Peacock pens

From my younger years I have always been interested in fountain pens. It is actually only from the end of 2019 that I really started collecting fountain pens as a hobby. When you start a hobby, everything is new and it’s a real voyage of discovery.

I have to admit that I underestimated this in the sense that there was a real fountain pen revival going on around that period and that there was a lot of information to process. As an absolute beginner, I have gained experience by starting to buy cheap fountain pens to see what they have to offer. I gathered most of the info by reading reviews and watching Youtube videos. As a result, I was able to limit the risk of investing in a bad buy.

Between all the reviews you notice that there is a certain common thread, some pens keep coming back as a reference. It is also in this way that I got to know the Montblanc Meisterstück 149. Because of the beautiful stories I read, I was convinced that this pen should be part of my collection and that this should be an added value. The 149 is certainly not for everyone’s budget and it took me more than 3 years to buy it.

This post is not a bragging about owning a Montblanc 149. I just want to give you what it’s like to own a Montblanc Meisterstück and a review based on what this pen really has to offer. With many fellow reviewers I noticed that that the 149 is almost part of a canonization. Lyrical texts with the most unused contemporary vocabulary predominate. I’m not going to push it that far, it’s a personal perception.

I actually bought the pen for my 50th birthday, last year. Everyone knew that I was fond of fountain pens and money was collected as a gift, that way the purchase was not so expensive for myself. I was actually quite proud to own a Montblanc and I wanted it to be a part of my life. That’s also the reason why this pen will always be inked, to be by my side at all times, ready to join me in my walk of life.

I bought the fountain pen at the penshop Timmermans in Ghent. I opted for the version with the golden trims and a fine nib. I paid 965 Euro for this pen.

The pen comes in a nice rather large cardboard box. This box exudes a certain luxury and quality. With the exception of the manual, nothing extra is included. So no ink. There was a promotion that gave me a free Montblanc umbrella, which is a nice bonus.

The Montblanc Meisterstück 149 is a piston filler fountain pen. With the dark black resin body, the gold trims and the cigar shape it’s a real classy looking fountain pen. The resin really looks good and has a nice gloss. The cap is a twist cap with on top the Montblanc logo. The cap has a gold metal clip that holds the engraved unique number of the pen. This unique number is kept with the dealer in case of warranty issues. It takes 1.5 turn to unscrew the cap. You can post the cap very easily and it looks actually very nice. The posting of the cap does not really unbalance the pen when writing. On the main gold trim of the cap is engraved ‘MONTBLANC – MEISTERSTUCK N° 149’.

The 149 is a big pen with a body width of 1,5 cm, length uncapped 13,10 cm, capped 14,65 cm and posted 16,50 cm. The weight of the pen is quite normal: 32 gr. capped, 21,40 gr. uncapped.

The 149 is a piston filler, so you only need a bottle of ink and by turning the knob on the barrel-end you can ink the pen. This is an easy job and the pen almost immediately is ready to write. I inked the pen with the Montblanc Irish green ink, a fantastic looking ink. For cleaning the pen you need two bottles of water: one for rinsing and one for sucking up clear water. For cleaning purposes I did not did any attempt to remove the button, I don’t want to take any risk to cause damage and to lose my warranty.

The nib is an 18K gold fine two-tone nib. The writing performance is just outstanding. Whatever quality of paper you use, it always does its job: smooth with an excellent inkflow. Keep in mind that the line width of the fine nib is more like a regular medium. The nib offers some line variation.

Due to the big nib, I have to hold the pen at the end of the section. For longer writing session this feels uncomfortable.

To conclude, I can safely tell you that the Montblanc Meisterstück is an excellent pen and is top notch in my collection to date.

Is it a pen to use on a daily basis? I often have the pen with me because I really want to use it. So for writing something down now and then she certainly suffices, for longer writing sessions she really feels less pleasant.

Is this pen really worth 965 Euros? I’ve thought about this a lot and for me personally, the price is too high for what you get. Of course, you also pay so much because it’s a Montblanc. The question of whether you are willing to invest extra because it is a Montblanc is, of course, personal. I did it and I don’t really regret it. Would I buy the pen again? Yes, she is a class pen with a fantastic writing performance.

What do you think of the Montblanc Meisterstück 149? Do you share the same experiences?