In 1922, the Benzon Trading Company, founded by Niels Benzon, started as the distributor of Wall Eversharp pens in Denmark. By the 1930’s the company had started manufacturing its own line of pens under the “Big Ben” brand name. In READ MORE
Big Ben
Category: Piston Filler
Liberty Kollegie Pen 501
Liberty was one of the smaller, second-tier fountain pen manufacturers in Denmark. It’s not difficult to find an “Original Liberty” at a flea market or antique dealer here. The Kollegie Pen is a little more difficult to find. It sports READ MORE
Montblanc 34
The Montblanc 34 was in production in Hamburg from 1961 to 1970 and, along with the 32, were designed to be lower-cost variants of the 22 and 24. This is a piston-filler pen with a 14 carat gold nib (the READ MORE
Montblanc 244
This is a Danish-made 244 in dark green marbled celluloid with an integrated ink window, made between 1941 and 1954. Following the numbering system of the time, this means that it is a midrange pen, with a piston filler and READ MORE
Montblanc Meisterstück 14
This is a Meisterstück 14, with a medium nib. It had a single owner from Copenhagen who purchased it around 1960 and then sold it to me 50 years later… This one took considerable work to get back in shape. READ MORE
Matador Express 814
Siebert & Löwen was founded in 1895 by Adolf Siebert and Ewald Löwen in Wuppertal-Elberfeld (near Düsseldorf). The company originally made office supplies, but had started making fountain pens by 1911, when they were granted this patent in France. One of READ MORE
Montblanc Meisterstück 14
The 14 was first released in 1959. It’s a piston filler with a hooded 18 k gold nib and an ink window, as can be seen in the photo below. The design of the cap band was intended to represent READ MORE
Geha set
The Geha Company was started in Hannover, Germany in 1918 by two brothers, Heinrich and Conrad Hartmann. (The company name is a shortened form of Gebrüder Hartmann, or Hartmann Brothers). The company, which started production of fountain pens in the 1950’s, was READ MORE
Pelikan 100
The 100 was Pelikan’s first fountain pen, and was the first to use a differential piston system, patented by the Hungarian engineer, Theodor Kovacs (see this page for more details). This particular pen was probably made between 1932 and 1938 READ MORE
Montblanc 146 barrel with a 246 cap and nib
I purchased this pen without knowing enough about it. After some digging around (and with some help from the friendly people at fountainpennetwork.com) it turns out that this is at least two different pens. The barrel is a Montblanc 146 READ MORE