Montblanc Vintage 1930–1939 Production in Denmark in the 1930s

Denmark was an important market for Montblanc from early on, above all for coral red fountain pens. Because the country restricted the import of finished writing instruments in 1932, a production of its own from imported parts arose there. It kept the old numbers: push-button fillers 1, 2, 4 and 6 and Meisterstück 20 to 40.

How the Danish production began

From 1921 there was a repair workshop in Copenhagen alongside the agency; according to the Diary, a small number of fountain pens of its own were also made there before the war. To create jobs in the country, Denmark severely restricted the import of finished writing instruments in 1932, but not of parts.

The agent A. Öberg then set up, with Montblanc’s consent, a production of his own, Pencilfabriken Danmark, in which imported parts were assembled into fountain pens. In 1935 the Nordisk Pen & Pencil Industrie was founded, in which Montblanc held a small share. At first nibs, clips and feeds came in large quantities from Hamburg. What followed in the 1940s is described on the page Production in Denmark in the 1940s.

Old numbers and Danish features

The Danish pens were partly slightly modified, and partly separate series arose that differed clearly from the German ones in shape and partly also in material. While Hamburg changed to three-digit numbers in 1935, the old ones remained in Denmark: the Meisterstück 20, 25, 30 and 40, as they were called in Germany until 1934, and the sizes 1, 2, 4 and 6 of the push-button fillers. According to the Diary, pens for export often carried the numbers 2, 4 and 6 until shortly after the war.

How Danish pens can be recognised:

• Meisterstück pens and push-button fillers have a tapering cap (“tapercap”); pens with a straight cap (“straightline”) were made in Germany
• the number is on the turning knob of the Meisterstück pens and on the blind cap of the push-button fillers
• Danish nibs show the size number in the middle of the star imprint (Fountain Pen Network post of 25 December 2018)

According to a Fountain Pen Network post of 5 April 2016, about nine in ten coral red Montblanc pens come from Danish production of the years 1935 to 1955.

The push-button fillers 1 to 6

For the 1930s “Collectible Stars” I first lists the push-button fillers 1, 2, 4 and 6 of 1935–1937, black or coral red, without a cap ring and with a teardrop clip, 14.4 cm at Ø 1.20 cm (1) to 15.0 cm at Ø 1.42 cm (6).

Volume II lists the black 2, 4 and 6 for the same years and gives hard rubber or plastic. According to a Fountain Pen Network post of 25 December 2018 a no. 1 of this type has a flat cap without a ring, a size 1 nib, and a cap top and blind cap of hard rubber, the rest being celluloid.

From 1937 to 1946 there followed, according to volume I:

• the 2, 4 and 6 with or without cap rings, in black and coral red (likewise volume II, 1937–1946)
• the 4 also brown striated, 1937–1944, also found in France
• the smaller K2 and 221 with cap rings, 13.8 cm at Ø 1.25 cm

According to the Diary the 2, 4 and 6 carry “MONT BLANC” and the star on the cap, “ORIGINAL SIMPLO MONTBLANC” on the barrel and a nib marked “MONTBLANC” with the size number and “14CT” or “14CARAT”. The collectiblestars.com database gives “SIMPLO ORIGINAL MONTBLANC PATENT” on the barrel of the Danish 2, 4 and K2, the black ones in hard rubber, the coral red ones in celluloid.

The Meisterstück 20 to 40 and the twelve-sided 25

The Danish Meisterstück 20, 25, 30 and 40 are push-knob fillers of celluloid in black or coral red, with cap rings and clip, 15.8 cm at Ø 1.35 cm (20) to 16.4 cm at Ø 1.60 cm (40); volumes I and II list them from 1935 to 1946. “Montblanc Masterpiece” is engraved in the cap. The Diary renders the imprint as “4810” above “MONTBLANC MASTERPIECE” with the star, the nib with “4810” and an M.

From 1937 volume I also lists a twelve-sided 25 with a long cap top in black, dark green or brown marbled, 15.0 cm at Ø 1.32 cm. Its continuation with a pointed cap top belongs to the 1940s.

Prototypes, twist pencils and Pix

On the same plate as the early Danish pens, but under a heading of their own, volume I lists prototypes of 1930–1936: a push-knob filler 25 with green horizontal stripes and push-button fillers 2 in blue, grey, brown, green-red and dark green marbled. The collectiblestars.com database assigns these prototypes to Denmark and also knows an azurite blue one.

According to volume I the Danish production made twist pencils of its own from 1937, for its own market only — black, many also coral red, with varying clips and some with a coloured front:

• round 1, 5, 16, 17, 30 to 33, 35, 40½ and 54
• twelve-sided 18, 34, 36 and 37
• from 1939 a twelve-sided 17 with papyrus clip and long cap top, also in dark green and brown marbled

According to the database the 5, the 30, 32 and 33 and the 40½ have an engraved star on the top. The dark or light green marbled Pix 72 n was also made and sold only in Denmark from 1937, and according to volume I the coral red Pix 72-2 with two barrel rings (1937–1941) was sold mostly there — described with the Pix of the 1930s.

The coral red Meisterstück 20 on this website

The coral red fountain pen on the page Meisterstück 20 in coral red is identified as a Danish Meisterstück 20 by the number “20” on the blind cap; volumes I and II list the model from 1935 to 1946 as a push-knob filler in black and coral red.

Its cap, however, carries only “MONT BLANC” with the star and no “Masterpiece”, plus two cap rings and a papyrus clip. Volume I lists this kind of clip as the typical clip of the second series (1932–1941); the Diary records it from 1934, and in Denmark until 1947.