They’re not much of a bother actually, unless you lose it. In fact, they’re quite helpful. Piston-fillers and pump fillers often don’t fill completely because the air gets stuck and cannot be expelled without expelling ink. Breather tubes allow a pen to hold more ink because the tube lets the air that’s stuck at the end of the reservoir to be expelled instead of the ink that’s already in the reservoir. The Parker Vacumatic can …
The Parker 51 is very popular and features some quality design, but one thing I really love about them is the colors. This gorgeous 1945 Parker 51 is a vacuumatic-filler in Buckskin Beige. The 14kt pink and yellow gold ‘Empire’ cap is considered by many one of Parker’s most beautiful pens. This specimen had a fine nib and was mint condition NOS. Not the easiest color to find! Was available in Catalog #73. Don’t miss out …
The No. 58 Awanyu Aztec Parker: $12.00! The original retail price was $12.00, that is. Currently, it is a little more expensive: $24.950. If you are looking for something to collect, this is an extremely rare pen – a holy grail for collectors. This pen was inspired when George Parker vacationed in Mexico and saw wonderful Aztec relics in a museum. He obtained permission to use the three armed triskelion design, the symbol of preserving …
It’s fun and interesting to see patents – the originals behind the pens we love so much now. This patent was filed by Lester W. Ormsby, for The Parker Pen Company. Looking at the patent, one may recognize a Parker-like appearance about it. This was a novel cap construction to allow venting in the interior to maintain pressure, but without drying out the nib.
I thought this post would be fun to show some flex while listing a few of the pen brands. My favorite happens to be Waterman, because my first vintage pen was a red ripple Waterman 52V with a F-BBB wet noodle flex nib. I’m still crazy about it. I later added a few Mabie Todds (Swan, Swallow, Blackbird), a Wahl-Eversharp (Skyline, Doric), Pelikan (400NN x 2), Montblanc (220, 22, 344), and in the Waterman range: 52V, …
The Parker Vacumatic are some of the most beautiful vintage pens because of their wonderful laminated and striated caps and barrels. They were launched in 1932 and were so popular they soon outsold their predecessor, the Duofold. The name changed twice: from “Golden Arrow” to “Vacuum-Filler” and finally to “Vacumatic.” The pen (not surprisingly) features a vacuum-filling system that took five years to be perfected, at no small cost of $125,000 (in 1930′ dollars!). The filling mechanism was so popular …
The Parker Duofold is “unecessarily good.” Parker was so certain of their Duofolds that they advertised, “Not one can fail, or we’ll make it good free!” The nibs were advertised as “ultra-smooth, which relieves writing pressure,” and it “won’t hard start.” In addition, the barrels were improved, no longer made of rubber, but now non-breakable “Permanite.” Combined with an oversize ink capacity and beautiful colors, it is a tempting pen. Check out our Catalog #73 – …
This very interesting ad shows off the Parker Lucky Curve fountain pen, designed with a feed tube that was curved to touch the barrel wall. Where other fountain pens didn’t have this, when they were placed nib up in a pocket, there was a space with air, and the pooled ink at the bottom. If all the ink wasn’t drained from the feed before the body heated up the air space, the air would expand, …
