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Hi everyone, can anyone help me verify the authenticity of three MB fountain pens I've purchased over the years? I'm a collector (not a dealer) and they all write nicely, but I want to make sure they're real.
MB 144: https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...8n?usp=sharing
MB 146: https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...4A?usp=sharing
MB 149: https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...or?usp=sharing
If you need any other angles, please let me know. Thanks so much!
There is no way to authenticate a Montblanc based on pictures. Often pictures can show it is a fake but they can never show it is not a fake.
However there is nothing in your pictures that definitely screams fake.
I've only looked briefly at your pics, but as a general rule, I wouldn't be too worried about the piston fillers (so the 146 and 149 are likely to be fine).
If your 144 is one of the early piston fillers, again, not likely to be a problem, but if it's one of the later models (that became the first classique) then you need to be looking inside - especially at the converter. It's the CC pens that are much more vulnerable to the fakers, who tend not to bother with the complex production process involved in the p/f pens.
Thank you so much!
I understand nothing in the pictures scream fake. Hopefully after the pandemic I can take them to a local trusted dealer to see what they think.
The 144 is not a piston... I added a few more pictures of the inside. Anything scream fake there?
Nope. Looks OK for an early version - I think the later ones switched to the screw in version. Most of the fakes either have an obvious cheap Chinese version, or one branded with a badly stamped Mont Blanc (two words usually upper case).
146 and 149 are piston filler, I never heard about a fake piston filler, way too much effort to create a fake piston filler.
Well the actual converter does seem to have "MONT BLANC" upper case on different lines stamped -- see a few pictures I just added to the 144 folder. However, that's just the converter... I'm not even completely positive that came with the pen when I bought it. Is that a red flag?Quote:
Originally Posted by mizgeorge
There's nothing complex about a piston filler and there have even been fake Montblanc 149 clear body fountain pens. Remember that even the student Reforms were piston fillers as well as lots of German student pens that were piston fillers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pterodactylus
Compared to a simple CC pen a piston filler is for sure more complex to fake.Quote:
Originally Posted by jarThere's nothing complex about a piston filler and there have even been fake Montblanc 149 clear body fountain pens. Remember that even the student Reforms were piston fillers as well as lots of German student pens that were piston fillers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pterodactylus
Anyway do you have reference pictures of fake piston fillers?
I found none and and I would be interested to see some if they are existing.
My converter is just like that, and I bought the pen new from a major department store. It also had a trip to Mont Blanc for repair, so I'm pretty sure that what you see doesn't say "fake."Quote:
Originally Posted by theodore94Well the actual converter does seem to have "MONT BLANC" upper case on different lines stamped -- see a few pictures I just added to the 144 folder. However, that's just the converter... I'm not even completely positive that came with the pen when I bought it. Is that a red flag?Quote:
Originally Posted by mizgeorge
No pictures but they are not hard to find. There was a guy making Montblanc Skeletons a couple years ago that were really quite nice but not made by MB. There have even been fakes of some of the Hero piston fillers that sold for almost nothing.
And I'm not at all sure a piston filler is harder to fake that any other format including eyedroppers.
Remember, the fake only has to look good enough to sell. It does not have to last or work well or be at all reliable.
Anything that can be sold is being faked, aircraft engine parts, break pads, turbine blades hand bags anything.
Yours looks just fine The green top is a good thing! Now if it looked like this, you might have a problem...Quote:
Originally Posted by theodore94Well the actual converter does seem to have "MONT BLANC" upper case on different lines stamped -- see a few pictures I just added to the 144 folder. However, that's just the converter... I'm not even completely positive that came with the pen when I bought it. Is that a red flag?Quote:
Originally Posted by mizgeorge
Attachment 59214
I've never seen a fake MB piston filler either - I'd love to see an example as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by PterodactylusCompared to a simple CC pen a piston filler is for sure more complex to fake.Quote:
Originally Posted by jarThere's nothing complex about a piston filler and there have even been fake Montblanc 149 clear body fountain pens. Remember that even the student Reforms were piston fillers as well as lots of German student pens that were piston fillers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pterodactylus
Anyway do you have reference pictures of fake piston fillers?
I found none and and I would be interested to see some if they are existing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jar
Hello, I am guessing, regards to "fake" you are referring to the cheap pens which resembles to Montblanc, like the clip of Hemingway model , orange body.
However, haven't seen them in piston.
Additionally, if you have seen Montblanc demonstrators made by someone, which have piston.
Trust me those are highly valuable custom pens made by ace craftsman. It seems they are popularly called homage to the predecessor models, and cost way more than the original Montblanc pens.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Seen all of the above but the fantasy that a piston is somehow expensive is belied by the Reform 1745 and the myriad of other German piston filling fountain pens from Montblanc and many other German fountain pen makers.Quote:
Originally Posted by ViktaurianQuote:
Originally Posted by jar
Hello, I am guessing, regards to "fake" you are referring to the cheap pens which resembles to Montblanc, like the clip of Hemingway model , orange body.
However, haven't seen them in piston.
Additionally, if you have seen Montblanc demonstrators made by someone, which have piston.
Trust me those are highly valuable custom pens made by ace craftsman. It seems they are popularly called homage to the predecessor models, and cost way more than the original Montblanc pens.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Piston fillers need not be expensive.
According to Thomas/Kaweco .... Mutschler sold thetooling 1745 & the other two similar Reform for the pens to the Chinese some 15-20 years ago.
The man who owned the once great sturdy made Reform pens, shut down his factory when Ball Points were winning, in he refused to make a cheap fountain pen.
Some 3-5 years later Mutschler, another Heidelberg pen company but a third and second tier one, bought up Reform's tooling and name. There for the 1745.
And other Cheap Reforms. I have two War Reforms and they were very solid made.
So two pallets of parts come into Hamburg from China, one of pen caps; one of barrels. They are screw together and there for are 'made' in Germany.
At first they were going for E-10 for the 1745, (12&15 for the other two sizes which are really not all that much bigger, nor thicker.) I ended up buying all three sizes and paid E-5.00 for two 1745s.
I gave one away in it was an eyeball EF, not marked, but regular flex when I was setting someone up with all he needs in fountain pens.. The other 3 I gave to my God Kid.
..........How good were The Original Reform pens???....They had been basically an export pen. The foreign wholesalers who did business with him, sent him cash in advance right after the war, so he could get back into business.