Montblanc 149

[Onomea]

People, society, used to take penmanship very seriously. I've seen some of my maternal grandmother's handwriting and it's gorgeous.

Mom's was pretty good — dad's, like mine, was terrible.

I recall having penmanship class in elementary scool. Palmer... Zaner Bloser textbooks.

I recall, perhaps at the beginning of third grade or so, when we were issued ballpoint pens and allowed to write with ink for the first time. It felt very grown up.

Experimented with cheap cartridge ink fountain pens a bit at the time, but invariably made a mess of my hands and clothing.

 

[Rustyt1953]

My brother was a true southpaw. He went through high school with a blue left forearm.

 

[swsig]

Speaking of southpaws, here's my great, great uncle, Charles Tripp in the 1870s writing with his left foot. He was born without arms. He appeared before P. T. Barnum as a teenager and showed him what he could do with his feet alone. Barnum hired him on the spot, and he spent the next several decades with the circus. After he retired from the circus, he became a cabinetmaker.

I have one of his postcards he wrote while performing with the circus in Munich in the late 1800s. His neat "footwriting" is way better than I can do while handwriting with a ballpoint. The card is smaller than it appears in the scan below, so Uncle Charles was able to write legibly in elegant tiny script. With a fountain pen.

 

[M29since14]

…And yes I write every day. Something about signing a judgment or an arrest warrant with a fountain pen. I use a dark purple ink...

Enzo Ferrari used a purple ink in his fountain pen, in memory of his father. Apparently he saw some old writings of his father's and the ink, he presumed originally black, had faded over time to a purple appearance. After that, he decided, for sentimental reasons, he would only use his own pen with purple ink. He was also restrictive about his handwriting, and especially his signature. He did not want a lot of documents to survive him that he had written or signed. In order to carry out this plan, he routinely delegated signing important company documents to other officers of the firm, but only in every case with his permission/instruction. (Today's trivia. )

 

[Golddollar]

Enzo Ferrari used a purple ink in his fountain pen, in memory of his father. Apparently he saw some old writings of his father's and the ink, he presumed originally black, had faded over time to a purple appearance. After that, he decided, for sentimental reasons, he would only use his own pen with purple ink. He was also restrictive about his handwriting, and especially his signature. He did not want a lot of documents to survive him that he had written or signed.

Mr. Ferrari would roll over in his grave if he saw the number of title insurance policies, title opinion letters, deeds and commitments to insure that I signed during the course of my career. They probably numbered into the thousands. No collector value on my autograph.

After spending 17+ years at a law firm as a title insurance agent, I got a job as Agency Counsel at the Maryland State Office for a major title insurance underwriter. The agents for the company had certain matters that had to be cleared by me or one of the other underwriters. One day one of our agents said that he had acquired a title insurance policy by a competitor and asked for permission to start his title work from that policy. In asking for permission he said, "I hope you won't hold it against us that this policy was signed by a dubious character named [my name]." When I saw a copy of the competitor's policy, I saw that I had signed it all right, about in 10 different places. On my previous job I was a title insurance agent for that competitor. Through the laughter, I gave our agent permission to stand on the competitor's policy and thanked our agent for giving me the best laugh I had all day.

 

[Bill Raby]

I have several Mont Blancs and Montegrappa fountain pens. I am not a lawyer. I used to be an official Rolex dealer but never cared much for them. I always liked Breitling and Patek Phillipe. I was dealer for those also. Now I don't even own a watch and I spend a few hours of each day wearing a thick rubber hazmat suit.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

People, society, used to take penmanship very seriously. I've seen some of my maternal grandmother's handwriting and it's gorgeous.

Mom's was pretty good — dad's, like mine, was terrible.

I recall having penmanship class in elementary scool. Palmer... Zaner Bloser textbooks.

I recall, perhaps at the beginning of third grade or so, when we were issued ballpoint pens and allowed to write with ink for the first time. It felt very grown up.

Experimented with cheap cartridge ink fountain pens a bit at the time, but invariably made a mess of my hands and clothing.

Looking back at my dad and grandfather's writings you could see the similarity as they were both taught to write the same way. They were different, but you could see they were taught the same method.
Likewise one could actually tell which school the girls went to by their penmanship styles.
Me I was a lefty-doomed to hell-although the nuns tried.

 

[jag312]

I have a titanium Montblanc wrist watch. Excellent work of art. It is easy to see the workmanship in the Montblanc when comparing it to a cheap watch. My Rolex Oyster Perpetual was stolen (long story), but I like my Montblanc much better.

 

[ordnanceguy]

My mother and her two sisters used to write each other every week or so. They used the same kind of nice stationery and always wrote with fountain pens. They all had excellent penmanship. I don't remember the brand of pen that my mother used but I do remember those bottles of Schaeffer fountain pen ink around the house.

In later years I remember that a nice gift for a young person's graduation or birthday was thought to be a Cross pen. No one has mentioned the Cross pens. Are they still considered to be a quality product?

Regards,
Charlie

 

[johngalt]

I've never used a Montblanc, but do have a couple Pelikans. I don't write much, but is way better than a Bic!

 

[boykinlp]

My mother and her two sisters used to write each other every week or so. They used the same kind of nice stationery and always wrote with fountain pens. They all had excellent penmanship. I don't remember the brand of pen that my mother used but I do remember those bottles of Schaeffer fountain pen ink around the house.

In later years I remember that a nice gift for a young person's graduation or birthday was thought to be a Cross pen. No one has mentioned the Cross pens. Are they still considered to be a quality product?

Regards,
Charlie

I was thinking the same thing about Cross pens. I received a pen and mechanical pencil set for a high school graduation present. But, when I looked up information on Montblanc, Cross (at least the ones I have) is not in the same class whatsoever. It is like comparing a Cadillac to a Ford Pinto. I am more of a Cross pen kinda guy though.
Larry

 

[s&wchad]

In later years I remember that a nice gift for a young person's graduation or birthday was thought to be a Cross pen. No one has mentioned the Cross pens. Are they still considered to be a quality product?

Regards,
Charlie

I was thinking the same thing about Cross pens. I received a pen and mechanical pencil set for a high school graduation present. But, when I looked up information on Montblanc, Cross (at least the ones I have) is not in the same class whatsoever. It is like comparing a Cadillac to a Ford Pinto. I am more of a Cross pen kinda guy though.
Larry

Pinto??? That's pretty harsh! It's more like comparing a Lincoln Town Car to a Ford LTD.

Cross has been around for 170 years. A lot of companies gave the old Classic models as anniversary awards and suppliers would often give them to their customers as vendor graft. My dad received a few sets when he was a Traffic Manager at Ford Motor Co, but never used them. I find cross pens at estate sales and often pick them up for a song.

Cross still makes some nice pens and a lot of them are more substantial than the old skinny Classics. Tastes have changed and watches are a lot bigger than they were in the past too. The Cross Townsend line have been sold out for awhile, but they can top $200 and are well regarded. They also offer annual special edition Chinese Zodiac pens that sell for around $300.

Cross doesn't have the luxury status of Montblanc, but they don't burst into flames like a Pinto either! That snow cap logo and wide gold bands that Montblanc uses were a stroke of marketing genius!

This thread is woefully short on photos…

 

[Golddollar]

I resemble that remark. When I was working on land titles I often had to plot the legal descriptions, using hand tools like a protractor, measuring scale and drawing compass. By that time computer programs for plotting legal descriptions had been developed but I couldn't make those work to save my life.

But this week I got to dust off my old skills. Using my long rested protactor and scale, I plotted out the descriptions of properties that a couple citizens coming before the town planning commission wanted some action on.

My well used plastic protractor is now being moved from rested to retired. Somehow, after 40+ years, it has developed a crack and I decided that after this project it deserved an honorable retirement. But since I anticipate future occasions to use my skills in plotting legal descriptions, I have on order through eBay a vintage metal protractor so that I can continue to draw out legal descriptions of real property when the need arises in my work with the town planning commission.

 

[boykinlp]

Pinto??? That's pretty harsh! It's more like comparing a Lincoln Town Car to a Ford LTD.

Cross has been around for 170 years. A lot of companies gave the old Classic models as anniversary awards and suppliers would often give them to their customers as vendor graft. My dad received a few sets when he was a Traffic Manager at Ford Motor Co, but never used them. I find cross pens at estate sales and often pick them up for a song.

Cross still makes some nice pens and a lot of them are more substantial than the old skinny Classics. Tastes have changed and watches are a lot bigger than they were in the past too. The Cross Townsend line have been sold out for awhile, but they can top $200 and are well regarded. They also offer annual special edition Chinese Zodiac pens that sell for around $300.

Cross doesn't have the luxury status of Montblanc, but they don't burst into flames like a Pinto either! That snow cap logo and wide gold bands that Montblanc uses were a stroke of marketing genius!

This thread is woefully short on photos…

Forgive me for my faux pas! Maybe I shouldn't have used Pinto as my example. All of my Cross pens/pencils were like those in the picture above......the thin ones. But since I thought you couldn't get a Montblanc for less than $500 and Cross pens are available for $30-40, how about a Chevy Monza. I had one of those when I got my Cross set.
Larry

 

[BAM-BAM]

Had one years ago...... bitch being left handed smeared a lot of ink. No idea of what happened to it!!!!

Still have my Dad's guns.......

 

[s&wchad]

Forgive me for my faux pas!

… I thought you couldn't get a Montblanc for less than $500 and Cross pens are available for $30-40, how about a Chevy Monza…
Larry

I don't go by MSRP when considering value, I look at what they actually sell for on the secondary market. Wrist watches are the same way…

You can buy a legitimate Montblanc pen for under $200, if you know what you're looking at. There are hundreds of them on the auction sites at any time, but the proliferation of counterfeits has hurt the market.

I'm not aware of fake Cross pens and some of them bring good money!

 

[Jeff423]

EDW

On my desk today. It's a 146 though.