Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/01/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Jayanand, As a teenager in the 60s I inherited a propelling pencil from my grandfather. He had been a steel buyer for a bearing company and it had been a gift from a steel supplier in Germany. It was a Montblanc, a make not sold in the UK. In my 20s I tried to get leads for it, it was the first ratcheting style clutch pencil I had ever seen, but it was a non-standard size and Montblanc still not readily available in the UK. There seemed to be one distributor but no dealers, I sent for the catalogue which showed a range of slim, modern (early 70s) stainless steel affairs but nothing like my pencil, nor leads of the appropriate diameter. I gave up at this point but whilst visiting Germany on business in 1978 I glanced down and alleyway and saw a Montblanc sign. I went down and had a look around. They had no suitable leads, and the slim metal pens did not appeal but they had 2 old-fashioned looking cigar shaped fountain pens, one normal (rather than the plethora of thin ones) another fat. I was quite taken by the fat one and bought it. I always used a fountain pen at that time and several people commented on it, but no-one had heard of Montblanc. The next time I saw a Montblanc shop was in South Africa a couple of years later and I noticed that they had released a range of pens, ballpoints and pencils following this retro style. Whoever picked up the marketing at this point was very successful since they were -everywhere- soon after that! The pen actually felt very nice in the hand but the ink flow was rather heavy for the first page or so after re-filling, leading to unattractive pages of writing. I still have it somewhere. I subsequently bought a Pelikan pen and later an Omas both of which I liked look/function of, both of these are much better pens to write with than the Montblanc, IMO. As you say, the brand is now one of the expensive fashion brands fiercely marketed worldwide. Nowadays I have a paperless office, and only use a pen for signing letters. These beautiful instruments lie idle. Frank On 26 Jan, 2010, at 04:02, Jayanand Govindaraj wrote: > Nathan, > Losing a Mont Blanc pen is no loss - those manufactured after 1980 or > so are pretty crappy pens, a triumph of marketing over quality, > courtesy Dunhill and then Richemont! Now if that was a Pelikan 800 or > an Omas 360 or one of the equivalent Japanese pens, I would be in > tears... > Cheers > Jayanand > > On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 2:24 AM, Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu> > wrote: >> The pics are nice, but my preferred pens are the free ones you get at >> hotels and similar places. I once was presented with a Mont Blanc which I >> lost within 2 weeks of getting it. That's why I prefer the freebies. >> >> My Great American/European Novel will be written on a computer anyway. >> >> Nathan >> >> Nathan Wajsman >> Alicante, Spain >> http://www.frozenlight.eu >> http://www.greatpix.eu >> http://www.nathanfoto.com >> >> Books: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/search?search=wajsman&x=0&y=0 >> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws >> Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog >> >> >> >> On Jan 25, 2010, at 6:07 PM, Kyle Cassidy wrote: >> >>> really. >>> >>> new Photo-mostly-a-day is of vintage pen scores from the Philadelphia >>> fountain pen show: >>> >>> http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/578064.html >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information