No. 216

Alfred Oberg became Montblanc's official distributor in Denmark in the 1920s. From 1939 to the mid-1960s his company also started designing and manufacturing MB pens for the domestic market, but under the condition that the Danish designs would not be identical to the German ones. Interestingly, in 1944 when the Hamburg factory was bombed by Allied Forces, the Denmark factory was the only one in the world producing Montblancs.

The 216 is the largest pen in the 21x series. It replaced the 20x in 1955 and stuck around till about 1959. I love the coral red celluloid pens. But, I especially appreciate MB designs that diverted from the typical range and were original in some sense. While this pen has the popular torpedo shape, the clip design is distinct. This 216 has a lovely extra fine nib with medium flex. While my handwriting suits oblique medium and broad nibs more, I find extra fine nibs refreshingly crisp and responsive!

The 216 is a button filler. While I like piston fillers because of how impressive they are in terms of their engineering, I find that pens with sacs are just easier to maintain over the long term - I feel like there are less moving parts and fewer complications if restoration is required. They are a pain to clean though! Unless I expect the pen to be inked often, I will take out the sac before storing it in order to avoid the sac's fumes affecting the celluloid over time.

The 216 is a large pen. Notice how it stands out in the line up to the right. The other pens are standard #4 sized Danish manufactured MBs.

Bibliography:

Rösler, J., & Wallrafen, S. (2001). Collectible Stars: Montblanc-Schreibgeräte von 1946 bis 1979.

Holten, C., & Lund, P. (2013). Montblanc in Denmark 1914 - 1992; The Untold Story.