...

 

The blue lettering is done with Rohrer & Klingner Salix, an iron gall ink.

 

In any case, long live Meisterstück! Happy 100th anniversary!

 

Amazing!

As usual by you

[fireant]

This is beautiful!

[como]

@fpupulin I hope your Anniversary comes back soon from Montblanc. Maybe it wasn't quite the party that you imagined but let's enjoy it!! 😀

[fpupulin]

5 hours ago, como said:

@fpupulin I hope your Anniversary comes back soon from Montblanc. Maybe it wasn't quite the party that you imagined but let's enjoy it!! 😀

 

I'm thrilled by the wait to say the least, my friend, even if it will last a few more months... I hope to receive her while the Anniversary year is still underway.

 

By the way, have you heard of any dedicated Meisterstück stationery for the 100th anniversary?

[Uncial]

There's a black covered notebook with a gold imprint of a fountain pen drawing a wavy line. It comes with old fashioned advert stickers. There are also meant to be three notebooks in the deco design solitaire - in red, blue and green.

[como]

https://www.montblanc.com/en-ch/pen-case_cod1647597341708916.html   https://www.montblanc.com/en-ch/pen-case_cod1647597340858981.html   I can't really tell which stationery items are dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of Meisterstück, but I like the British Green and Coral Meisterstück pen pouches (for one pen or two pens). Maybe I will get that to go along with the pen.  @fpupulin @Uncial

[fpupulin]

@Uncial, @como, I found these two notebooks created for the Meisterstück 100 Anniversary, with the designs you pointed out:

 

 

The black one is 21 cm high, the blue is 24 cm.

 

The Art Deco design is particularly appealing to me, but for the moment I only found it in blue. I will wait for the dark green version. 

 

I also had a look to the pen pouches that @como mentioned in his reply. Even though the coral color is perhaps a bit vivid for my tastes, the pattern of the leather in this color is specially intriguing, as the light color lets the leather's "fiore" to pop up.

[digitorum- Leonardo_W]

Hello,

 

i’ve been reading this thread since almost beggining and it helped a lot into getting me to buy the Calligraphy 149. I have it for over 2 years now, i appreciate it and i must say it has seasons On and seasons Off, when i use it a lot then, not at all. I use it for normal writing, no calligraphy intended use, just as an EF 149.
Joining a short quote to my first post here as an appreciation for the members of this thread and the craftsmanship of this pen. 
 

ps. Do you happen to know if the 149 Origin 100th Anniv. can be nib exchanged for an O3B ? Under the free nib exchange just after purchase 

[como]

@digitorum As I understand it and the boutique in Zürich confirmed that there is no option of 3B and 3OB any more. I know that 3B was taken off the option since quite a few years now bur I don’t know since when they stopped 3OB too. 

[digitorum- Leonardo_W]

2 hours ago, como said:

@digitorum As I understand it and the boutique in Zürich confirmed that there is no option of 3B and 3OB any more. I know that 3B was taken off the option since quite a few years now bur I don’t know since when they stopped 3OB too. 

Thank you for this prompt answer. 

[fpupulin]

On 6/1/2024 at 4:47 AM, digitorum said:

Hello,

 

i’ve been reading this thread since almost beggining and it helped a lot into getting me to buy the Calligraphy 149. I have it for over 2 years now, i appreciate it and i must say it has seasons On and seasons Off, when i use it a lot then, not at all. I use it for normal writing, no calligraphy intended use, just as an EF 149.
Joining a short quote to my first post here as an appreciation for the members of this thread and the craftsmanship of this pen. 
 

ps. Do you happen to know if the 149 Origin 100th Anniv. can be nib exchanged for an O3B ? Under the free nib exchange just after purchase 

 

 

My writing position prevents me using an oblique nib in the proper way, as I slightly rotate the pen (and nib) towards the right when writing. This gives me a chance to (involuntary) obtain narrower strokes from EF nibs, but also made the search for the "sweet spot" on obliques a very difficult affair. I never tried a left oblique, but it could be a smooth solution to the problem.

 

B, BB and I guess BBB nibs from the Meisterstück line are stubby. I suppose that they are meant for writing, not for calligraphy, as the horizontal stroke is not thin enough to properly execute medieval, gothic and "Italian" scripts. I can write - I mean, everyday writing - with a 149 BB nib from 1984, but this is probably the broadest line I can comfortably write with. BBBs are unknown beasts to me, and I regret not having tried one when they were available through the free nib exchange program. I understand that today, in order to have a triple broad from Montblanc, you have to go the custom route, but the premium to pay is steep...