Must de Cartier pen

[davisgt]

I have a silver Must de Cartier roller ball pen I've had forever.  It's very pretty in my display case,  but I don't really use it for writing.  I recently noticed on Ebay that Cartier also has fountain pens in the same style. I honestly had no idea. I read that they are manufactured in Switzerland. I also read that while they are designed by Cartier, they are manufactured by Montblanc. So interesting.  Does anyone here actually own a Cartier fountain pen? I'd love to hear what you think of it. 

[Incertus]

I have owned one in the past, I had good provenance to the pen but not the original receipt, part of a package of items including a notebook with the atlas, jewellery and a few bits.

 

You need to be extra careful, the fakers copy the Cartier pen by the hundred,  including the box, specially the Trinity model. 

 

 

[davisgt]

Wow. I had no idea people made fake copies of pens. Other stuff sure. But pens? I can't imagine the time and effort required to clone a cartier pen. 

[Tashi_Tsering]

I have a "must de". A well made thin pen, reminiscent of a Dunhill Gemline or a S. T. Dupont Classique.

Where it is made, I do not know. But the tipping on the nib has a typical Montblanc shape.

[davisgt]

Tashi:

How's the nib? Do you have any problems with the ink flow? I'm assuming it works with both a cartridge and converter.  Are the cartridges readily available? 

[Tashi_Tsering]

I have fine nib. Absolutely no problems with this nib: smooth, medium wetness, writes without skips and hard starts on any paper.

 

I only use the converter, I have not tested the cartridges in this pen. Standard short cartridges are suitable, so there will be no problems finding them.

 

As I wrote above: a very well made pen. If you like slim pens and you like the metal grip section, then a good choice. I like the model “Louis Cartier” better, it is larger (about the same size as the Montblanc 146) and fits my hand better.

 

PS Are you confusing the "Mst de" with another Cartier model (I forgot its name. “Vendome” or something like that) - a flat body pen that only accepts non-standard flat Cartier cartridges? Flat cartridges are very difficult to find.

 

Here is my "Must de":

 

 

[davisgt]

Thank you so much for that very informative post. Just the type of experience with the pen I was hoping to find.  Beautiful pictures.  

[Cordovian]

Kind of a late reply, but I have two Cartier Diabolo fountain pens. One is a composite finish and one is a platinum Grain d'Orge finish. Both are great writers and feel good in the hand. No issues what so ever with either one. The only thing I use in them is the converter they came with and the nib sections are interchangeable so I can ink up one and have both in rotation. 😊

 

I just happened to have a pic of the platinum one in my laptop (I'm not at home).

[inkstainedruth]

@davisgt -- I guess you don't read the Montblanc forum much.  A big percentage of the threads on there seem to be "Is this pen a fake MB?" 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[jchch1950]

7 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

@davisgt -- I guess you don't read the Montblanc forum much.  A big percentage of the threads on there seem to be "Is this pen a fake MB?" 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

There are also copies of Parker Sonnet and ST Dupont, among others.

[tinara]

I just acquire a Vermeil Must de Cartier for my better half as a gift. 

I still need to give it a bit of cleaning. I would guess that they accept standard/international converter?

Is there a preferred converter for this fountain pen?

 

EDIT: It seems I missed this post talking about the same fountain pen 

 and pointing that it seems to be "international cartridge" and that Monteverdi mini-converter did the job. I will check some cartridges first. 

 

And at the same time, maybe something is available. It does seem like a fairly standard converter.

 

Edited May 20 by tinara
Did better research and amended post.

[inkstainedruth]

On 4/8/2025 at 5:15 AM, jchch1950 said:

There are also copies of Parker Sonnet and ST Dupont, among others.

Oh a few years ago someone gave me a Jinhao 599 -- which is a knockoff of a Lamy Safari or al-Star....  It writes like the $5 US pen it's probably worth but did have the useful feature that it taught me that I could get used to the triangular section on a REAL Safari/al-Star/LX.

I also have a pen that some guy was handing out a number of years ago at a pen club meeting -- supposedly a Hero 616 (a knockoff of a Parker 51).  He'd bought a bunch of them online for something like a buck apiece and was giving them out to anyone who wanted one that night, and I was curious about them, so I took one.  And honestly?  I'm not sure but what it's a fake of a 616....  Because it sure writes like it only worth the dollar price tag the guy paid for it....  It's an okay writer, but I'll take a REAL vintage 51 over it any day of the week...  And that includes the Cordovan 51 Vac I ended up paying a buck or two for at an estate sale in the next county over, a while back, which was in the box with the Parker 45 I had gone to look at (along with two extra press-bar converters besides the one already installed in the 45).  Cost of course a lot more to get the 51 Vac up and running, but the pen was inexpensive enough that I COULD pay someone to repair it....  But totally worth it....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth