Interesting Montblanc ?

February 11, 2014

and for those of us that live on planet earth ????

Oh, Denmark is on planet Earth. Just look under Sweden.

February 11, 2014

- They are mighty good with mustard, as good old W. C. would probably have said. And the ink is great too: 95 percent proof. - It makes the world all colurful. I flush my throat with it ten to forty times a day to keep it clean - not to speak of the nights. I once ran out of ink; I had to live on food and water for an entire day. No, wait, that's not ink... oh, what do they call it...? Stupid D.T. I should have listened to my poor old mother and little aunt Augusta. Well, the bottle is blue anyway and used to contain 1,75 litres and it has a queen on it. - Not the one from the banknotes, but another queen; how many are there anyway... and how do they decide who shall wear the crown. Is Buckingham Palace a time share? And is there any ham in Buckingham at all (you know, ham like in ma'am)... I think that there are ducks in the park, but they hardly count.

If my humour does not improve, one of these days my wife will kill me - that is, when she comes back. I love W. C. Fields' humour, but it's mighty catchy. You have to watch a depressing Danish art film every night for a week to make all that funny stuff go away again.

I feel much less silly now for not noticing that Pen Nut hadn't bought the pen.

I think Ursus should maybe stay off the .....ink?

February 13, 2014

I feel much less silly now...

I tend to have that effect on people. Always compare with me...

November 21, 2014

I have recently placed a percussion pistol in a well respected specialist auction house and when the catalogue landed I noticed the picture of a pen with the description below:

A “Montblanc - Meisterstuck” fountain pen, formerly the property of Joachim von Ribbentrop, German Foreign Minister during the Third Reich, GC; together with a printed letter of authentication from the son of Major Maurice Hockliffe, who was Chief Security Officer for Hamburg when Ribbentrop was captured, and who relieved Ribbentrop of various items, including the fountain pen; also a photocopied page from a book confirming that the initial interviews with Ribbentrop were made in Major Hockliffe’s office while awaiting instructions, and a copy of Hockliffe’s son’s birth certificate.

Of course my interest was aroused; it’s a Montblanc pen after all! , and I placed a sealed bid via post on this.

Doing a bit of research on Ribbentrop not sure if it was the right thing to do as he appeared, like the rest of them, to be a high ranking vile chap who, when tried, was rightly hanged. Do I want a pen that has, in its life, probably signed papers that at least helped the war effort and at worst sent people to their deaths? Is that too emotional? Does the famous gun supporting line of “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” apply to pens as well? Anyway I have not retracted my bid, although Mrs Pen Nut says I should, so if I do end up owning it I will post pictures for your viewing and identification.

Would the ownership of a pen that had a known ‘sinister’ back ground or owner bother you?

Weighing in on this topic rather late, but here are my perspectives:

Ribbentrop was a hack ideologue whose chief claim on Hitler was his limitless reservoir of flattery and sycophancy and his ability to speak English and French. He met Hitler in 1928 and was commended to him solely for his ability to sell German champagne for the same price as French in 1928. That accomplishment secured him the FM job. He had zero diplomatic skills and was reviled as a pretentious poseur and hack by colleagues and foreign counterparts.

The former FM was executed for war crimes. He wasn't even picked up until 1 month after Germany's surrender. Ribbentrop was arrested by a French sergeant who had joined the Belgian SAS and was working with British forces near Hamburg. The FM offices in Berlin were demolished during hostilities. So, whatever pen might have been in his pocket when he was found (assuming he even had one) certainly didn't have provenance for all the bogus treaties, expropriations and illegal orders he signed.

Given that chronology and the person who apprehended him (which was not Hockliffe but rather Sergeant Jacques Goffinet), this entire MB pen story smells like a stinker to me.