Parker 51 Differences + A Red Parker To Identify

[Liuna]

I've started browsing some of the antique shops I found here in Budapest. I found a red Parker 51 with silver cap. Then I found two Parker 51s in a different shop, both with gold filled cap, black color. I noticed both have different looking endings on both sides. I could guess they are from somewhat different times, right? Also found a red Parker, I don't know what type it is. It has 585 on the nib.

[hari317]

The red one is a junior English duofold with a squeeze filler. Sometimes these pens can be marked victory instead of duofold. Just check the barrel imprints.

[hari317]

Reg the 51s. The one with the golden clip screw is likely a MK-iii aero with the acme threads for section to barrel.

[Liuna]

The red one is a junior English duofold with a squeeze filler. Sometimes these pens can be marked victory instead of duofold. Just check the barrel imprints.

Thank you. I forgot to check what it said on the barrel, I looked at the nib more. It's in a pretty good condition. How can it be seen it's a junior? The overall length?

 

About the 51s: it surprised me a bit that there are ones with edged ending instead of a curvy one. I heard of these MK markings, what do they exactly stand for?

Edited December 12, 2017 by Liuna

[hari317]

Thank you. I forgot to check what it said on the barrel, I looked at the nib more. It's in a pretty good condition. How can it be seen it's a junior? The overall length?

 

About the 51s: it surprised me a bit that there are ones with edged ending instead of curvy one. I heard of these MK markins, what do they exactly stand for?

Junior by the 10 on the nib.

 

MK is the variant. Stands for mark. There is no such actual imprint on the pens. Refer parker51.com or Parker collector

 

ETA: I searched hard to find the reference page for the Mk-I to III differences that I had saved in 2006 or so. It seems the page no longer exists on the internet. IIRC I had saved this from http://www.vintagepens.com.au/Parker51ID.htm The credit and hardwork is theirs.

 

 

Parker 51 MK I, II & III Identification

The following sketches and notes were kindly supplied by my good friend Mena Samios, a committed Parker 51 collector. They are published here with his consent, but are subject to all copyright constraints.

 

 

Edited December 13, 2017 by hari317

[mitto]

As hari said above the 51 with the plastic jewel on cap top is an aerometric 51 MKI from the 1950s-60s while the other one with the gold tassie on cap top is an aerometric 51 MKIII from the early 1970s.

 

Again as hari says, the red plastic pen belongs to the English aerometric filled Duofold line. It is either a Junior or a Victory with the #10 nib.

 

Congrats and happy hunting.

Edited December 13, 2017 by mitto

[Liuna]

As hari said above the 51 with the plastic jewel on cap top is an aerometric 51 MKI from the 1950-60s while the other one with the gold tassie on cap top is an aerometric 51 MKIII from the early 1970s.

 

Again as hari says, the red plastic pen belongs to the English aerometric filled Duofold line. It is either a Junior or a Victory with the #10 nib.

 

Congrats and happy hunting.

 

Thank you I haven't bought either of them yet. The 51s' offered prices were about 75 dollars each, which is almost double the price of my gold filled gold nibbed 45. I think a gold filled/nibbed 51 is always worth somewhat more. One of them has its plating/filling(?) coming off of its cap though, with ocre-ish color.

 

I would rather consider the Duofold Junior (forgot to ask its price there though...). I saw a very good review of it on this forum and it's pretty convincing It felt light and slim when I held it. https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/214813-parker-uk-duofold-junior/

 

(Not that I don't like 51s though.)

 

I will still hunt in at least two shops but I think there could be more than the whole amount shown on my map.

Edited December 12, 2017 by Liuna

[mitto]

Happy hunting. Wish you the best of luck.

[Venemo]

May I ask where in Budapest did you find them?

On one occasion several years ago I did look around at a bunch of antique shops (there was a whole street of them IIRC) but they either didn't have any fountain pens or the ones they had were beat-up old junk.

 

Oh, and don't let them cheat you with the price, $70-$80 is approximately the upper limit of what a 51 is worth unrestored. You can buy restored ones from the USA at around $100-$120 including shipping. By the way, if the pen itself is in otherwise good condition, restoring the filling system isn't hard to do.

[Liuna]

May I ask where in Budapest did you find them?

On one occasion several years ago I did look around at a bunch of antique shops (there was a whole street of them IIRC) but they either didn't have any fountain pens or the ones they had were beat-up old junk.

 

Oh, and don't let them cheat you with the price, $70-$80 is approximately the upper limit of what a 51 is worth unrestored. You can buy restored ones from the USA at around $100-$120 including shipping. By the way, if the pen itself is in otherwise good condition, restoring the filling system isn't hard to do.

At the Corvin Antikvitás. (I'm Hungarian too by the way :-) ) Not sure if the filler system needs to be restored. Bought a 45 and its squeeze converter is in excellent condition.

[Venemo]

At the Corvin Antikvitás. (I'm Hungarian too by the way :-) ) Not sure if the filler system needs to be restored. Bought a 45 and its squeeze converter is in excellent condition.

 

It's always nice to see a fellow Hungarian around this forum!

Thanks for the tip, I will check out Corvin Antikvitás, I have not visited that place yet. Do you know other similar shops that are worth checking out?

 

Also, congrats for your 45! I haven't used those, but a few years ago I bought one as a gift to my mom. It was a nice pen, though I like the aesthetics of the 51 a little more.

[mitto]

Go to the Corvin Antikvitás to look for the pens whose aesthetics you like a little more.

 

And don't forget to let us know about what you find. Happy hunting.

Edited January 17, 2018 by mitto

[pajaro]

The site parker51.com has a lot of useful information that helped me when I was collecting 51s.

[Liuna]

Go to the Corvin Antikvitás to look for the pens whose aesthetics you like a little more.

 

And don't forget to let us know about what you find. Happy hunting.

 

 

That's where I saw these pens. Unless the variety of the sellable pens have changed, these are the only Parkers I've found there back them. But there were also many other nice fountain pens, old pencils (normal wooden ones in retroish boxes) and so on

 

 

It's always nice to see a fellow Hungarian around this forum!

Thanks for the tip, I will check out Corvin Antikvitás, I have not visited that place yet. Do you know other similar shops that are worth checking out?

 

Also, congrats for your 45! I haven't used those, but a few years ago I bought one as a gift to my mom. It was a nice pen, though I like the aesthetics of the 51 a little more.

 

Köszönöm (Thank you!) I think they are very comfortable. I was drawing a bit with it today I haven't used 51 yet, but held some in my hand already. By look, I prefer 45 a bit more, looks slimmer.

Well, I checked plenty places... There are places where you rather find Chinese fountain pens. Some don't have any, one doesn't remember where he put them in the shop etc. So I tell the ones where I've found some.

 

Also I could recommend antique flea markets:

- for example Ecseri (I haven't been there yet though).

- https://welovebudapest.com/toplistak/101-budapesti-bolhapiac/ (I recommend this a lot, Garmada is closed though for now)

- this Sunday I checked a very nice little antique market called Antik Placc in the Klauzál market hall (Klauzál tér, vásárcsarnok). There are lot of stuff there. Pens just a few. I saw a shorter black fountain pen with steel nib, rubber sack. It's about half as long as my 45 There are lot of beautiful things there, it's only on Sundays. Typewriters, old phone, porcelain, little mechanic music machines (not boxes exactly), watches, old cameras etc.

I checked (shops specifically now):

Bazáruház (Mester utca, there are Jotters there)

Bazár Bizi (Dob utca),

some shops in Falk Miksa street (one had possibly Hungarian pens, look like 51 a bit)

Antik Tár Érem és Régiségkereskedelmi Kft (Izabella utca 37). That's where I saw the many Chinese pens and also many Mont Blanc-lookalikes and an either fake or real Mont Blanc, they are all pretty cheap, black with blue marble pattern. They look nice. Although I couldn't really screw them apart... But the shop is nice too and the seller is okay as well.

Antik-Bazár in Klauzál utca (Close to Rákóczi út). There are some pens there, I couldn't really tell what brand they were, didn't find any Parkers there when I was there in November.

Ómama Antik (Frankel Leó út 7), that's where I saw a very nice red Parker 51 with silver cap.

 

I mostly relied on that I typed "régiségbolt" to Google and clicked on the map. I think it shows more on the computer than on the phone as I see now. Interesting....

 

I attach a photo from the Antik Placc market and a drawing I made today. Very comfortable for both writing and drawing.

Edited January 17, 2018 by Liuna

[Venemo]

Wow, you certainly know how to draw! I wish I could draw like that

 

And very nice research! Thank you for that, I might follow up on your suggestions!

Though I definitely wouldn't buy an antique pen at such a place, unless I knew how to get it working. Fortunately, I've restored an 51 before, so I have an idea what to do if it goes wrong.

[corgicoupe]

While you two are walking the city, stop in the Espresso Embassy [Budapest, Arany János u. 15, 1051 Hungary], have a cup of coffee, and give greetings to the owner, Tibor Varady, from Bob & Spomenka.

Edited January 18, 2018 by corgicoupe

[Liuna]

While you two are walking the city, stop in the Espresso Embassy [budapest, Arany János u. 15, 1051 Hungary], have a cup of coffee, and give greetings to the owner, Tibor Varady, from Bob & Spomenka.

Will do once I get around there :-) I've never been to that café, but I know the area of Arany János street to some degree (especially around the subway station named after that street).

[Venemo]

So I walked into Corvin Antique today (52 Üllői út), and the seller told me he has some pens but doesn't want to show them to me because it would be too much trouble for him to pull them out from his cabinet. It was weird, so I returned from there without any pens. With this attitude I think he still might have those 51 pens that Liuna photographed!

[corgicoupe]

Will do once I get around there :-) I've never been to that café, but I know the area of Arany János street to some degree (especially around the subway station named after that street).

I've never been in Budapest, but we met Tibor when he was here in Atlanta; his father was teaching International Law at Emory University some 10 years ago.

[mitto]

So I walked into Corvin Antique today (52 Üllői út), and the seller told me he has some pens but doesn't want to show them to me because it would be too much trouble for him to pull them out from his cabinet. It was weird, so I returned from there without any pens. With this attitude I think he still might have those 51 pens that Liuna photographed!

 

You should have registered a police case against him.

 

That is totally unacceptable, unethical and unlawfull behavior by a store owner.

Edited January 26, 2018 by mitto