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Octagonal No. 6 Silver Overlay
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 safety filler pen was made in around 1920-30. It measures 12.3cm capped and is a mid-large sized pen in its series. There are many things special about this particular pen:
1. The nib is a lovely oblique broad, and it looks like it is the original one that came with the pen because the turning knob does say OBB. One does not often find the nib size stated on the turning knob, and the actual size of the nib, matching. Also, I love OBB sized vintage nibs! They change my handwriting completely, for the better.
3. And of course, this pen has a gorgeous silver 900 overlay! A few jewellers were known to make gold and silver overlays for MB back in the day - Maenner, Sarastro, and Fend. Also, gold overlays are often connected to Italian manufactured MBs.
2. The octagonal shape of the pen gives it a distinct character from the more common cylindrical rounded pens. The shape was advertised in 1920s catalogues as being available in "elegant Achtkantform; for those looking for a particularly elegant and shapely pen".
Safety fillers are a wonderfully intelligent filling system if you ask me. The nib unit rests inside the barrel when the pen is capped. After uncapping, a turning knob at the bottom of the pen is used to extend the nib unit and lock its collar against the section so that no ink can flow out of the barrel. Because of the fact that the nib unit is always submerged in ink, this pen was advertised as never suffering from hard starts!
For bibliography, see Resources page -->link
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