No. 244 (Black & Green)

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.

Montblanc made the 244 in two variations - first, the Danish-made version during the early 1940s to early 1950s, and then the German-made version from 1952 onwards. The green and black 244s featured here are the Danish version and have two key distinctions - a pointy cap crown and a prismatic or diamond style clip. The German version has a rounded cap crown and a spade style clip (see example here -> link).

The Danish-made 244 came in three colours - black, light marbled green, and dark marbled green.

The black 244 is very similar in design to the light marbled green except that its ink window cannot be seen when capped, This particular black 244 has a steel nib instead of a gold nib - a rather interesting and confounding feature on the pen. If this 244 was made in Germany then there would be no confusion - we would presume this pen has a steel nib because it was made during World War II when gold could not be used in pens as it was considered a critical resource in Germany. But, this pen is supposed to have been made in Denmark, where such restrictions did not exist and apart from one rare pen model none of the Danish pens had steel nibs. So, why does this 244 have a steel nib. One possibility is that a small production of these pens took place in Germany too. But, a more likely explanation offered to me by an MB expert is that some of these pens might have been imported by Germany immediately post-war when demand for pens was high but MB's production in Hamburg was still 5-6 times less than before the war. When imported back into Germany they might have been fitted with steel nibs.

The light marbled green variant is a relatively rare and valuable colour. This pen has a lovely ink window that can be seen even when the pen is capped. It has a gold nib and so it was probably made post-war between 1946-1954. The nib has HAMBURG inscribed at the bottom.

Bibliography:

Rösler, J., & Wallrafen, S. (2014). Collectible Stars I: 1908 - 1947.

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.