Counterfeit / Doctored Montblanc Agathe Christie Vermeil Spotted.

[Bisquitlips]

I was recently perusing the web doing some pen research and stumbled upon a site in Europe that had a good price on an Montblanc Agatha Christie FP in the vermeil finish.

On my first look I noticed the gold on the snake clip looked uncharacteristically bright and there was some discoloration on the head of the snake. I first thought this might have been a bad camera angle or dirt or tarnish, but upon doing a screen cap and blowing up the image I begin to see that what appeared to be tarnish / dirt was actually where the gold plating had worn off or didn't plate properly and the base sterling was showing through. (For those that may not know, vermeil is typically gilded silver or bronze.)

As I begin to look closer at the pen I noticed that the cap's center band was silver and not vermeil at all. This was the "ah HA moment. It then became very apparent that this was not a MB Agatha Vermeil FP, but a standard MB Agatha Christie FP with sterling silver furniture that someone had gone to the effort of having gold plated or doing it themselves. (There are kits sold on Amazon for this).

Also, if you look at the snake's eyes, they do not look like sapphires. But they look like someone has taken a blue fine tipped permanent marker and colored over the ruby eyes in an attempt to make them look like sapphires but actually turned them black!

I won't post the website's URL as I am not sure what the moderator's policies are for posting a find like this, but the site is in Europe and I found it when researching a Marlen Aureus in silver.

I think the take away is to always be careful when considering a purchase of a vermeil pen. The vermeil Agatha can run as much as $1500.00 or more than the sterling version. And the only differences are the gilding, some stamps, and a few other markings that are not easily detected in photographs, like the limited edition number barrel stamp.

I believe there were 23000 Agatha FPs made in the sterling as solo offerings and another 7000 offered in the 3 piece sets. Only 4810 of the vermeil were offered. So if you are pursuing a vermeil Agatha FP and the seller doesn't show that number in his photographs, then ask him to. Of course if his is going to go to all the trouble of gold plating pen parts then they would likely steal a photo from the web that shows a xx/4810 barrel impression.

I am sure there are a lot of expensive fountain pens out there that have been toyed with, but I have never run across one myself when just out doodling on the web. Thought I would share it my favorite people!


Initial image on the site: These are greatly enlarged from the site's photos so things are much easier to see.



Uh oh!



They went to the effort of plating the barrel band, but not the cap band.



Close up of the snake's head. You can see the sterling base metal peeking through where the gold plating has rubbed off or didn't take.



A angle from the top of the cap.




I won't post the website's URL as I am not sure what the moderator's policies are for posting a find like this, but the site is in Europe and I found it when researching a Marlen Aureus in silver.

The take away is to always be careful when considering a purchase of a vermeil pen. The vermeil Agatha can run as much as $1500.00 or more than the sterling version. And the only differences are the gilding, some stamps, and a few other markings that are not easily detected like .925 and limited edition number. I believe there were 23000 Agatha FPs made in the sterling as solo offerings and another 7000 offered in the 3 piece sets. Only 4810 of the vermeil were offered. So if you are questioning a vermeil Agatha and the seller doesn't show that number in his photographs, then ask him to. Of course if his is going to go to all the trouble of gold plating pen parts then they would likely steal a photo from the web that shows the xx/4810 barrel impression.


MB site info on the Agathe.

http://www.montblanc.com/en-us/disco...-christie.html

[Bisquitlips]

Hey guys,

I sent the owner of the pen shop this post and he sent me some other photos that seemed to explain why the Agathe looks tampered with.

I am standing as corrected for now, but did ask for some other photos.