Featured VINTAGE MONTBLANC 146 STERLING SILVER LE GRAND PINSTRIPE FOUNTAIN PEN

So, I nabbed this on eBay at the start of the month, and it arrived today, all the way from Japan.

It's sterling silver with an 18kt gold fine nib, and lovely gold-filled details on the cap and barrel.

It's ca. 1991, and is marked "W. GERMANY" [SERIAL NUMBER] "METAL" on the clip-ring, and "925" above the cap-rings.

Yes, it was quite expensive, and yes, I saved a long time to buy this, and no, it wasn't in great condition when I got it, but I knew if I didn't grab this now, I'd never get the chance to own one. Considering what they're selling for, it was far too good a price to pass up, and didn't have any flaws in it which I couldn't deal with.

It took half a day to polish it and tweak the nib to get it writing properly, but it finally operates as a sterling silver Montblanc should!

My fingers may look like I spent all day pleasuring a smurf...but I got it working!!

 

Covet, covet...

 

Amazing what TLC can do for something. From grotty to gorgeous. So, the buyer must have known what it was, but failed to do any restoration? Do you collect Montblanc or just beautiful ones?

By the way don't let your new wife know you are into smurfs.

 

It's a beautiful pen. But was the Smurf happy?

 

Been chasing one for about five years!

Coveting never stops. It just moves from one object and owner, to another.

I collect fountain pens, and have done for over 20 years. But yes, I do chase Montblancs.

 

Five years! I know your heart. I get locked into some things like that. I love fountain pens too. There is something about how they feel in your hand and how the ink dries on the paper that is very satisfying.

 

Sigh. We can never really go bic.

 

When I was still in school, I had a really cheap fountain pen from Italy which I picked up during a European holiday. It looked very similar to the pen I have now. It's nice to have the "real thing" now.

 

Very Nice.I used a fountain pen through college. Thought I was being very Suave!

 

I used to use them all the time. As a southpaw, they didn't get ink all over my pinkies. Still use a dip pen for drawing sometimes. I'm glad someone still appreciates the real deal and uses them!

 

I've been using fountain pens since childhood, and don't intend to stop now.

 

Is the nib engraved? Beautiful piece!

 

I can see the association now. A passion found early.

 

It's stamped with the Montblanc logo, and "18kt"

 

Pa bought me a proper Parker when I started grammar school. He had beautiful writing and loved a fountain pen. I still have it. I also have my mother's Mont Blanc. Pa had a good bonus one year and bought her it. Lovely maroon with gold, it is.

 

My handwriting leaves..something to be desired. Too many years of writing fast in school killed my penmanship. I'm actually neater wrong (aka right) handed at this point. Go figure.

 

Well - I don't know who the hell tried to fix my silver 146 before I bought it - but whoever it was - has no business trying to fix pens!

For the past two days the nib on this pen has been exceedingly scratchy, and I could not figure out why. No amount of nib-tweaking and tine-adjustment would improve it.

I finally went for invasive surgery and pulled out the nib and feed assembly to check it out. That was when I discovered that someone had pulled this apart previously, had reassembled it incorrectly, and as a result, the nib wasn't sitting straight on the feed, causing it to misalign and be scratchy as hell!!

A slight adjustment of barely a millimeter, and then I screwed everything back together.

Result: Perfection!

If I hadn't bothered to try adjusting the feed, I would never have found this out. And normally I wouldn't have bothered going this far, but when a pen costs you $1,000+, you expect it to work flawlessly.

 

I'm just grateful they didn't say "forget it" and send it to the scrapper.

 

That is heartbreaking when someone screws up something beautiful to save a few bucks. Luckily you knew what you were doing and could handle it yourself. I wonder if this is why you got it at a reasonable price.

I once found a stained glass lamp on a social media sales site. I went to see it and bought the lamp. The seller was showing me some other pieces belonging to his sister who brought them with her when she came to spend her last days. There was a modern reproduction of dragon fly lamp that he gave to me because it didn't work. It turns out there was an inline on/off switch. It worked just fine.