…or what you can find when you least expect it!

This amazing score, and the latest addition to my pen-collection, was made just before the new year.

I hardly ever browse sites like Gumtree, usually because the chances of finding nice stuff on there is not very high – and when you do find stuff, it’s usually heavily overpriced – but this time – this time – I got lucky.

Extraordinarily lucky.

Sterling silver fountain pens are already expensive. Montblanc pens are even more expensive.

Sterling silver Montblanc pens are even more expensive than that!

Sterling silver Montblanc pens which also have vermeil (gold-on-silver) finishes?

I’ll let you do the maths on that one. Or, you could just go on eBay right now, type in “Vermeil Silver Montblanc Pen”, and then have a heart-attack over the prices…because that’s what I did the first time I ever looked into buying one!

As with the last pen which I wrote about in this blog, this model, which, like the last one, is a 146-sized pen – is part of the Montblanc “Solitaire” lineup, meaning that it’s a pen which is made of a precious metal – in this case – sterling silver.

Yep – I said sterling silver. Don’t let that fancy gold finish fool you! It’s vermeil – 18kt gold-filling over a sterling silver base. The cap on the pen is marked “925” for 92.5% purity of silver – the Sterling Standard.

This particular pen has the ripply, gripply “Barleycorn” finish, which was one of two finishes available to people buying a Montblanc Solitaire pen back in the 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s. The other finish was known as the “Pinstripe” variant. A third, significantly rarer style was the “Chevron” finish, which featured a chevron pattern across the pen.

Finding the Vermeil Barleycorn 146

I stumbled across this pen on Gumtree shortly after Christmas, and after thoroughly examining the pen, decided to buy it. The price was outrageously cheap (for a Montblanc in sterling silver, at any rate) and I knew that this would be a once-in-a-lifetime purchase. I was thrilled that it came complete with the box and cardboard sleeve, the instruction-booklet and everything else – usually, these are the first things to be hucked into the trash when you buy anything short of gold jewelry.

The pen was in fantastic condition. It had – as far as I could tell – never been touched, never been used, and had probably only come out of the box a handful of times in its life, if ever.

Of course, with something this cheap, the first thing you always think about is whether it might be fake.

Right?

Of course right! But just because something is at a price that’s too good to refuse, doesn’t mean that you should, right? Well of course not – because you never know – it might be a deal that IS too good to refuse, and which you would regret, if you did. Provided that you know what to look out for.

After close examination of the photographs, I determined that the pen was real, and that the price was too good to pass up. But as they say – ours is not to reason why – ours is but to view…and buy!

Because of the valuable nature of the package, it was shipped express, at no extra cost, and arrived safe and sound, three days after postage.

My Review of the Pen

If I had to sum up this pen in as few words as possible, I’d say that it was smooth, weighty, and wet.

The nib certainly writes as a medium, as opposed to a fine, and writes really glossy, smooth, and wet. The nib lays down a generous flow of ink without flooding the page, but also without feeling like it’s skimping on anything. At no point did I feel like the pen was going to run dry. That’s a characteristic of Montblanc pens that I’ve noticed over the years – when they write, they lay down really generous ink-flow. If you’re a fast writer, you’ll appreciate something like this.

Apart from the nib, however, this pen has a lot more metal on it than ordinary Montblancs. The cap and barrel are both sheathed in solid silver, one noticeable difference between this pen and a regular 146 is that this pen (like the sterling-striped variant in my previous posting) is much heavier! So for example – a Montblanc 149 “Diplomat”, which is a physically larger pen, weighs only 38g fully-inked…whereas this pen, while physically smaller – weighs 51g fully-inked. If you’re a fan of lightweight fountain pens – then chasing a silver or even a gold Montblanc of this size is definitely not for you.

Is the pen uncomfortable to write with? No. But that said, I wouldn’t be placing the cap on the end of the barrel (“posting”) while doing so, just because the weight may throw your balance off a bit. Unlike with a regular 146 pen, this one, with its silver cap, will add significant weight to the pen, which may pull the nib off the page and cause you to put more effort into your writing.

Concluding Remarks

The Montblanc 146 Sterling Vermeil in Barleycorn is a beautiful pen. Expensive, yes, but beautiful. If you’re not the kind for loud, garish writing instruments, it’s probably not for you – but if you want a somewhat overstated and elegant writing instrument with which to jot down your next shopping-list – this is the pen for you. Of course, they are very expensive, but if you’re patient enough and play your cards right, you can find amazing pens for amazing bargains. Just make sure that what you decide to buy is the genuine article, and that you haven’t been taken for a ride, and you should be fine.