Montblanc started launching the Meisterstück in 1929, engraving the nibs with the number 4810 — the official height of Mont Blanc peak. Some years later, Montblanc started using numbers XYZ (like this Montblanc 146), with a loose naming convention as follows:
- X ≡ Tier of pen. 1 ➙ top class (Meisterstück), 2 ➙ medium range, 3 ➙ economy
- Y ≡ Filler type. 0 ➙ safety filler; 2 ➙ button filler; 3 or 4 ➙ piston filler
- Z ≡ Nib size, with 9 being the largest
![](https://pen.dance/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/photo_2020-06-24-23.24.46.jpeg)
Montblanc’s flagship pen is the Meisterstück 149, launched in 1952. A more common pen for daily use is the The Meisterstück 146 (a.k.a. Le Grand) model. It is a quite thick pen, with 6.85 inches length and 0.5 inches width. It has a piston. The nib is a hand-crafted 14 kt gold nib inlaid with platinum. The body is made from jet-black precious resin.
![](https://pen.dance/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/photo_2020-06-24-23.24.34.jpeg)
I bought this 146 as a second-hand pen from a trusted seller some time ago, in a local marketplace here in Indonesia. It was apparently a beginning of a long and interesting exploration with Montblanc fountain pens.
![](https://pen.dance/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/photo_2020-06-24-23.24.29.jpeg)
Meisterstück 146 is also known as Meisterstück Le Grand. Besides the standard black fountain pen, we can also find Le Grand in various special editions and limited editions. I myself have collected Le Petit Prince editions of Meisterstück Le Grand (ah, le grand for le petit) to accompany about 300 Le Petit Prince books from my personal library.
![](https://pen.dance/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/photo_2020-08-23-21.30.14.jpeg)
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