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Thread: Montblanc making a one-off?

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    Senior Member Fermata's Avatar
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    Default Montblanc making a one-off?

    You may have heard of Lloyds of London, an insurance centre in London where fortines came be made or lost. Many years ago I was allowed to visit and went to see a number of underwriters, one of which was Ian Posgate, a man who had the nickname of Goldfinger, a larger than life charactor but very successful. He was one of the highest paid people in the country.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituari...iter-obituary/

    I cannot recall the year but my measure of time is that I had a new Parker 61, so it may have been when Dunhill owned MB, I recall seeing a MB Diplomat in a shop window before going into the Old Lloyds building at £125, which was around 4X the price of a good Parker.

    £125 was a typical weekly wage at the time for a young City worker, a new 149 is also in the same 2020 proportion.


    On my tour I was given strict instructions not to speak unless spoken to and to be reverential to all but especially to Goldfinger who was known to not suffer fools gladly. I was invited to sit at his desk and noticed that his MB was enormous, I should not have spoken but he saw me looking at the pen and he said, 'It's huge isn't, I complained to MB that I wanted a pen that I only needed to fill once a day and they made this for me'. The implication was that it was a one off, perhaps a longer rather than fatter.

    I can imagine that he did use a lot of ink, he took all his own notes and recorded everything that he was told when brokers came to place risks, being the character that he was the idea that he should have two pens rather than one in XL would not have been acceptable, his thinking would have been if you earn millions then you call the shots.

    The conversation has stayed with me, it was a major reason why I wanted a 149. Commercially for MB it would have been good product placement for a high profile high earning man to be using an MB product, especially if Dunhill was in the driving seat, technically I suspect that it was possible for MB to produce a pen that had another 1ml or so of capacity but there is the nagging doubt in my mind that Posgate was just pulling my leg.

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    Senior Member FredRydr's Avatar
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    Default Re: Montblanc making a one-off?

    Quote Originally Posted by Fermata View Post
    ...but there is the nagging doubt in my mind that Posgate was just pulling my leg.
    I'm pleased you included this likelihood in your story. He's in a position to exploit his reputation, for fun.

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    Senior Member Fermata's Avatar
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    Default Re: Montblanc making a one-off?

    Quote Originally Posted by FredRydr View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Fermata View Post
    ...but there is the nagging doubt in my mind that Posgate was just pulling my leg.
    I'm pleased you included this likelihood in your story.

    Exactly.



    I think he has just living up to his own larger than life reputation, the man with the highest salary in the UK, he most expensive private house in London, the man for whom everything had to be bigger and better.

    Pity really, I liked the idea of a one off MB, although Francis built a pen for me with just a cap and a filling mechanism, the rest of the pen I sent to him was junk.
    Last edited by Fermata; May 9th, 2020 at 01:59 AM.

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