A silver Montblanc fountain pen has sold for S$461,500 (£266,682) at an auction in Singapore.

The pen sold for more than nine times the high end of its pre-sale estimate.

The fountain pen, which attracted 111 bids from around the world in an online auction, was once owned by Singapore’s founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew.

The sterling silver Montblanc Meisterstück No 146 is a luxury piston-filling fountain pen from the 1950s.

The pen is engraved with “SM Lee Kuan Yew” and features yellow-toned metal detailing and an 18-karat gold nib.

It was sold by Singapore auction house Hotlotz as part of its “Interiors & Collectibles – August, Fine Art Focus” online auction.

The pen had been estimated at S$30,000 to S$50,000, with bidding starting at S$20,000.

Lee served as Singapore’s first prime minister from 1959 to 1990 and is widely regarded as the architect of the modern city-state.

He subsequently served as senior minister until 2004 and then as Singapore’s first minister mentor from August 2004 until May 2011. He remained a member of parliament until his death in 2015.

The pen had previously been sold at the Lee Kuan Yew Family Collection charity auction in July 2003, when his personal possessions were put under the hammer to raise money for charity.

In 2003, another fountain pen associated with Lee – a black Waterman that he used to sign the 1957 Constitutional Agreement that helped give Singapore internal self-government – sold for S$350,000, despite having been valued at around S$10,000. The proceeds went to charity.

The auction also saw works by some of Singapore’s best-known artists go under the hammer, with a new record set for Singaporean artist Chua Mia Tee, who died in July this year.

His 1976 painting Singapore Chinatown, Temple Street sold for S$107,900 including the buyer’s premium after 58 bids. It surpassed his previous record of S$97,600, set in 2023 for his 2003 work Prosperity. The S$97,600 figure is confirmed by 33 Auction’s records.

A stoneware pottery vase by Singaporean master ceramicist and Cultural Medallion recipient Dr Iskandar Jalil sold for S$12,350 including the buyer’s premium, more than three times the top end of its pre-sale estimate of S$2,500 to S$4,000.