In 1924, it is said, the company that became Montblanc – the Simplo Filler Pen Company – developed special pens for customers who wanted something more refined for use on a Sunday. Dubbed Meisterstück designs (literally “masterpiece”) these took a number of forms before settling on the 149 model, the iconic cigar-shaped style we know today, which appeared in 1952. So classically elegant in its looks, it has an almost childlike simplicity and is identified by a snow-capped lid – a white “star” motif referencing the frozen peak of the mountain that gives the brand its name. In its most traditional form, the Meisterstück pen is made from black resin and has three distinctive gold rings around its cap and a gold nib that records the height of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps, in meters: 4810.
After exploring different iterations of the 149 – in terms of colors and sizes, and a variety of versions from fountain pens (including the Gold-Coated LeGrand, $940, right) to ball point, rollerball, and calligraphy pens, and mechanical pencils – Montblanc has also expanded its repertoire to take in the wider world of the writer.
Marco Tomasetta, the German brand’s Italian creative director, has designed a beautiful writing desk for those who like the idea of, to borrow from Virginia Woolf, a room of one’s own. But for the writer on the move there is the Writing Traveler, a briefcase or handbag style that has an ingenious fold-down panel that holds a notebook. In the revealed compartment there are pockets and fastenings for pens (of course) and wallet or cardholder, and, in the briefcase style, a watch retainer, too.
The Writing Traveler is also a handsome companion when closed. Crafted from Corteccia (“bark”) leather that is embossed to suggest the texture of a tree, the handbag comes in sand and the briefcase in khaki, velvet green, and fauve, an orange-brown color. All are finished with a sfumato effect on the surface of the leather that sees the color intensify from top to bottom, a shift from paler to darker, something that is achieved by finishing each piece with hand airbrushing. Apparently, this is supposed to recall the way ink diffuses on paper. What it certainly means is each bag is unique.
You have to hand it to Montblanc. In celebrating the written word, as well as the paraphernalia that surrounds the act – or art – of writing, today it is doing nothing less than striking a blow for humanity. The creative director speaks passionately about this: “To have close to us these timeless pieces – always the same – can give you a certainty, can give the new generation, the new genius, new artist, can give them certainty. Because there is something much, much stronger than artificial intelligence. It’s what we feel about humans, what the spirit feels – the spirit wants to create for mankind. And that most precious object to even attempt to do the first drawing [is a pen],” Tomasetta explains. “It’s not important to use it for everything. But I imagine that you are on a plane, you are on a train, and you have a tiny little piece of paper, scrap of paper, and you have this pen because your computer, it’s without battery, and your idea goes on the paper… It’s much more connected to the soul.”
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