Mr. Illgner, a leading engineer of Mont Blanc left the company to start his own production in 1921. His brand, the logo and the technical facts strongly resemble Mont Blanc pens, but the very good quality and perfect marketing granted a good success. Astoria did not survice the economic crisises of the early thirties and was bough out by Montblanc in 1932. They produced Astoria as a subbrand till 1936.