Pens of Note - Montegrappa
Pens of Note are those pens that rank as something special. My Montegrappa Extra 1930 fountain pens are certainly in that group.
Alessandro Marzotto, in 1912, founded one of the oldest pen factories in Italy, the Manifattura Pennini d’Oro e Penne Stilografiche. During World War II, John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway bought their pens and ink the factory located in Bassano del Grappa.
Montegrappa brand was acquired red by Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods company, in November 2000. That firm also held the brands of Cartier, Montblanc and Dunhill.
In 2009 the company was acquired by the Aquila Brand, with well established Giuseppe Aquila taking over the company. I had the pleasure of visiting with Giuseppe Aquila in September 2009. It was a most enjoyable visit with with the new owner of Mongegrappa Pen as well as an informative tour of the facility.
I have now two great Montegrappa pens in my collection. The Extra 1930 in Parchment I acquuired a number of years ago on a trip to Rome, visiting my friend Marco at Novelli Pen. In 2009 I added the Marble Green Extra 1930. ( At Right, Pen cards available at Marcus Moments).
Montegrappa Pens of Note
Extra 1930 - Parchment
I remember seeing the Montegraapa Extra in 1991 on a visit to Novelli Pens in Rome. My typical visit with Marco is ask him to show me something exciting. Well he did. For those that have been to Novelli you will know that while there are numerous counters of pens in the front section of the store, Marco always goes to the back and comes back with tray after tray of pens. When the Montegrappa Extra was presented as an option, I stopped looking.
The Extra 1930 is a large pen, with an oversized nib.
Even my wife Karen was excited when she saw and wrote with the pen. As we know, that is a helpful reaction! Sometimes Marco has presented her the pen rather than directly to me ... smart man.
The Extra 1930 is based on the design of a 1938 model and has a classic appearance. The pen is big with a very large 18-karat gold nib, and an ebonite ink-feed system. The ink flows onto paper with ease. The internal piston filling system holds a good amount of ink.
The pen has a good sturdy clip and a screw on cap. The body aned cap are celluloid with Sterling Silver trim. There are four different nib sizes available extra-fine to broad. I purchased a pen with Medium nib and with its ink flow, it works for me.
At he time of my purchase this model came in Blue/Black or Parchment. I choose the Parchment as it would be distinctly different from my other pens. It was a good choice. This pen is one of the pens for which I receive the most comments when I use it in a meeting.
Next purchase? Well the pen is also available in a great red.. one of my favorite colours for pens! It has since come out in some stunning colours.
I had a slight problem with the pen when I first purchased it. Ink from the nib would be deposited inside the cap, and then work it way out of the cap along the clip where it enteres the cap. For the first few days I would clip my pen into a white shirt only to find a small dot of blue ink appear! I sent it back to Montegrappa and they installed a plastic sheath in the cap. Works fine now. So not only was I pleased with the pen, but I was pleased with how the company responded to my problem.
With parchment toned pens be careful about ink If you leave ink in the pen, especially on the nib, and leave the pen laying around,you will get some staining inside the pen cap. I have now had my pen for over five years and there is some discolouration in the cap from when I used black ink and over time it did discolour the semi-translucent material.
Extra 1930 - Marble Green
In 2009, I acquired the Montegrappa Extra 1930 in Marble Green on my visit to Novelli Pen in Rome.
Earlier in the month I had visited with the Giuseppe Aquila, the CEO of Montegrappa Pen in Bassan del Grappa, and I was hoping to add a Montegrappa to my collection.
I looked at, and tried a number of great pens while at Novelli. Marco, as always, is very patient as I dipped and wrote with various pens. Whether it was one of the pens in one of the pen cases in the front of the store, or one of the pens from the trays of pens that would be brought out from the back of the store, there were plenty to choose from.
All of them I would love to have as part of my pen collection. However, everytime I came back to the Montegrappa Extra, and over the course of almost a half an hour of trying out various pens it became the pen of choice for me.
I like the size of the Extra 1930. It is large, but does not have a bulky feel in the hand. The nib is large and even though this is a Medium Nib, the flow of ink is enough to match my a Broad nib at the narrower end of the spectrum.
The finish with the sterling silver trip and the rich tones of green, yellow green and back is outstanding. True to many of the celluloid pens, the pattern the black viens have a unique look and as you turn the pen in your hand you do not see the same pattern repeating.
The cap nicely posts on the body of the pen that gives a length of about six inches (15 cm). So overall the pen has a good size and sits in my hand quite comfortably. It has a piston fill mechanism that operates by turning a section at the end of the pen
The Extra line is inspired from a model that Montegrappa produced in the 1930's -- and so the name "Extra 1930".
The nib is 18K gold and has an ebonite feed system. The greek fret band at the bottom of the cap gives the pen a very clasic look and the sterling silver looks great with the soft greens and yellow/greens of the body and cap..
The presentation box is very impressive. Solid dark wood, this box can sit anywhere to display the pen. Included in the presentation box is a full size bottle of Montegrappa ink. The bottle of inks sitsin a wood insert. The pen sits on white leather. Under the leather section is a leather pad for the desk on which to place pen, a polishing cloth and the warranty book.
While, my pens are usually in my hand or one of the pen cases I carry and my pens are used on a regular base, but some days, I will give it a rest and know it has a great resting place!
Montegrappa Espressione
Probably because my Extra is in for repairs with Montegrappa after a terrible accident - fell from my hand onto the granite tiles at the bank. Ouch. I needed a Montegrappa to use and I came across the opportunity to pickup the Montegrappa Expressione from Vancouver Pen.
The marketing for this line is the expression of yourself. After using this pen I can certainly say it is a great writing instrument for expression.
It is a large size pen, so you will have to like a big pne to like this model. The body is one size, there is no tapering in width until the bottom of the nib section. The pen comes in mystry black, deep blue, rich brown or red, and specially-treated sterling finishing combines for enduring brilliance.
The pen has a converter fill mechanism and the Montegrappa converter is an acceptable size.
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I have found the pen to be a very smooth writer. There is a 18 kt gold nib with an ebonite feed. The nibs are availalbe in extra-fine, fine, medium and broad and luckily I was able to get the blue with a broad nib. Not a paint brush, but a good bold line of ink flows from the nib.
The extremely clean design of this pen initially caught my eye. I tend not to like the "fussy" pens that are ornate or covered in jewels. But the simple sleek lines, combined with the overall large size of this pen were the initial draw. The body of the pen is a straight 1.5 cm in width top to bottom.
The cap screws onto the top of the pen. and it is exactly the same width so there is a smooth unbroken line from top to bottom. The threads on the top of the body are only a few and they are structured so that you can only screw the cap on in one way and the nib of the cap is perfectly aligned with the nib of the pen. I remember Giuseppe Aquila showing me this when I visited with Montegrappa in the summer of 2009. Boy, nothing would have bothered me more than to have to fiddle with the pen to have the clip and nib be sligned.
But despite the size, this is a very light pen. There is nothing to the body but the resin, no metal inner body to add weight to the pen.
So I am very happy with the addition of this pen to my collection.
Montegrappa has issued another version called the Expressione Duetto that is the same pen but has a sterling silver cap.
