Edelweiss

4810
By N. Mark Castro



Mont Blanc (French for white mountain) or Monte Bianco (Italian, same meaning), also known as "La Dame Blanche" (French, the white lady) is a mountain in the Alps. With its 4,810 m summit, it is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe.

The mountain lies between the regions of Aosta Valley, Italy, and Haute-Savoie, France. The location of the summit itself is a subject of controversy between the two countries, as each tends to place it within its own boundaries on maps. In a convention between France and Kingdom of Sardinia, in Turin (1861), the border was fixed on the highest point of Mont Blanc. This was the last official definition of this border, but often the French maps do not respect this solution.

What to do, French ...

But if there's anything most people associate the famous mountain with, it would be the Mont Blanc writing instruments.

Founded by the stationer Claus-Johannes Voss, the banker Alfred Nehemias and the engineer August Eberstein in 1906, the company began as the Simplo Filler Pen company producing up-market pens in the Schanzen district of Hamburg. Their first model was the Rouge Et Noir in 1909 followed in 1910 by the pen that was later to give the company its new name, the Mont Blanc. The first pen (a fountain pen) known as the Meisterstück or Masterpiece (the name used for export) was produced in 1925.

The company was successful despite its founder, Eberstein, fleeing to the US to avoid prosecution for stealing company funds in 1909. In 1934 the company changed its name to Montblanc-Simplo GmbH, and introduced its first piston filler.

Today Montblanc forms part of the Richemont group. Its sister companies include luxury brands Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chloé, and Baume et Mercier.


The trademark most clearly identified with Montblanc is the white stylised six-pointed star with rounded edges, representative of the Mont Blanc snowcap from above, the symbol being adopted in 1913.


The star is also referred to as an edelweiss,an indigenous perennial that grows in the alpine forests and mountains of Europe. Less romantically, the star is also referred to as "the bird splat" by fountain pen collectors.


But anyone with a taste for the finer things in life when it comes writing and musical instruments, then Mont Blanc's Hommage a Frederic Chopin classic Meisterstuck pen is, without a doubt, a work of art.


Mont Blanc Meisterstuck Hommage, which is a Frederic Chopin Miniature Fountain Pen Set Beautiful classic black miniature fountain pen with 14k gold Bold nib that is cartridge filled, comes with a collector's CD of two Chopin concertos. It is Frederick Chopin's only Piano Concertos and has a total play time of 75:13.

For the Ultimate Collector, Mont Blanc's classic Meisterstuck line of pens has been around since the company's founding in 1906, and this Hommage Collezione is truly a precious production.


For the Classical Music Lovers, The Hommage a Frederic Chopin Meisterstuck fountain pen comes in a beautiful black box adorned with a golden Chopin signature. After removing the cover you'll not only find an exquisite pen, you'll find an exquisite recording of Chopin's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in E minor and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in F minor. The concertos were performed by the Montblanc Philharmonia of the Nations conducted by Justus Frantz.


I've never heard the orchestra before, but its quality is easily comparable to many of the world's greatest symphony orchestras. Chopin's only two piano concertos were composed in 1830, and were first performed in Warsaw later that year.

And now, famous people such as: Katherine Jenkins, Johnny Depp, Julianne Moore,  and Nicolas Cage, among others, have endorsed the pen as models.

I wonder if they'd return the pen once they realize who else is added into their list ...