Featured VINTAGE MONTBLANC 146 STERLING SILVER LE GRAND PINSTRIPE FOUNTAIN PEN

Nice save.

 

Because Montblancs are so expensive, most people treat them like holy relics, to be seen and not heard, and preferably, not seen.

As a result, they sit in cabinets and cases for years on end without ever being touched.

That's NOT me. If I'm going to cough up thousands of dollars for something - goddamn it, I'm going to USE IT. I see no point in spending the money on something so expensive for it just so sit there looking cute. Earn your keep, damn it!

I'm glad they didn't throw it out or scrap it, of course, and thanks to that, now I have it!

It was really annoying. Like, nobody would attempt to fix such an expensive pen, unless they knew what they were doing. And yet, even if they "did", they still managed to stuff it up. One stroke of that pen would've told them that.

But I've pulled apart enough fountain pens to know how to analyse most of the really common problems, so I felt confident in trying to troubleshoot things. And I'm glad I did. All it took was a few twists, a slight jolt, and it was perfect.

But yes, I suspect that it was the wonky nib that meant I got the pen for at least 50% off RRP. Not bad for a Christmas self-treat.

I've heard of stories like this a LOT. People say "Oh it doesn't work/it's broken" etc, and you do one tiny thing, and BOOM - it works!...and you get it for nothing as a result!

 

You got me there. 100% If it is useful then it should be doing something. I still have a dipping pen that I use for cards. Nothing special. Just something I found in an old stationary store underneath a bunch of stuff. The ink was hard to find though.
Unfortunately, I also have a lot of glass that doesn't do anything but make me happy just to look. I use lessor glass things for parties and such fearing someone with break my pretties. I didn't spend thousands though.

 

I can't stand it when people buy stuff and never use it. To me, that's a waste of money. You may as well visit a museum.

 

THey still sell it in art supply stores. I've found it in estate sales before too.

 

I bought it years ago to put on my desk. It is just brown plastic, but I loved the ambiance.

 

It's old school; that's why I got into it too, really.

 

Since you're talking MontBlancs, if you don't mind me side-tracking a bit, I have a DB142928 W. Germany ballpoint, black plastic with gold. Can you supply any info about model number, or anything else?

I also have a couple Parker sterling silver pens, one ballpoint, one fountain, which I'm guessing is a lot more common. And a Swan fountain pen, no ideas on that one.

 

Fountain pen ink is everywhere. It ranges from crazy-expensive, to dirt-cheap. But even the expensive bottles are value for money, because one bottle lasts you for months, if not years.

I pick up my ink mostly from charity-shops (or brand-new from pen-shops, if I'm after something specific) and it lasts FOREVER.

It took me all year just to empty ONE bottle of Parker Quink (50ml). And I've got FOUR MORE bottles of the stuff, and a bottle of Montblanc, which I still haven't finished...Quink is like $2.00 a bottle secondhand, so it's dirt-dirt-cheap.

@Jeff Drum , if you post photographs of your pens here in the thread, I'll be happy to look at them. I've been collecting fountain pens for over 20 years, there's not much I don't know about them.

 

It's a gorgeous pen, and I'm so glad you intend to use it!
My Father-in-law gave us his mother's sterling flatware from the 1930s. After some thought, I decided to use it daily. Why not?
Everything tastes better off of a sterling spoon!

 

I loathe buying things which I never use, even if it's only occasionally. It's such a waste of bloody money, otherwise.

I'd rather sell it if I don't use it, and use the money for something more practical, or save up for something else.

I'm a big fan of silver and have a substantial silver collection of my own, which I use all the time.

 

And if you use it, you never have to polish it. My dad said railroad dining cars never had to was time polishing the silver(plate, but whatever). It was used daily, and if the silver wore through it sold as souvenirs!

 

That's true!

I had someone ask me just the other day: "Isn't it bad to polish silver?"

NO!!

You're MEANT to polish silver!

You don't polish silver, it gets tarnished.
You don't polish the tarnish, it gets worse.
It gets worse, it's harder to clean.
It's harder to clean, means you need stronger polish.
Stronger polish damages the silver.

Avoid all that by POLISHING YOUR DAMN SILVER!!

It doesn't have to be often, and it doesn't have to be much. Just rubbing it with your fingers will do! That's all I do, 90% of the time. Just rub it with my fingers and it comes right off.

 

Sorry, but you asked for it! Thanks. Here's the lineup of what I have next to my computer. More upstairs along with some interesting inkwells and desktop things I've collected. I think these are the better of my pens, but have never really researched it so not really certain.

Lineup is the Montblanc, then three Parkers, then what I assume is a Swan - stamped on fountain nib say "Swan 14K Mabie Todd ??IT?" More pics if you need them.

 

@Jeff Drum You have a Montblanc rollerball. They're worth a bit, but not much. Maybe $200 - $500, depending on condition. The model number is 164, if I remember correctly. I have one of those. I gave it to my dad as a birthday present a couple of years ago. He was looking for a nice pen.

Then you have the Sterling silver Parker 75 BP & FP set. That's maybe $750-$1,000 between the two, if you're lucky.

Next to that is a Parker '51'. They're about $150 - $300, depending on condition and style. A bog-standard one is $100 - $200. A fancy one like a 51 "Flighter" variant is $250+ perhaps. But they're VERY common, so they don't command gigantic prices. Literally hundreds of millions of these were made.

Swan is perhaps $150 - $200, depending on the quality. Swan made nice pens, but only the REALLY old ones, or the really fancy ones are worth anything significant.

I'm happy to give an opinion on any other writing-related things you have, if you want it. Antique writing instruments and accessories is my speciality.

 

Great, that's awesome, thanks! I will post more, but need time to pull the rest together. Are there any other names that one should keep an eye out for?

 

Loads. There's dozens of famous fountain pen brands.

 

I've my grandfather's Waterman somewhere.

Do like this: