Montblanc Vintage 1930–1939 Reflex and glass-nib fountain pens of the 1930s

Reflex was a sub-brand under which Montblanc sold simple fountain pens without putting its own name on them. Reflex pens were sold in large numbers in the 1920s and 1930s — until 1934 with the size letters A, B and C, from 1935 as the 300 to 321. The same plate shows the glass-nib fountain pens 400 to 421 with the imprint “M&G”.

A brand without the star

The name Reflex existed before the First World War. The Diary counts it among the trade names of the Excelsior Füllhalterwerke, which the firm — then the Simplo Filler Pen Co. — had founded as a sales company for its sub-brands. With the Reflex, dealers were to be able to offer an inexpensive pen from the same house instead of turning to products of the competition.

According to the Diary the Reflex were inexpensive school pens that were deliberately not sold as Montblanc; as forerunners it names the safety pens Diplomat and Keikobad of 1920–1929. The letterhead of the Simplo Füllfeder Gesellschaft, as Montblanc was then called, lists Montblanc, Rouge et Noir, Rotkäppchen and Reflex as its brands for the winter season 1933/34. Technically, according to maxpens.de, the Reflex do not differ from the Montblanc pens; only the star and the name are missing.

A, B and C (until 1934)

Until 1934 the Reflex carry size letters. “Collectible Stars” I lists A, B and C for 1929–1934 as safety pens and as push-button fillers, each with a flat or round top, without clip and with a Montblanc nib on request; the Diary also gives 1929 as the start. The sizes:

• A: 15.0 cm at Ø 1.25 cm
• B: 15.5 cm at Ø 1.35 cm
• C: 16.0 cm at Ø 1.45 cm

Almost all are black; the book also shows the push-button filler B in coral red with a flat top and in green marbled with a round top. According to the Diary coral red was possible for the C, and the collectiblestars.com database lists a coral red C.

The Diary describes a cap with a ribbed end, a nib marked “14CARAT” with the size number in the star and “REFLEX” on the barrel, from 1932 also “STÖFFHAAS”. With the asterisks * and ** it marks the “Primaner-Reflex”, which volume I already lists for 1924–1928 with a safety pen no. 4.

300 to 321 (from 1935)

With the numbering system of 1935 the Reflex also received three-digit numbers, beginning with the 3 of the third series. All have one cap ring, and all were available with a Montblanc nib on request:

• safety pen 300, 1935–1938, 15.5 cm at Ø 1.00 cm, with a clip of sheet steel
• safety pen 301, 1935–1936, 15.5 cm at Ø 1.10 cm, with a gilded metal clip
• push-button filler 320, black or azurite blue, 1936–1939, 14.0 cm at Ø 1.25 cm, with a clip of sheet steel
• push-button filler 321, black, 1936–1939, 14.0 cm at Ø 1.25 cm, with a gilded metal clip

The Diary adds a domed cap with “REFLEX” — on the 301 and 321 also with “STÖFFHAAS” — and a nib marked “WARRANTED”, a diamond and “14 C”. Volume I assigns such a nib to the sub-brands of 1920–1936. maxpens.de shows a Reflex 321 with a palladium nib, recognisable by the curved P.

Volume I also lists the Reflex twist pencils 20 (round) and 21 (eight-sided) for 1933–1935, each 12.0 cm at Ø 0.80 cm; according to the collectiblestars.com database they have no clip and “Reflex” on the barrel.

Reflex after 1939

Montblanc sold individual pens under the Reflex name again and again until the mid-1950s, for instance a 331 and the twist pencils 20 and 21 in 1948–1950. They are described with the third series and the twist pencils of the 1940s. In Switzerland the firm Dimmler held the rights to the name Monte Rosa; Monte Rosa pens were therefore sold there for a time as Reflex or as Astoria (see Monte Rosa).

The glass-nib fountain pens 400 to 421

On the same plate as the Reflex, “Collectible Stars” I lists four black fountain pens with a glass nib and the imprint “M&G”, all with one cap ring:

• safety pen 400, 1935–1936, steel clip, 15.8 cm at Ø 1.10 cm
• safety pen 401, 1936–1939, gilded clip, 15.8 cm at Ø 1.10 cm
• push-button filler 420, 1936–1938, steel clip, 14.5 cm at Ø 1.10 cm
• push-button filler 421, 1936–1939, gilded clip, 14.5 cm at Ø 1.10 cm

The numbers follow the system of 1935: according to the Diary the 4 in front stands for stylo or glass nib, the 0 for safety pens, the 2 for push-button fillers. The Diary renders the cap imprint as M, star, G; no source says what the letters stand for. A forum post of 12 May 2005 knew a 420 with this imprint from a catalogue of 1936.

According to the German edition of the Diary, pencils and simple glass nibs were enough for many buyers during the economic crisis. An advertisement for the Montblanc pen stand no. 450 reproduced in the Diary expressly mentions glass-nib fountain pens too, and a post on Penexchange (thread “Der erste Kugelschreiber von Montblanc?”) confirms that Montblanc made such pens at the time. Because glass nibs are easy to obtain to this day, they also turn up on conversions and fakes of old Montblanc pens (forum post of 17 May 2005) — such as the 342 with glass nib of the 1950s on this website.