Montblanc Vintage 1908–1929 Safety pens of the 1920s: sizes 00 to 12, round and octagonal

In the 1920s the safety pen was Montblanc’s main filling system. It was made from 1908 to 1939 — in many sizes, round and from 1924 also octagonal.

How it works

The pen is filled upright with a pipette. For writing, the nib is turned out with the knob at the end of the barrel, and afterwards it is retracted again. With the cap screwed on, the pen is sealed. This is described in detail on the page safety pens of the 1930s.

How to recognise the pens

• black hard rubber (according to the collectiblestars.com database), round, without a clip and mostly without a cap ring — volume I lists just one black 1 k with a rolled-gold cap ring
• in the round cap top the white star, which the firm — then the Simplo Filler Pen Co. — registered as a trademark in 1913 and put on the cap from 1914
• on the cap “MONT BLANC”, in the photos on this website with the mountain between the words, on the barrel “ORIGINAL SIMPLO MONTBLANC”
• at the end of the barrel the stamped size number, on the opposite side the nib grade

Sizes

Until 1930 the safety pens carried simple size numbers, which also appeared on the nib. Many sizes came in three lengths: short (k), standard and long (lg). For the 1920s volume I lists the following sizes; most of them ran from 1920 to 1928, 1929 or 1930.

• 00 and 00 lg — the smallest pen, 8.5 cm long and 0.7 cm in diameter
• 0
• 1 k, 1 and 1 lg
• 2 k, 2 and 2 lg
• 4 and 4 lg
• 5, only until 1925
• 6 and 6 lg
• 7 and 8
• 10, only in 1927–1928
• 12, only from 1922 — the largest pen, 22.2 cm long and 1.85 cm in diameter

All sizes with their dimensions and production years are listed in the table below.

Collectors call the smallest pen, the 00, the “Baby”. Volume I shows a Baby of 1924 in a leather pouch and an advertisement of 1925 in which a large curtain store gave its customers a Montblanc “Baby” — meant, as the advertisement put it, for the handbag of the elegant lady. The 0 is the second-smallest size (forum post of 26 June 2018). According to a forum post of 19 October 2009, Babys existed not only as safety pens but also as eyedropper fillers.

A note on photos: because the proportions stayed similar across all sizes, the size cannot be determined reliably without a scale (forum post of 30 March 2005).

Octagonal pens (from 1924)

In 1924 the octagonal safety pen was added. A catalogue of that year, reproduced in the Diary, describes the “Montblanc-Achtkanthalter” as a pen built like the ordinary one, with its eight facets cut by hand. It names sizes 1, 2, 4 and 6, each short and long. Volume I lists these octagonal pens:

• the 2 k, the 2 and the 4 from 1924 to 1930
• the 1 k and the 1 lg until 1927
• the 4 lg and the 6 until 1928
• the 2 lg and the 6 lg only until 1926
• a 1 from 1928 to 1930

In 1930 the octagonal pens, like the round ones, were given new numbers (safety pens of the 1930s). Photos are on the pages No. 4 octagonal and No. 6 octagonal; octagonal pens with metal overlays are on the page safety pens with overlays.

Colours and special versions

According to volume I all black pens were also available in red ripple or coral red until 1932; the Diary mentions coral red and red and black marbled. Specifically, volume I lists a coral red 00 and 8 — the coral red 8, at 20.8 cm and 1.65 cm in diameter, is larger than the black one.

In red ripple the book lists the 00 lg, the 0 without a star in the cap top, the 1 k, the 12 and the octagonal 4 and 4 lg. There are also a few special pieces:

• a 2 k with an ink blotter in the cap, 1920–1930 according to volume I
• a black 6 with a rose pattern, probably a prototype according to volume I
• the 4 with the carbon-copy nib “314”

According to volume I this nib for carbon copies existed from 1922 to 1934 in sizes 2, 4 and 6. The Diary shows it on a 2 lg and a 4 lg, together with a 4 lg with a nib for writing music and a cutaway No. 2 of about 1919. Red ripple pens are shown on the pages No. 0 and No. 4.

Nibs and clips

The nibs were of 14-carat gold, for France of 18-carat gold. Until 1925 they carried “SIMPLO” and the size in the star; from 1924 they carried “14CARAT” or “MONTBLANC … 14 CT HAMBURG”, and nibs for export “MONTBLANC TRADE MARK”. The breather hole was heart-shaped; on the Hamburg nib it became round from 1930. A catalogue of 1924 offers gold nibs in sizes 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 12 with a short broad, a medium and a long tip and mentions more than 300 tip shapes.

The pens had no clip from the factory. Clips were sold as accessories and pushed onto the cap; in Germany this was often a silver snake. According to volume I there is no evidence that Montblanc itself sold snake clips: they appear in no Montblanc catalogue, but they do appear in the Astoria catalogue of 1928. A Fountain Pen Network post of 22 January 2017 also says that the pens of these years came without a clip and that push-on clips such as the snake were bought separately.

According to volume I the first fixed clips were riveted on, and soon afterwards the screwed-in cap top held the clip by a ring. In its overview of the clips from 1927 to 1952, however, the book calls the inserted ball clip of 1927–1930 Montblanc’s first fixed clip. A push-on clip with the Montblanc emblem is shown on the pages No. 6 lg and No. 6 octagonal, a snake on the page No. 12.

The architect’s pen

A special form for draughtsmen was the architect’s pen: a ruling pen with adjustable blades, fed with ink from a piston in the barrel. The firm — then the Simplo Füllfeder-Gesellschaft, Montblanc-Simplo only from 1934 — applied for a patent on it in 1924. It was not advertised; Montblanc made it only to the order of individual customers, and there were various versions.

A complete pen with its box, instructions and a needle for cleaning survives (forum post (Fountain Pen Network) of 8 September 2010).

Alongside and before

• from 1922 lever fillers in similar sizes — lever, compressor and pump fillers
• from 1924 the Meisterstück safety pens numbered 20 to 45 with a lifetime guarantee — Meisterstück as a safety pen
• before 1920 safety pens at first with a white cap top, from 1914 with a cap top and turning knob with horizontal grooves — early safety pens
• pens with the brand Rouge et Noir, which according to the Diary could still carry a red star until 1921 in Germany and until 1923 in Italy — Rouge et Noir
• very similar: the safety pens of Astoria, the firm founded in Hamburg in 1921 by the former production manager Illgner and taken over in 1932 by Simplo (Montblanc-Simplo from 1934) — Astoria
• likewise the dealer brands and sub-brands made by Montblanc — third-party and dealer brands

In 1930 the common sizes were given new numbers: the 1 became the 12.5, the 2 the 15, the 4 the 17.5 and the 6 the 19.75. The shape did not change.