Fine Writing - Stylus Magazine

its lifetime guarantee and its high
price tag. It was the top of the line
among the company’s offerings,
yet the black hard rubber safety
pens sold well despite their cost.
Lever-filler pens and button fillers
were variously introduced, but by
1938 the piston filler system had
laid claim to the line. Interestingly,
it was the Meisterstück that first
brandished the “4810” engraving,
its significance being the height in
b
Meisterstück 149
Fountain Pen
Wolff
Heinsrichsdorff,
executive vice
president of
Montblanc
International
.
meters of the Mont Blanc peak as
measured at that time.
As most students of pens will
agree, Montblanc has offered an
impressive assortment of writing
instruments throughout the years.
But it is the Meisterstück that remains
the icon of the brand and
continues to give birth to various
renditions of itself. In 1983 the
Meisterstück Solitaire Collection
was born in solid gold, sterling
silver and vermeil, and in 1986
Montblanc catapulted further
into the fine writing-instrument
market with the Meisterstück
leading the way. This “dawning of
a new era” at Montblanc opened
the door to pens as luxury accessories,
and the rest, as they say, is
history.
But what exactly is luxury in
the world of pens? According to
Wolff Heinsrichsdorff, executive
s t y lu s oCToBeR/NoveMBeR 2003 51