Montblanc Meisterstuck 149 Celluloid Silver Rings Fountain Pen

There are Montblanc pens and then there are Montblanc pens… this is very firmly the latter. We’re absolutely delighted to be offering another Montblanc Meisterstuck 149 1950’s Celluloid Silver Rings Fountain Pen, which comes with a later style Montblanc presentation box. It’s just returned from being serviced and having part of the telescopic piston mechanism replaced by Horst Max Schrage – if you’re not familiar, then Max is one of the leading figures in vintage Montblanc restoration in the world. The paperwork will be supplied to the purchaser.

If you’ve come this far, then you’re likely already familiar with these pens, but if not then let me explain a little for you… the Montblanc 149 is a writing legend and central to its mythical status are the 1950’s offerings, which are distinctive for two main reasons. The first is that they made from celluloid, rather than the now commonly used resin – the second is that the two rings that surround the main cap band are sterling silver. After 1960 these were then changed to the gold plated version, which have been ever present since.

It’s difficult to write a description for a pen that conjures up so much history and warrants its place in the highest echelons of all Montblanc writing instruments. The 149 has always been seen as a symbol of power and stature, but these original 1950’s versions take this a stage (in fact many stages!) further and create a writing experience that simply has to be experienced.

Here at izods, we love what we do and handling thousands of pens each year never fails to put a smile on our faces… but sometimes you have a moment where genuine excitement takes over you, and when we source these celluloid 149’s that’s exactly what happens.

Let me explain the important details about this pen…

Nib: The pen is fitted with the legendary 14C tri-tone broad nib, which is an absolute joy to write with and lays down a gloriously varied line. The gold is bright and the imprints crisp – these nibs are renowned for their levels of feedback, spring and ease of writing, making them hugely sought after. Their modern counterparts simply can’t compete.

Feed: The celluloid 149’s came with two feeds over the time that they were produced – the first being known as a ski-slope feed and then those from the mid 1950’s being fitted with a round ebonite feed with grooved face and shank. This pen has the earlier and more desirable ski-slope version.

Filling System: One of the stand-out features of the celluloid 149’s is the ingenious telescopic filling system. This is a two stage process, where by the piston knob is turned during the initial stage, it then is turned again to engage the telescoping system, which then fills or empties the ink reservoir.

Ink Window: The celluloid pens are famous for their ink window and with use the original green colour then turns to various shades of amber and red. This one only shows relatively light use and it’s the short ink window version.

Celluloid: Celluloid is a notoriously tricky substance to work with and is very susceptible to storage conditions. For this reason, many of the 149’s available suffer from varying degrees of shrinkage – this is most obvious on the cap, where the main part is then noticeably smaller than the gold plated clip ring and two silver rings. There is very little shrinkage on this pen, with the silver rings moving if you turn them, but not at any point being close to coming off. Whilst on the subject of celluloid, you will often see people advertising celluloid 149’s as being demonstrator versions – this is not the case, it’s simply where the black celluloid has worn away on the barrel to reveal the clear structure below. It will present as an amber colour and you can then see the internal workings of the pen – often this wear isn’t even and although people like to coin the term ‘demonstrator’ it’s simply not the case.

Silver Rings: The most recognisable feature of these 50’s pens are the two wonderful sterling silver rings found on the cap. A common problem, due to shrinkage of the celluloid, is that these rings become heavily distorted. This pitfall hasn’t befallen this pen, with the rings being straight with only a very slight wave at one point.

Markings: The celluloid pens were heat-stamped with a variety of different markings – this particular one has 149 imprinted on the piston knob and B denoting a broad nib – the addition of the arrow was often used to indicate an oblique nib, but this does look like a standard broad. This pen features the traditional ‘Masterpiece’ on the main cap band, which was used instead of Meisterstuck, for certain export markets. The imprint ‘made in Germany’ appears very lightly on the barrel – this is interesting as usually this appears on the cap.

Condition: The pen is presented in lovely condition – this is a 70 year old pen, so there are marks associated with use over time, but still a great example. We’ve lightly polished it, but you could polish it further if you wanted.

Well, you’ve probably not read a pen description that’s as long as this for a while. Hopefully what comes across, is how passionate we are about such fine writing instruments like this. You can undoubtedly find a cheaper celluloid 149 than this example, in fact a quick Google search will probably find you a few – but for the person who’ll buy this pen, they’ll do it because they know that they’re purchasing a piece of Montblanc history, that’s been serviced by one of the world’s leading authorities in vintage Montblanc pens.

With every pen that we sell we provide a card that includes the manufacturer, model, serial / limitation number and date it was purchased from us. We do this because our customers like to have documentation showing that it’s been purchased from a trusted seller. As the Financial Times said recently in their How To Spend It publication – “izods is an e-cache of ultra fine fountain pens”.