Montblanc Vintage 1908–1929 Eyedropper fillers (semi-safety pens) 1911–1925

The eyedropper filler is the simplest filling system: it has no mechanism and is filled with a pipette. Montblanc made it from 1908 to 1925 — first as the Simplo Pen, in 1911–1914 slim with a white cap top and from 1920 to 1925 sturdier, round or octagonal.

How it works

To fill it, the whole front section with nib and feed is unscrewed, the barrel is filled with a pipette and the section is screwed back on. Having no moving parts, the eyedropper filler is particularly durable. It blots easily, however: the only opening of the ink reservoir is in the feed, and there is no pressure compensation when the ink expands.

The Diary calls it a semi-safety pen. It describes how Parker and Waterman fought blotting with better feeds, while the market turned to the safety pen and the pen with an ink sac.

The beginnings

The firm’s first eyedropper fillers were the Simplo Pen of 1908–1910 with a red cap top; the first catalogue recommended carrying them nib upwards. The Simplo Gold with a gold cap top, by contrast, was a safety pen. Both are described on the page Rouge et Noir and Simplo Pen.

Among the dealer goods was a Diplomat no. 4 eyedropper filler with a Montblanc nib in 1910–1914 (dealer brands and sub-brands), and the early stylos were filled in the same way (stylos 1909–1929). Volume I, on the other hand, lists the “Simplo Patrone” of the war years among the safety pens (early safety pens).

Slim pens with a white cap top (1911–1914)

Volume I lists eyedropper fillers under the name Montblanc from 1911 to 1914:

• sizes 1, 2, 4 and 6 in black with a white cap top
• sizes 1, 2 and 4 also in red ripple
• sizes 2 and 4 in silver
• a no. 1 in 585 gold

These pens are slim — 15.0 to 17.0 cm long with a diameter of only 0.88 to 1.16 cm — and thus clearly thinner than the safety pens of the same size. For the silver and gold pens the collectiblestars.com database gives pinstripe guilloche or a smooth surface, the number at the end of the barrel and “MONT BLANC” with the mountain on the cap.

The Diary shows eyedropper fillers with a slip cap, among them one in red and black marble and one in sterling silver. Its identification guide mentions a “SIMPLO” nib with the size number and the barrel imprint “ORIGINAL SIMPLO MONTBLANC PATENT”, and says that red-and-black pens were possible.

Sturdier pens, round and octagonal (1920–1925)

After the war Montblanc made the eyedropper filler once more, now sturdier. Volume I lists sizes 1, 2, 4 and 6 from 1920 to 1925, each round or octagonal, 16.5 to 18.2 cm long with a diameter of 1.2 to 1.4 cm, plus a round no. 2 in coral red. The book also notes that until 1932 all black pens were also possible in red ripple or coral red.

According to the Diary these pens had a round cap with a serrated top edge, that is with the star, and “ORIGINAL SIMPLO MONTBLANC” on the barrel. The collectiblestars.com database gives the barrel imprint as “SIMPLO ORIGINAL MONTBLANC” and also lists the pens in coral red, red and black marble and with a precious-metal overlay. Whether octagonal eyedropper fillers existed from 1920, as volume I states, has not been resolved.

The eyedropper filler came to an end at Montblanc in 1925. A piece of sheet music also dates from 1920: a Berlin music publisher brought out a “MONTBLANC FOXTROT”, dedicated to the Simplo Füllfeder Gesellschaft.

How to recognise it

An eyedropper filler can be told from a safety pen by the end of the barrel: it has no turning knob there, and the nib cannot be retracted. So far there are no photos of Montblanc eyedropper fillers on this website.