Montblanc Vintage 1908–1929 Safety pens with overlays: enamel, Tula silver, Toledo, gold, silver and gold-filled

Until 1932 Montblanc’s safety pens were also available with overlays of silver, 585 gold or gold-filled metal (rolled gold), with enamel, Tula silver or Toledo work. Montblanc did not make these overlays itself but ordered them from specialist firms.

Who made the overlays

“Collectible Stars” I heads its plates 1924–1932, but dates some versions from as early as 1920. The book names specialist firms such as Sarastro and Fend as the makers; these also took orders from competitors. This is why identical or similar overlays are found on pens of different brands, and according to the book there will never be a complete survey; the largest collection is in the collectiblestars.com database.

According to a forum post of 26 June 2018, the overlays bearing the Montblanc lettering and logo came from the area around Pforzheim. In addition, jewellers put their own overlays without Montblanc lettering on pens of all brands, and such pieces are far more common. According to the Diary, no catalogues of precious-metal pens from before 1948 have survived; the pieces illustrated show that almost anything was possible, and some customers had overlays specially made by jewellers.

Materials and techniques

The overlays are of silver, 585 gold or gold-filled metal (rolled gold); enamel was fired onto silver, according to the collectiblestars.com database. Two techniques come from traditional craftsmanship. In Tula silver, engraved patterns are filled with niello, a compound of copper, lead and sulphur that fuses with the silver when fired. After polishing, the design then stands out black against the bright metal; the technique is named after the silverwork of the Russian town of Tula.

For Toledo work, named after the Spanish city, gold wire is shaped into patterns and applied to a steel sleeve in the manner of damascening; the sleeve is then blackened or filled with niello and ground smooth. Only a few workshops mastered these techniques, and the pen makers ordered their overlays from them; this is why the same motifs recur on different brands. Tula silver, for example, also appears on a No. 4 of the Mars Staedtler brand, which Montblanc manufactured.

Sizes and versions

Volume I lists overlays in sizes 00 and 00 lg, 0, 1 k, 1 and 1 lg, 2 k, 2 and 2 lg, 4 and 4 lg, 6 and 7, round and octagonal. Enamel, Tula silver and Toledo came in these versions:

• enamel on the 00 in green, light green, yellow and light blue, on the 00 lg in white and on the 0, 1 k and 2 k in white with painted roses
• Tula silver on the 00 and 4 with a floral pattern and on the 1 with a square pattern
• Toledo on the 00, 2 k and 7, plus a 00 lg of black-painted brass in a Toledo look

Silver and gold carry a wide range of patterns:

• barleycorn guilloche
• wave, lozenge, fence, arrow and meander patterns
• paisley, hammered finishes and sunrays
• leaves and flowers
• open-work geometric patterns
• an Egyptian pattern with birds
• a spider’s web with or without a spider

Often the cap top is covered too and carries an enamelled star; otherwise it stays black with a white star. In the same tables volume I lists propelling pencils, for instance in light blue enamel or gold-filled.

Dating

Volume I mostly dates the enamel pens and the Babys to 1920–1928, the rolled-gold pens of the Italian catalogue to 1922–1930 and most gold and silver pens from 1920, 1922, 1924, 1925 or 1926 to 1932.

Rolled-gold pens for Italy

Italy had rolled-gold pens of its own. The agency of Arturo Sensenhauser in Milan published a catalogue in 1926, from which volume I takes the rolled-gold pens 00 lg, 0, 1, 2 and 4 and two propelling pencils, some with a ring on the cap top. These overlays were made by craftsmen in Italy in agreement with the agency. The book regards a rolled-gold 1 k with horizontal lines and a red star as Italian work.

According to a forum post of 22 April 2007, Italian overlays lack the old Montblanc lettering with the mountain and are marked “Montblanc 18 k.r.” at the cap lip; a gold overlay without the 585 hallmark is only gold-plated.

The page No. 2 with Italian overlay shows an open-work overlay stamped “14K.R.”. The page regards it as the model for the Semiramis of the Patron of Art series (1996), and according to a Fountain Pen Network post of 22 October 2010 the Semiramis pattern is found on gold-plated safety pens in size 2 long with an open-work overlay. The books do not document this model.

Sarastro and the “S” at the hallmark

Of the German workshops, Sarastro of Pforzheim is the best known; volume I calls Sarastro a specialist firm that also worked for other makers. Some overlays have an “S” before or after the fineness hallmark — “900 S” or “S 900” on silver, “585 S” or “S 585” on gold (forum post of 22 June 2004) — and according to a forum post of 3 July 2004 it stands for Sarastro. The books do not mention the mark.

The website maxpens.de shows an octagonal No. 4 in 585 gold with this “S” and dates it to 1924–1929. According to a Fountain Pen Network post of 22 October 2010 most octagonal pens of the 1920s with a 900 silver overlay carry the “S” next to the fineness mark. An “S” next to “585” is shown on the page No. 6 octagonal in 585 gold.

Original or added later?

Because an overlay can easily be added later, the Diary urges caution. Silver overlays were later put on old black Montblanc pens, preferably with the spider’s web, many of them from Brazil or Mexico — often good craftsmanship, but not originals. According to the forum post of 26 June 2018 already mentioned, one mark of an official overlay is the Montblanc lettering with the logo on the overlay.

A model for today’s editions

Present-day Montblanc editions take up the overlays of the 1920s:

• the Lorenzo de Medici of the Patron of Art series of 1992, modelled on the old pens according to a forum post of 27 July 2007
• the Heritage Rouge et Noir Spider Metamorphosis of 2018, whose Limited Edition 1906 has a spider’s web of sterling silver
• the octagonal Heritage Egyptomania of 2020, which goes back to the octagonal safety pens of the 1920s according to a post on Penexchange (thread “Egyptomania”)

Egyptian patterns already existed at the time: volume I lists an octagonal No. 1 in silver with an Egyptian pattern with birds, a gold-filled push-button filler No. 4 without brand imprint with an Egyptian pattern and propelling pencils with an Egyptian pattern.