Anticipated response to four exceptionally rare items from the respected house, Montegrappa, will change the landscape for rare pens sold in auction. At Bonhams’ Fine Writing Instruments sale, to take place on December 18, 2013 at their New York salesrooms, aficionados – for the first time – will be able to acquire hand-made, pre-production examples of Montegrappa’s legendary Dragon pen, arguably the seminal writing instrument in the development of modern limited editions.
Unprecedented in pen auction history, this sale includes the rarest of covetable pens, known as PdAs, or ‘Prova d’Autore’, English for ‘Artist’s Proof’. An artist proof is a pre-production example, which is hand-made by the most skilled artisan or relevant artist and is used as a reference for the serial production. Rarely do these find their way out of the factory. The examples offered here have been in the possession of one of Montegrappa’s most enthusiastic and knowledgeable collectors.
Represented in the sale are a PdA 18K solid yellow gold Dragon with brilliant-cut white diamonds; a PdA 18K solid rose gold Dragon with brilliant-cut black diamonds; and two fascinating rarities: a sterling silver and cinnamon-red celluloid Dragon rollerball, and a sterling silver and parchment-white celluloid Dragon rollerball. Each of these rollerball pens is the only example in existence. True Montegrappa grails, they have never been seen outside of Montegrappa’s private company museum.
Exclusive and desirable, PdAs represent the pinnacle of pen collecting. The bidding will be furious.
The catalogue can be viewed at www.bonhams.com/auctions/21041/