The Woot Montegrappa 300

[jar]

Well I broke down and bought one of the Woot Montegrappa pens that I did not have and it arrived yesterday. First time I've ever purchased anything through Woot and it went smoother than I expected.

On the sale. The pens were Montegrappa 300s, a fairly slim pen about the dimensions of a Sheaffer Targa and the ancestor of pens like the current Nero Uno and Parola. They had fountain pens and pencils and roller balls and ballpoints and slim notebook pens and ladies pens, just about all the variations Montegrappa offered in the line.

But it was the fountain pens in which I was interested.

The descriptions were kinda vague (I understand that is the norm for stuff Wooted) and no mention of nib width or what material was used and no response when asking for more detail. When the 300 and 400 series were first introduced in the 1970s they offered a variety of nib widths and both steel and 18K gold nibs with the gold nibs on the precious metal pens and the steel on the lacquer over brass pens. All of the lacquer over brass pens I have found so far in the wild though have also had the 18K gold nib and so I expected to find an 18K nib on the Charcoal Lacquer cap/Sterling silver body 300 I bought.

The pen was shipped by Woot FedEx on Thursday and arrived the following Monday so pretty rapid delivery. It was in one of the Montegrappa boxes you see sometimes in Duty Free shops and not the normal green box of the period BUT, that was just stuck in a FedEx envelope with no additional padding. I was lucky it seems and there was no major damage to box or pen but you could hear it rattling inside.

The pen came with a converter and a couple Montegrappa ink cartridges but the International small instead of the International long that was the norm. The service and warranty book was included but no stampings or identification.

So, on to the pen itself.

The pen came with the 18K Greek Key two tone nib as expected. It is a medium in width, also not unexpected. As mentioned above it is about the size of a Sheaffer Targa so that is a good pen for comparison. Of course, the 300 is an open nib but like all the Targas I've used it is a superb writer, smooth, moderately wet, happy with just about any ink. Like other Montegrappas it also writes on the finer edge of the range.

It has the *1055VI Makers mark (pre-Reichmont era) so must have been produced last century (still seems funny saying that) and been sitting with all the others for at least fourteen years and since I think the 300s were stopped around 1992 probably twenty or more years.

Unlike the herringbone Guilloche found on my other 302 and 402 pens, this pens body is a bright finish linear lined design. The roller on the clip as on all my Montegrappas need to be run in, turned using my thumb a few times before it would slip over the fabric of my shirt pockets. That is the preferable break-in as opposed to trying to bend the clip. Remember the clip too is Sterling silver and so not at all springy in nature.

The cap takes about ¾ turn on or off and posts securely.


http://www.fototime.com/62780166C3D31AD/large.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/FD9724D187539D8/large.jpg

Edited October 29, 2013 by jar

[thedeacon]

Beautiful acquisition. I don't know how you have the space to store your collection.

[Montblanc owner and lover]

 

Nice pen jar...congrats

[Sinistral1]

Katie Bar The Door - Fountain Pens for sale on Woot! They're not bacon flavored, are they? This could turn into a serious cross addiction. I haven't looked at Woot since they stopped having the Buckets of Corn during the Woot-Offs. Might have to wander over there again sometime.

[pelman]

Great looking pens jar and thank you for the history of these pens. Too bad these are sold out. As always a day or 4 late.

[da vinci]

Great review Jar, thanks. Was disappointed that these pens were not available internationally otherwise I would have been in the queue to buy one too.

[WirsPlm]

Nice review, jar! Thanks for posting it, I was wondering about these pens but didn't know enough to pick the right one to buy.

 

 

Great looking pens jar and thank you for the history of these pens. Too bad these are sold out. As always a day or 4 late.

I didn't see them going very quickly, so there's a good chance they'll turn up in a WootOff or another Woot sale at a later date.

 

Katie Bar The Door - Fountain Pens for sale on Woot! They're not bacon flavored, are they? This could turn into a serious cross addiction. I haven't looked at Woot since they stopped having the Buckets of Corn during the Woot-Offs. Might have to wander over there again sometime.

They've expanded quite a bit (Amazon obviously dumping a ton of stuff on them), but it's still a good place to check for deals (lots of good sporting goods deals lately). The discounts aren't quite as steep as before, but the items are still mostly good quality, and with the expansion there's a higher chance that they'll have something interesting each day. They're definitely still selling off-the-wall items, so I check every few days just for laughs.

Edited October 30, 2013 by WirsPlm

[jar]

Nice review, jar! Thanks for posting it, I was wondering about these pens but didn't know enough to pick the right one to buy.

 

 

You can get most of the info needed about the 300 series here.

 

The body is made from a rod of Sterling silver, not an overlay. If Enameled, it is enamel over brass.

 

The very first Montegrappa I found was a 302 that had been sitting in a display case forever and was totally tarnished, almost black.

Edited October 30, 2013 by jar

[Sinistral1]

WirsPlm:

 

Which "department" were they offered in? I had forgotten that Amazon bought them out. For a loyal Woot fan for many years, that is when all the changes happened and it stopped being such a fun site to visit.

[jar]

WirsPlm:

 

Which "department" were they offered in? I had forgotten that Amazon bought them out. For a loyal Woot fan for many years, that is when all the changes happened and it stopped being such a fun site to visit.

Accessories and Watches.

[Ghost Plane]

I used to have one so these with a blue enameled cap & B nib. Awesome writer. Alas, the step was right in the spot I like to hold a pen, so I sold it. If you like narrower nibs & hold pens more conventionally than I do, this will be quite a deal. They're sturdy, polish up beautifully and c/c fillers for maximum flexibility as a user pen.

 

Notice some of these popping up on eBay via JudPerl's listings, so there was a huge lot in storage somewhere.

[jar]

Notice some of these popping up on eBay via JudPerl's listings, so there was a huge lot in storage somewhere.

 

And the ones all show the same strange packaging like you find in Duty Free shops.

 

Would love to know where they came from and if there might also be 402s and other pens from that era.

[georges zaslavsky]

congrats on a nice pen

[chunya]

Forgive me for resurrecting an old topic, but as above I've noticed some (silver 302s) for sale described as 'Brand New' and going for around $170 which seems incredibly cheap for such a nice pen.

[jar]

Forgive me for resurrecting an old topic, but as above I've noticed some (silver 302s) for sale described as 'Brand New' and going for around $170 which seems incredibly cheap for such a nice pen.

 

Yup. No idea of where these came from but it was obviously a fairly large batch.