Montegrappa was founded under the slogan "Manifattura pennini d'oro e penne stilografiche" ("Maker of gold nibs and fountain pens") in 1912. Its products are still manufactured in the original factory on the river Brenta, in Bassano del Grappa— in the North-East of Italy.

During the First World War Bassano was a centre of military operations. Among the many soldiers who used the company's pens (Elmo at that time) for their correspondence were two celebrated 20th-century writers, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos, who had both volunteered for service as ambulance drivers.

The company was at its high point in the 1930s. It was a period when the fountain pen became widespread and the products of the House of Bassano met the taste of the public with their sober design, the variety of their colours and materials (among the first to use celluloid and galalith), the operation of their technical solutions, and the originality and precision of their manufacturing techniques.