I know I've personally bought a few pens that a expected to be much larger or smaller than they actually were. I took a few pictures that I think may help some people. Feel free to ask any question on specific measurements. I tried to cater this information to the newer Montblanc collector that doesn't have a boutique near them. Hopefully some of this information will give you a better idea of which pen is best for you.
Fountain Pens (114 Mozart, 144 Solitaire, 146 Le Grand, 147 Le Grand Traveler, 149)
Ballpoints (Starwalker, 164 Solitaire, 164 resin, 164 resin, 161 Le Grand Resin, 161 Le Grand Resin, 161 Le Grand Resin Bordeaux)
Rollerballs (163 Silver Solitaire, 163 Silver Solitaire, Starwalker Cool Blue, 162 with gold trim, 162 with platinum trim)
Various sized pens in order from thinnest to thickest (114 Mozart, 164 ballpoint, 144 Fountain, 163 rollerball, starwalker bp, starwalker rb, 161 Le Grand, 146 Fountain, 147 Fountain, 149 Fountain, 169 Leonardo Sketch pencil)
Various size pens ordered in a biggest, smallest, second biggest, second smallest fashion
Here's an older picture of my collection that displays a few other pens not pictured above(161 ballpoint, 146 fountain, starwalker metal/rubber fineliner, starwalker mystery black fineliner, boheme rollerball, 145 chopin, 144 fountain, 163 rollerball, 164 ballpoint, 144 solitaire fountain, 163 silver rollerball, boheme doue ballpoint, boheme ballpoint.
A couple notes meant to help new collectors. These are all opinions:
Meisterstuck Pens:
-Classique Line (114,163,164,144, 145)-
-114 Mozart- This this is tiny, but surprisingly well built. Has threads on both ends of the barrel for the cap to screw on or post to the barrel when writing. I keep it in a little leather case that holds a small note pad and my business cards.
-In my opinion, I would avoid the 163,164, and 144 pens in their "precious resin" version. I've seen these break more than any other pen. I would strongly suggest going with a solitaire barrel which makes them more dureable and easy to look at. The only precious resin classique pen I would consider is the 145 Chopin. It has a screw on cap and is made of thicker material which makes it more durable. The 145 is a very good all around mid sized pen.
Le Grand Line (161, 162, 166, 146, 147, and 149)-This is my personal favorite line as my collection probably displays. The Le Grands are physically larger but also much heavier and solid feeling. I don't feel like if I dropped one I'd be picking up millions of pieces. My 161 ballpoint and 162 rollerball are my two favorite pens for filling out paperwork. They are great for a mid to larger sized hand and are always reliable. The 166 document marker is a fancy term for a highlighter. I'd never pay full price for one, but at $105 I picked it up with a leather MB case and don't regret it one bit.
The Le Grand Fountain pens are well known and many will agree that you should own at least one Le Grand fountain pen in your collection.
-The 146 is a perfect all around pen. A piston filler, larger size, durable, but not too heavy that you can't write with it for long periods of time.
-I use my 147 Le Grand Traveler for reason its name suggests. The 147 is a cartridge filler and pretty much the exact same size as a 146. The cartridges fit in an insert that I find much nicer than the smaller 144/145 pens. The insert can also hide an extra refill behind the one being used. However, know that you cannot use an ink converter if that is important to you. The 147 also comes with a nice carrying case for the pen that also can hold 6 extra cartridges. Essentially it is the largest cartridge filling pen made by Montblanc that also comes with a nice case and the capacity to easily carry 8 cartridges. I consider this, my favorite all around pen made by Montblanc as I am comfortable using it for paperwork, writting letters, and when I traveling on planes.
-The 149 Le Grand "Diplomat" is the flagship pen made by Montblanc. I see it as a work of art, an iconic pen, and a fantastic writer. It is noticeably larger than the 146 and I would reserve it for special writing sessions that won't last for several hours. The weight and size of the pen alone can make your hand a bit tired after writing several pages. Still, it is weighted perfectly and I use both of mine very often.
Starwalker Line:
I am personally a big fan of metal-based Starwalker Pens. I've owned about 12-15 of them and they are very well built in my opinion.
Metallic Starwalkers- I've owned the Cool Blues, Mystery Blacks, and Metal/Rubber versions. All were very well built and I sold them off a few of them simply because my collection got too big.
Midnight Black and Precious Resin Starwalkers- I've been met with some opposition on this in the past, but I consider the precious resin Starwalkers to be very inferior pens. I owned two and sold them off quickly after. They just felt cheap to me. They had the durability of a classique meisterstuck pen and the twist mechanism on the ballpoint I owned felt cheap. I personally will never own another resin starwalker, but that of course is personal opinion.
Boheme Line: The Bohemes are very interesting pens for many reasons. There is a great deal of diversity in size and patterns between the pens.
Boheme Ballpoint: A very small pen. I was extremely surprised at how short it was. It's a great pen to hide in your suit jacket pocket, but I personally wouldn't go to it if I had larger pens available.
Boheme Rollerball: A great midsized pen. This is much larger than the ballpoint and pretty comparable in size to a 145 chopin. I really enjoyed owning the two that I owned, but traded them off for another pen I wanted more.
Boheme Fountain: Quality control seems to be a big issue with these. You can minimize issues with it by taking care of them. However, I've seen many cases where the mechanism gets clogged up with ink which makes the pen function poorly. Take care of these, make sure ink doesn't solidify inside the barrel and you'll be happy.
Large Boheme: I've never ownd one but they sure are cool. It's simply a larger version. I don't have any personal size comparisons, but it is significantly larger than the normal sized Boheme. I would estimate it to between the size of a 146 and a 149. These are also pretty rare so if you can get one for a good price I'd snatch it up.
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