Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 262

And now, a lovely fountain pen belonging to VPCer Lawrence that came out in 2014 as part of Montblanc's "Writers" series and honours a famous English author - the Montblanc 'Daniel Defoe' Limited Edition fountain pen! Only 11,000 fountain pens were made -10,000 for individual sale, and 1,000 pieces that were part of a set consisting of fountain pen, ballpoint pen and mechanical pencil.

Without further ado, here are Lawrence's photos and thoughts about the pen...

(all photos courtesy of Lawrence ~ please click on images to enlarge)

Lawrence: "I have to admit that when Montblanc announced it with pictures, I was not at all very impressed with it. It actually looks like an obscene adult toy (with some Arabian twist to it....too). And at that time I really was not interested in getting Montblancs...I thought they are overpriced (I still do, but that perspective has been softened up since). I saw this pen at Charals WITHOUT the cap on, and that is what makes it pop for me. The pen is also a lot smaller than they show in pictures. Basically to sum it up, it is one of those pens that look way better in person than in pictures. They look delicate and pretty subdued (it is a more or less a dark/black pen which I was into at that time. e.g. my Visconti Michelangelo)."

"And although it looked awesome in person, I was not really intent on getting one of these MB pens (pretentious crap I used to call them and sometimes I still think that way, but now I do it with love LOL)."

"The details on the pen are exquisite and filigree (?) patterns are etched and appear BOTH on the cap and the barrel (the piston end) which makes it attractive when I hold it up while writing. Some pens are only beautiful with their cap on and look rather plain uncapped. And because I don't post my pens, this is perfect. And Charals did something they normally don't do with pens like this....they let me try it out...dipping of course. And I have to say, writing with this pen is heaven on earth for me (I have since owned a few other pens-both MB and other brands- and still none compares). This pen literally glides on paper, writes without effort and I don't even need to press sometimes; I get away with almost microscopically 'hovering' over the paper and I can write. The pen also feels comfortable, it has a wide enough girth and it's not too heavy (the infamous marketing term "precious resin" is the material used of course). The pen is a piston filler, it is very smooth, almost no friction. This is a pen that writes with one of my reddish inks."

"There is Daniel Defoe's signature on the cap. To be honest, I don't like it marring the finish; it disrupts the color. If this is really Daniel's personal etched signature, then fine, but this is a machine etched copy which does not mean anything but ruined the finish for me. I love the pen so much I do have more than one, I got it thinking that these are the only pens I will ever own forever....(of course that is not the case later on). But these Defoes are basically a regular part of my "grail pen posse". Because I have more than one, they go through their own "micro-rotation" within this grail group."

"The nibs come in the usual EF, F, M, B. My first one is a M nib. I had one in F, and another in EF (which was originally a botched attempt by MB but I ended up keeping it anyway...for the sake of guilt I will pretend that EF/F are one pen, so there...) The nib is very ornate and has a parrot on it."

"Unfortunately, MB screwed up big time with the plating so for the M nib the plating (Ruthenium?) chipped off and created a not-so-beautiful looking mess:"

"It breaks my heart but it does not diminish my love for the pen (s), considering I have more than one.. This sort of tarnished my view of MB. If they charge so much for a pen I expect it to not have this quality problem within a few months of use (yes, a few months). What is even more tragic is that I had MB exchange (replace) the first chipped M nib with a new one and this one ended up chipping as well (this is the one in the picture). So not only did I end up with a "different" pen (new nib = new pen) but I ended up with the same problem. The new nib still writes well and is just as good, but it is different. I have to say I regret exchanging it. I should have kept the first one, chipped and all.

Oh well, I'm still in love with these pens and I still use them regularly.

I got adventurous and bought a fake version of the pens....it is advertised as "fancy fountain pen". Although it has an overall resemblance, the workmanship is not so refined. It makes me feel better this way (sometimes I have encountered fake pens that not only look like the real stuff, but write just as well.....)."

Lawrence - as always, thank you for your interesting (and honest :) reviews about your new pen-related acquisitions! And thanks again to everyone in our club who has sent in photos and write-ups for our virtual "show & tell". Please keep 'em coming!