Beautiful underrated pens or how brand recognition affects collectors and pen value

I also have a Mercedes. I reckon mine is from the fifties. It sports a broad oblique gold nib and I would say its quality is at least as good as any second or third tier Montblanc of the period. In fact, by contrast with my Montblanc pens of the 1940s and 1950s, the Mercedes has the cork intact and takes ink perfectly after more than 50 years.

Cheers

Carlos

More Mercedes:

Kind Regards

Thomas

The blue Mercedes with the snake clip is gorgeous.

We know very little from this German penmaker, don't we? Apparently it was established in Heidelberg, like many other German penmakers in the 1940s and 1950s and there has been some controversy about whether the founder, a Köenig, was or not a Montblanc former employee. Apparently he was not.

Regards

Hello Idazle

Emil Ernst Koenig was a former worker from Sieber & Löwen (Standard- Matador) in Wuppertal- Elberfeld. He opened his first workshop 1920 in Bacherach, went to Boppard and moved in 1924 to Heidelberg. So he is one of the very few from this area who didn`t have personal relationship among the other fountainpen producers in Heidelberg. They had a good craftsmenship and made good chased fountainpens.The small black pen on the right side looks a little bit like copying the Kaweco Sport, which was produced directly in the neighbourhood. The grail pen is the red one on the left side, it is an all in all red hard ruber safety. The nibs from these times had been terrific. The last year Mercedes appeared in the branch register was 1978 but the last owner holds the name until the merchandising department of a big car producer wanted it.

Kind Regards

Thomas

Thanks for the information Thomas, and impressive collection. Mercedes are not pens that show up easily on e-Bay and the usual sale channels. So I guess yours must be one of the most comprehensive collections of these pens. I had never seen so many together.

From what you say apparently Mercedes pens (it sounds almost like Mercedes Penz ;-)) were produced from the 20s/30s to the 50s/60s. I guess the red ebonite one is from early production whereas my model 55 is from the 1950s. I have no basis to say that, but that 55 reminds me the 2nd and 3rd tier Montblancs of the period.

Best regards

Carlos

More Mercedes:

Kind Regards

Thomas

Thomas

There is announcement here of the new PMAuction, they have a wonderful HR Mercedes ink bottle, I guess that would be a nice complement for your collection...

I am not related to them but just saw it...

The coral red safety, by the way, is really gorgeous !!!

regards, Ariel

Edited by Penmex, 26 January 2014 - 07:21 PM.

Hello

Thanks for your comments and thank you Ariel for the link to the ink bottle. Nice but rather expensive.

I don`t think that the pens look like Montblancs. This look- alike- suggestion is IMHO an invention of the vendors to blow up the prizes even for the unknown.

BTW, I found  some more Mercedes. It is always good to watch the pen cabin from time to time. 8side -facetted safety and nice Mercedes fountainpen with an unusual chasing.

Kind Regards, Thomas

I don`t think that the pens look like Montblancs. 

 

Thomas, when I mentioned the similarity with Montblanc I was not speaking of all Mercedes pens in general, but of my model 55 in particular, the one that I showed in my post above.

The facetted pen is a stunner!!!!

One more, and this is one of mine favorite  additions to my collection during 2014. A Imperial Oekonom (Economist) German made Piston filler, full of great quality details and in Mint condition with original box and papers. The top cap is metallic.

By the way Thomas you are killing me with your Mercedes collection, Serious good looking pens!! Thank you for sharing those pictures! If you ever decide to sell let me know please.

Here is a Matador Transparent Superior with a twist made by me. The top cap had an hole and instead of machiing a full top cap in Hard-rubber I preferred to machine and add a mother-pearl large dot. I know its not an original part, but I like it more like this and this is my daily writer pen.

Edited by piscov, 14 March 2014 - 12:52 PM.

Lots of beautiful German pens here, some of them with fantastic snake clips. So let me add one more to the list : a Matador Express model 915. 

Delicious! :drool:

If I may ask, what kind of case is this? Are they easily found?

My new Matador Express, similar to one already showed in this thread.

Stunningly lovely and interesting pens here.  I love the obscure ones myself.  Here's a recent acquisition - by an unknown English maker - now a Frankenpen with Swan nib and section.

Cob

Edited by Cob, 10 November 2014 - 06:17 PM.

I have one similar to that shown here pen - cracked blue-green ice, branded Helm /Montblanc sub brand???/. It has a button filler with black hard rubber blind cap.

 helm.jpg   26.07KB   1 downloads

Today I received this pen from Germany - Azura 15 by Kaweco.

More Matador… but Turbo Matador this time

Here comes "The Tower" Soennecken's less known sub-brand to the Scandinavian markets.