Parker
Pens and Ephemera

As Charlie Brown points out, even the ugly tree in the lot needs love. Same goes for pens. Our streamlined senior Parker Duofold in the black-and-pearl motif has a lot of issues. Fully restored with a new ink sac, you can see how heavily discolored it is and how much brassing it has. Worse still, the barrel threads are cracked. However, the section still seems snug in the barrel. Its 14k gold nib is a little scratchy but it is ready to write and give you a senior Duofold thrill or two. 13.1cm capped.

It is difficult to think of Parker Jotter pens as vintage. Oh, sure. They came out in the mid-1950s, but they are still in production today. These 4 pens are a little bit vintage and a little bit modern. The olive colored Jotter has brass threads and a button that has a domed top. The off-white Jotter has brass threads and a stamped inset on the button. The blue and burgundy Jotters have plastic threads and stamped inset button tops. All the stamps are identical with the arrow through a hoop Parker logo. All of the pens seem to work well with new blue or black refills. All of the pens show some wear, with the blue pen showing the most wear. Only the off-white pen's clicker is a little finicky.

Brushed stainless steel Parker pens have been designated "Flighter" models since the 1950s. This modern Parker Sonnet Flighter was made much more recently than that. Yet, this preowned pen maintains classic Parker styling and is a good dependable daily writer. Minimal wear, if any. It has a golden alloy nib that you will find to write a very smooth medium line. This pen uses only Parker converters or cartridges and comes with neither. Click the headline for close-ups. 13.2cm capped.

Parker advanced the efficiency and ease of using fountain pens when it created the Lucky Curve inkfeed. This is an early Parker Lucky Curve button filler from the very early 20th century. Click the headline for close-ups of the pen and nib. Notice the pen still has a slip cap and significant chocolate hazing of the black hard rubber (ebonite). We have not attempted to restore this pen. Notice how the threads of the blind cap by the button are missing. We feel that this rare older pen is likely too fragile to properly disassemble and put back together. Its 14k gold nib is a beautiful number 2 size that writes a very smooth medium line with a little flex. It also appears to have an early inkfeed. The pocket clip is an aftermarket clip made by the Rexall pharmacies. Slender and 14.1cm capped.

Almost perfect but not quite. Check out the beautiful pearl-and-black celluloid on this Canadian Parker Duofold Jr. set. You can see some traces of the brown discoloration that got started in this vintage pen, but it isn't nearly as bad as most of these pens that I've seen. The inside of this cap is so clean, we're not sure the pen was ever used. It has been restored with a new ink sac. No cracks, major blemishes or brassing. Light wear if any. Click the headline to see a close-up of the original 14k gold nib. You can barely see it in the photo but there is a hairline crack just to the right or top of the "B" in the photo and it works its way up to the top bar of the "E" in "Pen." You will write a smooth medium line. Its matching pencil has perfect color but much more wear, and it doesn't work.

Lapis Lazuli Parker Duofolds are hard to find in such a vibrant blue condition. Yes, this junior-sized vintage pen is a couple shades darker than the matching pencil, but it is still a nice color. Click the headline for close-ups. The white flecks in the lapis blue pen are only mildly yellowed or browned in some places! The vintage pen has been restored with a new ink sac. You will write a juicy double broad line with its 14k gold nib. There is a Christmas-tree style ink feed. Spots of brassing on the cap bands and clip. Light wear on the cap and barrel. The matching streamlined pencil is not working very well, shows a little wear and brassing...and it is missing a decorative barrel band. Pen measures 11.4cm capped.

Parker Vacumatic pencils sold far less than their fountain pen counterparts, which Parker chalked up to the Great Depression. Nevertheless, Parker didn't stop innovating the Parker Vacumatic line. In 1939 it released the Parker Non-Stop pencil to pair with Vacumatic fountain pens. Unique to the Non-Stop was that it was a cap-activated click pencil! This was not a common feature in that era. Plus, the .9mm leads now fed directly from the spare lead reservoir. As such, these pencils held much more lead and required way less effort to keep writing. Our vintage pencil has a couple of deep scratches, which you can see in the tail cap in the photo. Especially unique is the wide stacked-coins cap band, which has a blank initials' plate. A hardened eraser and spare red leads are included. 13.1mm.

Mandarin yellow Parker Duofold pens get all the credit for being rare and sought after, but the matching pencils are even rarer...especially the streamlined models, such as this one. Our junior-sized pencil is in good working order, showing only light wear from use. No brassing and a good imprint on the tail cap. Carefully remove the tail cap to reveal an original hardened eraser and spare 1.1mm leads underneath it! Make math and crosswords fun again with this amazing vintage pencil. 12.1cm.