ME251 Mentmore No. 46, boxed (Medium)

ME251 Mentmore No. 46, boxed (Medium)

Date: c1950s

Size: Length - 129mm capped; 152mm posted.

This glossy Mentmore 46 has some minor wear to the cap plating with some foxing to the cap body, mainly at the top near the pocket clip fixing, and a little edge brassing at the cap lip.  Usually, these caps are either sterling silver or rolled gold but this one is "Permonite Metal" which I am assuming is some kind of white metal coating to the brass base.  Otherwise, the pen is in very good condition with no other damage that I could spot.  The 46 was Mentmore's rather unimaginative name for their answer to the Parker 51, but its styling is quite unique.  The nib is set into a rather curiously shaped section that seems to me to be rather tacked on at the last minute design-wise.  The cap, although it does have some minor issues as mentioned above, has no dings and the gold plated very angular Mentmore pocket clip is very clean indeed.  The cap body is decorated with incised horizontal hoops.  The barre land gripping section look black at first glance, but in the correct light you can see that they are a very dark burgundy or possibly brown colour.  This is a button-filled pen.  The barrel end blind cap unscrews easily and smoothly revealing the original brass filling button.  The barrel imprint is deep and crisp with no noticeable wear.  The hooded nib is in 14 carat gold and appears to be a medium point.  Very unusually, this pen is still contained in its original box which also has inside the original instruction and guarantee sheet.  The box itself is in very good structural nick - it does have a name? written on the top of the lid and the same name also written on the bottom of the base.  

I have fully serviced this pen.  The nib is very smooth as so many of these Mentmore nibs are.  It writes with a very nice wet and medium width consistent line.  Unusually for a hooded nib, it is quite soft and will provide for some understated line width variation as you write.  

A very interesting model designed at a time when all the manufacturers had to have a hooded nib pen in their range.