Together with the writing-instrument edition, Montblanc is presenting for the first time a select collection of note taking and writing accessories, superbly handcrafted from soft black calf leather. Especially eye-catching and novel features are the finely embossed text fragments on each piece, representing handwritten quotations of the great Irish writer George Bernard Shaw.
George Bernard Shaw: a virtuoso of the written word
“If a commission had been set up when the world was created, it still wouldn’t be finished today.“ Such witty aphorisms established the reputation of the Dubliner, born in 1856, as a sharp and shrewd satirist. George Bernard Shaw taught himself what interested him: literature and music. When he was 20, he moved to London, became music and theatre critic and wrote about 40 plays.
In 1925 the linguistically talented freethinker received the Nobel Prize for literature and in 1938, as the only Nobel Prize winner, an Oscar for the film-script adaptation of his best known play “Pygmalion“ – better known under the later musical title “My Fair Lady“. The story of the phonetics ¬professor Henry Higgins and the London flower girl Eliza Doolittle is world-famous: In the belief that the social status of a person depends only on that person’s language, Higgins teaches the flower girl the pronunciation and vocabulary of a cultivated lady of the London upper class. Shaw’s social satire caused a scandal at its première in 1913. The combination of humour with underlying criticism of the Victorian class society was too obvious. Filmed several times and in 1956, six years after Shaw’s death, performed as a musical which won eight Oscars, the play achieved everlasting world fame.
Montblanc Writers Edition “George Bernard Shaw”: inspired by the work of a great thinker and dramatist
Word for word and sentence for sentence, Eliza Doolittle had to learn the way of talking of the aristocracy so as to change herself from a flower girl into a real lady – a development that is also clearly reflected in the design of the Montblanc Writers Edition “George Bernard Shaw“: The dark green marbled lacquer softens ring by ring towards the cap with its brightly shining platinised surface. Eliza’s origin is also recollected in the fine flower engraving on the hand worked, Platonised nib of 18-carat gold. On the cap, under the ivory-coloured Montblanc star, there is engraved the sweeping signature of her spiritual father George Bernard Shaw.
The Limited Writers Edition “George Bernard Shaw“ continues a line of exclusive writing- instrument editions that have honoured the life and spirit of a world-famous writer every year since 1992. The writing instruments are highly appreciated by admirers and collectors and are marked with an edition number. They are available in a limited edition and only in Montblanc boutiques and from selected trade partners. The Montblanc Writers Edition 2008 appears in August and is limited to 16,000 fountain-pens, 18,000 ballpoint pens and 4,000 set combinations with matching mechanical pencil – dedicated to the most important English-language dramatist since William Shakespeare: George Bernard Shaw.
Literary inspirations, embossed in leather – Première of the exclusive Limited Writers Edition writing accessories
Now a Montblanc Writers Edition in leather: for the first time, the writing-instrument collection is enhanced by an exceptional leather collection of the same name. What could be more fascinating than to see a selection of striking quotations of high-ranking authors, together with their signatures, preserved for all time in the finest smooth leather?
This optical and sensual experience celebrates its première with three exceptional note-taking and writing accessories in the Limited Writers Edition George Bernard Shaw in noble, jet-black nappa calf leather: a DIN A4 conference folder, a handy and compact notebook and a small notebook with additional space for bank notes. Finely embossed extracts from famous works such as ‘Pygmalion’ and ‘Man and Superman’ on the outside as well as notelets and postcards in connection with contemporary motifs reflect both aesthetically and authentically the individuality of the eponymous writer. This collection is exceptional in every detail, with softly worked bags with flaps for closing and lavishly designed insides.
As strictly limited as the writing instruments in the Limited Writers Edition George Bernard Shaw, only a restricted number of these exclusive leather articles have been produced by master craftsmen: only 10,000 pieces of all three models will therefore be available in selected boutiques as from August 2008 and from selected trade partners as from September 2008.
