Sailor Parley Fountain Pen Review

[rushabhshah]

Hello Everybody,

 

This is officially my first review on FPN and I am very excited about it. It is more like a cry of help, actually.

 

Today, I would like to review a rather odd Sailor fountain pen that I bought a couple of months ago.

What I learnt after numerous mails to the Sailor pen company and numerous hours of research on the internet is that this is a Sailor Parley/Parlay.

It is from the 1950s and has a rather unusual 'joist' fitting on the barrel and tip section. There are no threads. Just a puzzle like matching shape on the barrel and the section.

It comes with a very smooth 14k solid gold nib. Although the nib is not marked with a brand name, since it is permanently attached to the section, there are no doubts of it being the original. Also, the Sailor brand name is mentioned on the barred and no where else.

The pen is equipped with a bulb filler that is capable of holding plenty of ink. The window of the filler is made up of clear resin and has not stained in almost 60 years.

There is also a breather tube.

The pen writes well and lays down a nice smooth, wet line on paper. Although I just tried just a few inks with this pen, I never had any kind of fraying, blotting or change in ink flow. Very consistent I must say.

Here are some pictures of the pen. Apologies for the poor image quality. I had to use my phone's (not so good) camera.

 

Now, the cry of help : Could anyone confirm the details mentioned above for the pen in the pictures. I could find little information on the internet on this. I hope the community can help.

 

Cheers!

R

 

 

 

[basterma]

It looks really neat. No idea about it though.

[rushabhshah]

Thanks for that.

It really seems to be a rare pen.

 

I mailed the same pictures to Sailor and this is what they replied.

 

"

 

Sailor Pen Overseas Division

12:17 (4 hours ago)

to me

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thanks for your contact us and keeping the old pen.

We regret to tell you that we can not identify the model of this pen. It seems that the similar nib was used for the old model more than 50 years ago. We are sorry no to meet with your expectations.

Best regards,

T.Inoue

"

[NedC]

Good find! That is one cool pen!

[Uncle Red]

Wow, that's a neat pen. Thanks for the review. It doesn't look like much until you get that cap off.

[ehemem]

Nice find!

 

I have seen pictures of similar Sailors, but don't remember what they were called. You might want to post this over in the Japan: Pens from the Land of the Rising Sun forum. I bet someone there will be able to come up with more information.

[slimnib]

Strange that the maker would not know anything about it?

[hari317]

have you asked fpn member stan to have a look?

[rushabhshah]

No. I have not. Will contact him right away.

Thanks Hari.

[Montblanc owner and lover]

nice pen and review

[SamKl]

Nice looking pen!

[rudyhou]

looks very nice. must be a vintage kind. never seen one like that before. would love to get my hands on it for a try.

[Shaun500]

Thanks for sharing! It DOES look somewhat like a Sheaffer Targa!

[rushabhshah]

I agree. But what sets it apart is the friction/joist fitted section and barrel.

[rushabhshah]

Plus its a bit thinner than the targa.

[Aurko]

I don't know if this is 100% true or not, but if I recall, Sailor has no records of it's older pens due to a fire at some point that destroyed a good deal of their records. That would explain why Sailor cannot identify all of their older pens. That being said, it DOES end up making collecting vintage Sailors a lot more fun, if not a bit frustrating.

[WDP4BAAZ]

Nice little pen..congrats..

[rushabhshah]

It is. thanks!