What Parkers Have Joined Your Collection Lately?

[christof]

Thank you. PM sent.

[senzen]

Great collection, great photos as always christof.

[Penguincollector]

@christof, your pen collection is gorgeously curated and photographed. I’ve missed your posts.

[jchch1950]

13 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

@christof, your pen collection is gorgeously curated and photographed. I’ve missed your posts.

+1.

[christof]

Thank you.

 

To post some content on the subject, I'll show you the latest Parker I've added to my collection. It is a Parker 105:

 

 

I like the design of these pens a lot, but since the feeder tends to clog and is difficult to remove, I built a tool for this purpose:

 

 

For the moment  it's one of my daily writer:

 

 

 

[Beechwood]

19 minutes ago, christof said:

Thank you.

 

To post some content on the subject, I'll show you the latest Parker I've added to my collection. It is a Parker 105:

 

 

I like the design of these pens a lot, but since the feeder tends to clog and is difficult to remove, I built a tool for this purpose:

 

 

For the moment  it's one of my daily writer:

 

 

 

 

 

I don't think I have even seen the 105, a handsome pen.

 

The quality of your presentation, as always, shows the pen in its best possible light.

[Sheptonian]

On 9/13/2024 at 8:47 AM, christof said:

I have not been on FPN for a longer time. I still miss the Classifieds, but I realize that in fact little has changed here (except the size of Mitto's collection 😊). I'm not sure if this fits in this thread. But since there is concentrated expertise here, I'll try anyway.

My own Parker "51" collection is much more modest, but I'm still a bit proud. My goal has been to own one of each color. I succeeded with the first and second generations.

 

 

 

I even was able to catch an english Insignia in rolled silver:

 

 

But I'm not sure about the third generation. I have not yet found a clear source on this subject. The Parker "51" book is also no help in this case. In my opinion, the problem is that the third generation was produced in the U.S. and the UK at the same time*, in different ways and with different materials.

 

*I wrote about this 6 years ago here :

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/353841-whats-up-at-christofs/?do=findComment&comment=4062929

 

 

I am especially unsure about the color gray. According to various sources, there was an American gray and an English gray. Can anyone here confirm this? I think someone who has 1700 Parker "51" might be able to… 😊

 

Please excuse me for hijacking this thread. If it bothers you, please just ignore my post.

It is always a pleasure to see your wonderful collection and exquisite photography, Christof. I am not sure about the "other" grey, either. Certainly, in the mid-1970s the Parker "51" line in England, as well as having been relegated to the back page of marketing leaflets, had been reduced to three colours, Black, Blue, and Maroon: 

 

 

Here are three English pens (on the left - Maroon is dated 1981 Q2) in the official mid-70s colours alongside their (shorter) American counterparts:

 

 

 

The colour rendition is better in this image:

 

 

Edited September 14 by Sheptonian
spelling correction

[Beechwood]

38 minutes ago, Sheptonian said:

It is always a pleasure to see your wonderful collection and exquisite photography, Christof. I am not sure about the "other" grey, either. Certainly, in the mid-1970s the Parker "51" line in England, as well as having been relegated to the back page or marketing leaflets, had been reduced to three colours, Black, Blue, and Maroon: 

 

 

Here are three English pens (on the left - Maroon is dated 1981 Q2) in the official mid-70s colours alongside their (shorter) American counterparts:

 

 

 

The colour rendition is better in this image:

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your time in such superb photographs.

 

Remarkable that 50+ years after production has ceased that the 51 is still generating so much interest, more than any other single pen.

[christof]

1 hour ago, Sheptonian said:

It is always a pleasure to see your wonderful collection and exquisite photography, Christof. I am not sure about the "other" grey, either. Certainly, in the mid-1970s the Parker "51" line in England, as well as having been relegated to the back page of marketing leaflets, had been reduced to three colours, Black, Blue, and Maroon: 

 

 

 

Here are three English pens (on the left - Maroon is dated 1981 Q2) in the official mid-70s colours alongside their (shorter) American counterparts:

 

 

 

The colour rendition is better in this image:

 

 

 

Thank you very much for your pictures and explanations. Believe it or not, but I notice the difference in length between U.S. and English production only now.

 

I have 4 U.S. pens: Rage Red, Olive Green, Vista Blue and Midnight Blue

and 4 English ones: Black, Teal Blue, Maroon and Grey (which is close, but not identical to Navy Grey)

 

I definitiely will have to look out for the U.S. Grey one.

[Sheptonian]

2 hours ago, christof said:

Thank you very much for your pictures and explanations. Believe it or not, but I notice the difference in length between U.S. and English production only now.

 

I have 4 U.S. pens: Rage Red, Olive Green, Vista Blue and Midnight Blue

and 4 English ones: Black, Teal Blue, Maroon and Grey (which is close, but not identical to Navy Grey)

 

I definitiely will have to look out for the U.S. Grey one.

And the Burgundy, perhaps?

[Sheptonian]

4 hours ago, Format said:

 

 

Thank you for your time in such superb photographs.

 

Remarkable that 50+ years after production has ceased that the 51 is still generating so much interest, more than any other single pen.

Thank you.

 

It is a strange fascination. There is always another little nugget of information about the P51 that you didn't know before.. 

[Beechwood]

11 minutes ago, Sheptonian said:

Thank you.

 

It is a strange fascination. There is always another little nugget of information about the P51 that you didn't know before.. 

 

I keep thinking about the shockwave that must have gone through stationers in the early 1940s to have seen something quite so radical. No wonder they were the pen that people wanted, and still do.

[Sheptonian]

8 hours ago, christof said:

Thank you.

 

To post some content on the subject, I'll show you the latest Parker I've added to my collection. It is a Parker 105:

 

 

I like the design of these pens a lot, but since the feeder tends to clog and is difficult to remove, I built a tool for this purpose:

 

 

For the moment  it's one of my daily writer:

 

 

 

Thank you, Christof.  Brilliant imagery, as always.

 

The Parker 105 really was a child of its time, The styling is so very late-1970s.. I think that the Flighter is a more attractive pen that the rolled gold bark variety.

 

I don't know how many of the sterling silver models were made but I don't suppose it can have been that many. It would be good to see one someday.

 

[christof]

2 hours ago, Sheptonian said:

And the Burgundy, perhaps?

 

It's the fourth from right on your second picture, right?

 

I didn't even know that it exists...

 

 

  

1 hour ago, Sheptonian said:

 

I don't know how many of the sterling silver models were made but I don't suppose it can have been that many. It would be good to see one someday.

 

 I have never seen one in years. I doubt that it exists.

[Mercian]

6 hours ago, Sheptonian said:

I don't know how many of the sterling silver models were made but I don't suppose it can have been that many. It would be good to see one someday.

Just FYI, the 105 pen in the photos is Stainless Steel, not Sterling Silver.
 

As fas as I know, the 105 was only ever made in that ‘bark’ gold finish, and in stainless steel; not in Sterling Silver.
Of course, I may well be totally wrong about that - it would hardly be the first time! 😉

[Sheptonian]

10 hours ago, Mercian said:

Just FYI, the 105 pen in the photos is Stainless Steel, not Sterling Silver.
 

As fas as I know, the 105 was only ever made in that ‘bark’ gold finish, and in stainless steel; not in Sterling Silver.
Of course, I may well be totally wrong about that - it would hardly be the first time! 😉

 

Thanks, Mercian.

 

I know that my photo is of a stainless steel model and one with the gold bark finish. As I suggested above, I have never seen a sterling silver Parker 105. The reason why I mentioned it is that Tony Fischier says on Parkerpens.net that there was one.

 

Interestingly in a never-completed history of Parker written by a Mr Robin Wayman who worked for Parker at Newhaven until the mid-1990s but fell ill before he was able to complete the work there is the following entry (please see the September 1979 note):

 

The full (incomplete) document covered by a Newhaven internal memo from 1995 is in the PCA archive (Item 728-a-parker-history). Unfortunately the timeline stops in 1980 so we cannot see if silver was ever proposed or utilised as a finish for the Parker 105 during its lifetime.  That said, the Janesville archives pen catalog of 1994 only has the gold and stainless models so you may well be right:

 

 

Perhaps I should stop looking for the sterling silver version - there is a very good chance that it is a unicorn.

 

Of course, now that I have agreed with you somebody will pop up on FPN with a sterling silver bark Parker 105 set! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sheptonian]

18 hours ago, christof said:

 

It's the fourth from right on your second picture, right?

 

I didn't even know that it exists...

 

 

 

 

Yes it is.  

 

Here is the best picture I can manage showing the difference between the burgundy (in the middle), the maroon (top) and rage red. It is a dark burgundy colour but no t quite the same as the burgundy of earlier P51 Aerometrics.

 

 

 

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

On 9/14/2024 at 8:11 AM, Format said:

Remarkable that 50+ years after production has ceased that the 51 is still generating so much interest, more than any other single pen.

Remarkable, maybe -- but not surprising IMO.  Everything about the 51's design was to make it a superb writing instrument (not some sort of bling to put into a display case to show off how much someone can spend on expensive gee-gaws).  Which is, of course, what it is -- a superb writing instrument.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[FarmBoy]

What is a gee-gaw?

[Beechwood]

3 hours ago, FarmBoy said:

What is a gee-gaw?

 

Shiny Tat that costs more than it ought and when shown to others produces the word 'Awesome'  and the thought 'Fool.'

 

Before today, the phrase was last used in Its a Wonderful Life'.