No. M. G. 420 (Glass nib)

This pen is from the personal collection of Ariel Zuñiga - a generous contributor on FPN, seminal Montblanc collector’s books, and now this website. Watch out for a series of reviews of truly rare pens thanks to AZ’s generosity!

This beautiful glass nibbed or "glasfeder" Montblanc was made between 1936-38. Two pens were available in this series - a safety filler No. M. G. 400, and the No. M. G. 420  push button filler that is slightly larger than the safety. As you can see from the picture, we are exploring the latter in this article. 

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The glass nib series is a modest one. This pen measures around 12 cm capped. It was advertised in a catalogue from the 1930s as a "cheap pen for carbon copy paper". Another catalogue priced it at a mere 3 RM (Reichsmark). For perspective, this was the cheapest of the fountain pens with the next cheapest one being a Reflex student pen for 4 RM. Compare this to the 50 RM that the 129 was priced for in the same catalogue!

For bibliography, see Resources page -->link

1936 Pricelist

18310FF8-8229-4BB7-B323-CDCE08A1F234_edi
B6136521-17B1-406A-9B5B-631EFC743BC3_edi
20A29521-2328-4123-92E4-7DCCA3A0398E_edi
IMG_8006.jpg

Though the M. G. series was priced very low at the time of its manufacture, it is a rather rare pen to find today. I have been looking for one for more than three years without any success. This makes it far more valuable to collectors than MB might have possibly imagined at the time of production!

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While I haven't ever used an M. G. series pen, I have used Haro glass nibbed pens and I must say they are surprisingly good writers! I would expect the same, if not better, of the M. G. series.