Montblanc x Le Petit Prince

The distinguished pen maker has created a collection inspired by the classic novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Style 12 Apr 2018

Montblanc Meisterstück Le Petit Prince collection
Montblanc Meisterstück Le Petit Prince collection
Montblanc Meisterstück Le Petit Prince collection

There’s something magical about putting pen to paper and all the creative possibilities it presents. There’s an intimacy in expressing ones imagination through handwriting or drawing that can’t be achieved when using a digital device.

Hamburg banker, Alfred Nehemias, and Berlin engineer, August Eberstein created their first fountain pen in 1906, which laid the foundations for the creation of Montblanc. The brand has since revolutionised the culture of writing with its pens, which are renowned for innovative designs crafted by highly skilled artisans in Hamburg.

The Montblanc Meisterstück pen was launched in 1924, and the latest Meisterstück collection, launched in New York last week, takes inspiration from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s much-loved story Le Petit Prince, celebrating the power of imagination and the importance of transmitting ideas.

Written in New York and first published in the US in 1943, the book has since been translated into more than 250 languages, and tells the tale of a chance encounter between a pilot and a little prince from a distant planet, exploring the universal themes of imagination, open-mindedness and the value of human relationships.

The illustrated nib of Montblanc's Meisterstück Le Petit Prince pen
The illustrated nib of Montblanc’s Meisterstück Le Petit Prince pen

With design elements based on Saint-Exupéry’s original hand-drawn illustrations, the Meisterstück Le Petit Prince collection captures the story’s poignant message that transmitting dreams and values to others is what makes life meaningful.

‘The main topic that interested us was the notion of transmission,’ explains Montblanc’s head of writing culture Lynn Serfaty. ‘The Meisterstück is the most iconic Montblanc writing instrument, and it’s also the most gifted one. It’s gifted by grandparents or parents to their children, but it’s also gifted the opposite way, by children to their parents. So it is a transmission object, and this is the theme of Le Petit Prince.’

The cap and barrel of the Meisterstück Le Petit Prince Classique fountain pen are made of night-blue resin – a first for Montblanc – evoking the deep blue sky of the universe. The milled cap is decorated with a fox face pattern, a reference to the fox in the story who teaches the prince about the bonds of human relationships. Sketches of both the little prince and the fox are engraved on the handcrafted 14ct rhodium-coated nib.

The Meisterstück Le Petit Prince Doué Classique fountain pen pairs the deep blue lacquer barrel with a platinum-coated cap, elegantly decorated with engravings of the fox pattern covering both the cap and barrel, and the dark orange ink and refills are reminiscent of the fox’s fur. To complete the writing experience, a leather-bound notebook is also available, featuring a fox scene print inspired by Saint-Exupéry’s illustrations on its cover.

‘The idea that writing is a way to act on the world is vital,’ says Serfaty. ‘Life, writing, poetry and literature are all combined.’

From £380; montblanc.com