How interesting!
Is his surname typical for that area? The name and its pronunciation didn't seem typically Italian to me; I presumed his family might've been from somewhere in the mountainous northwest of Italy -- perhaps Piedmont.
I don't really care about Montagner's relative stature in the Italian framebuilding world; I'd never even heard of him before. AFAIK, Biemmezeta built good frames, Cinelli made good BB shells, Columbus SL is good tubing, the lug shaping and filing is good, it's a nicely finished frame, the geometry looks good to me, it's my size, has nice paint with a nice patina, etc. That adds up to a frame worth building up into a rider. For $1K? Nope. But certainly for a fraction thereof.
Originally Posted by
Citoyen du Monde
The town where Montagner is located, Passarella, in the province of Venice, is the hometown of former world champion Moreno Argentin (He is listed as being born in San Donà because that is where the closest hospital is). It wouldn't surprise me if the bike was built by a third-party builder. I used to work less than 5 miles away from there in the early 90's and nobody spoke about Montagner as being anything special or as a go-to person for custom frames.