Montblanc Vintage 1940–1949 Production in Denmark in the 1940s

Because Denmark at times did not admit finished fountain pens, while parts were still allowed in, the Danish general agent made writing instruments of his own with Montblanc’s permission. In the 1940s this production turned out Meisterstück pens, push-button and piston fillers and many twist pencils, including colours and shapes never made in Hamburg.

How the Danish production began

For Montblanc, Denmark was an important market from early on, especially for coral red fountain pens. Alongside the agency there was a repair workshop in Copenhagen from 1921, which according to the Diary already made its own fountain pens in small numbers before the war. Because the country no longer allowed finished writing instruments to be imported, while parts were still admitted, the general agent Alfred Th. Øberg A/S was permitted by Montblanc to manufacture himself.

According to “Collectible Stars” II the import of finished pens was banned before and during the Second World War. Pencilfabrikken Danmark A/S was therefore founded in 1933, and only in 1947, after a dispute over the name with another Danish company, was it renamed Nordisk Pen- og Pencilindustri A/S. Volume II places the end of the production around 1964; Danish pens still appeared in Øberg’s brochures until 1966.

During the war and after

During the war the Danish production gained in importance: for 1941 the chronology of “Collectible Stars” I records the extension of the licensed production in Denmark, and in the same year a licensed production began in France that lasted until 1944. In Hamburg, fountain pens were made from 1941 only for export or as supplies for the armed forces.

In 1944 an air raid destroyed buildings and plant, in 1945/46 production was at first only for the British occupation forces, and only in 1947 did Montblanc resume production for its own market with the pre-war range.

According to volume I, other agencies abroad also had their own Montblanc pens made by small local manufacturers during the war, using cap tops, nibs, clips and piston mechanisms from their stock of spare parts. In Denmark, nibs, clips and feeds came in large quantities from Hamburg at first. In the 1940s more than thirty people worked in the production, which also made unbranded pens for wholesalers, stationers and the promotional trade.

The production obtained hard rubber and celluloid from its own suppliers, while nibs, feeds and clips were mostly available in sufficient numbers. Hence the colours and shapes never made in Germany; according to the German version of the Diary this was due to supply problems caused by the war. After the war the Danish government seized the name rights as reparations, but the Danish Montblanc agency bought them back shortly afterwards and returned them to Montblanc in 1949.

What was different in Denmark

Some things lasted longer in Denmark than in Hamburg. Montblanc made push-knob fillers in Germany until 1938, in Denmark until 1949, using old mechanisms from German stocks. Push-button fillers ran in Germany until 1939, in Denmark until about 1954 according to the Diary.

While Hamburg changed to three-digit numbers in 1935, the Danish Meisterstück pens kept the numbers 20, 25, 30 and 40, which until 1934 had also been used for the Meisterstück in Germany. According to the Diary, fountain pens for export often carried the numbers 2, 4 and 6 until shortly after the war.

The Danish production used the clip of the second line until 1947, whereas in Germany it ran until 1941. The diamond clip was developed during the war and first used on Danish pens, in Germany only in 1947–1949.

A few features help to recognise Danish pens:

• According to “Collectible Stars” II the Meisterstück 20 to 40 and the push-button fillers 2, 4 and 6 made in Denmark have a tapering cap (“tapercap”); pens with a straight cap (“straightline”) were made in Germany.
• Danish nibs show the size number in the middle of the star imprint (Fountain Pen Network post of 25 December 2018).
• Post-war pens also carry parts of older design because of the different supply of material (forum post of 6 March 2008).

The fountain pens of the 1940s

For the 1940s, “Collectible Stars” I and II list above all these fountain pens from Denmark:

• the Meisterstück 20, 25, 30 and 40, push-knob fillers of celluloid in black or coral red with cap rings and clip (1935–1946)
• a twelve-sided 25 in black, platinum-black striated and green and brown marbled, according to volume I in 1937–1943 with a long and in 1944–1949 with a pointed cap top — according to volume I developed in Germany in 1942 but made and sold only in Denmark
• the push-button fillers 2, 4 and 6 (1937–1946), with or without cap rings, in black and coral red, the 4 also brown striated (1937–1944, also found in France)
• the smaller K2 and 221
• the 224 and 226 with pointed cap top, made and sold only in Denmark (1942–1952)
• the 242, 244 and 246, according to volume II from 1941 to 1954 as piston and as push-button fillers, some without number or without ink window
• the piston filler 333½ with engraved star, according to volume I in 1941–1949

The black 244 and 246 were also sold in Germany in 1947–1949, and in its table of the second series volume II lists black piston fillers 244 and 246 for 1948–1950 that resemble the Danish ones. A forum post of 27 December 2004 also attributes a 333½ with flat cap top mostly to Denmark.

Twist pencils and Pix

The Danish production made many twist pencils of its own. “Collectible Stars” I heads them with 1937–1949 and lists them as made and sold only in Denmark, round or twelve-sided, with varying clips and some with a coloured front:

• the numbers 1, 5, 16, 17, 18, 20½, 30 to 37 and 54, plus 40½ (until 1947), 40 (1948–1958) and 46 (1941–1954)
• in black and coral red, the 46 also dark and light green marbled
• the twelve-sided 17 with papyrus clip and long cap top (1939–1943), also brown and dark green marbled
• the 16, which resembles the 52 with flat top made in Germany

According to the collectiblestars.com database, the 5, 30, 32, 33, 40 and 40½ have an engraved star on the top; the database also lists Danish twist pencils 12, 12k, 15 and 15k, without a date. Several of these numbers — 30, 31, 32, 34, 36 and 40 — were also carried by two-colour pencils of the German range in 1928–1938.

Push pencils came from Denmark as well: the dark or light green marbled Pix 72 n, made and sold only there in 1937–1949, and a grey and black mottled Pix 92 (1946–1952). The coral red Pix 72-2 were mostly sold in Denmark. The 72 n and 72-2 are listed with the Pix push pencils of the 1940s, the twist pencil 53 from Hamburg, mostly sold in Denmark, with the twist pencils.

The “Masterpiece” imprint and the coral red pens

On the Danish Meisterstück 20 to 40, “Montblanc Masterpiece” is engraved in the cap. The Diary renders the imprint as “4810” above “MONTBLANC MASTERPIECE” with star, “4810” and an M on the nib and “ORIGINAL SIMPLO MONTBLANC” on the barrel. It also shows a coral red “Masterpiece” No. 35 (1935–1947) that the tables of “Collectible Stars” do not know.

According to volume I, pens for export received the name in the language of the country until 1935, and “Masterpiece” remained in use until well into the 1950s. The imprint does not occur on Meisterstück pens of the 1960s and 1970s.

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, most of them with a black cap top and a white star. The coral red fountain pen that this website shows as Meisterstück 20 in coral red carries the number “20” of the Danish Meisterstück on the blind cap. Its cap, however, carries no “Masterpiece” but only “MONTBLANC”, and the barrel “ORIGINAL SIMPLO MONTBLANC PATENT”.

A 252 of 1957–1959, by contrast, is not a war-time model built in Denmark, as a book titled “Füllfederhalter” claims (forum post of 29 April 2005). What followed after 1950 is described on the page Production in Denmark after the war.