What's Up At Christof's

[tenney]

Oh no... That clutch was supposed to be diverted to me! Ah well. :-)

[pmn]

 

HAPPY SUMMER BREAK!

 

...and don't forget to pour the plants before you leave on holiday!

 

C.

 

Have a nice summer break too Christoff.

 

Thanks for reminding us to water the corks

 

Cheers,

 

Pedro

[christof]

Back at the office after very relaxed weeks at the island of Sardegna...

 

 

Now, new projects are waiting. But let's see what's next...

 

C.

Edited August 17, 2015 by christof

[Soot]

Welcome back!

[christof]

 

Maybe, some of you know that I am a big fan of Parker "51". These pens are one of my main collecting focus because of reasons of design and technique. So I have a couple of Vacs, Aeros, DJ's and SJ's in my collection in several colors. I think these have been shown here already...

 

 

..that's why I'd like to show you some others. Actually, the successor of the P"51", the Parker 61. This sleek and elegant pen is one of my favourite pen designs ever. It's perfectly sized for my hands and I love the capillary filling system (when it works as it should...) for its simplicity and reliability. Recently i found the time to take my P 61 to the studio for a family portrait So here's the result:

 

 

From left to right:

Caribbean Green with Deluxe cap, capillary filler, 1959-62

Grey with Legacy cap, capillary filler, 1959-62

Desk pen, capillary filler, Date?

French made capillary filler with barley corn pattern cap, Date?

Custom, capillary filler 1959-69

Presidential 14ct., cartridge filler, 1969-82

Rage red with classic cap, capillary filler, 1959-69

Signet, capillary filler, 1959-69

Nice, aren't they?

C.

 

 

To round off this mini collection, I got a very nice instruction manual in German and French (Swiss Market):

 

 

I really love this vintage illustrating graphic!

 

C.

Edited August 21, 2015 by christof

[christof]

Still in the rush for Parker 61, I catched some other Parker 61 related items. Three NOS Parker instant ink cartridges. How cool is that?

 

 

These were meant to be used on the road, when no bottle of liquid ink was available. Just plug a cartrige of dried ink on the capillary filler and hold it in fresh water. The water will be sucked by force of capillary and flows through the cartridge, dissolving the dry ink pellet. Geniously!

 

Also funny is to compare with other manufacturers, which were looking for other "clean" pen filling systems during the same period. Here are just two:

 

In 1952 Sheaffer's brought the Snorkel filler to the market. Due this complicated mechanism, it was possible to fill the pen without dipping the nib in ink. No wiping was necessary.

 

 

Then, one year later in 1953 Waterman's c/f Cartridge filler came to the market. As we know today, a quite successful concept:

 

 

Late to the party, in 1956, Parker came with the 61 capillary filler. Unfortunately, I don't know when exactly the instant ink has been invented:

 

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All of them are very elegant filling systems, but the Parker 61 capillary filler is my favourite!

 

Let's see what's next.

 

C.

Edited August 26, 2015 by christof

[jmccarty3]

Christof, I have several 61s, but I have never seen the "Instant Ink" device. Thanks for posting!

[christof]

Just got a funny Pelikan Pencil. A 250 in Green and Black:

According to Lehmann/Dittmer, this pen has been made for (in?) Switzerland only:



This pencil has the imprint "DIE WELTWOCHE" which is a Swiss weekly newspaper.

Edited August 31, 2015 by christof

[piscov]

Nice pencil! Was it to make pair with the 140 or 300 fountain pens?

[christof]

Nice pencil! Was it to make pair with the 140 or 300 fountain pens?

 

No, probably not. The fact that is has been made after production period of the 100N but with the clip of the 100N makes me thinking that it has been made as a single pencil only.

C.

Edited August 31, 2015 by christof

[piscov]

100N!! Off course! It makes sense what you say. Probably it started to be a pair of the 100N that did produce or was sold till 1954 I believe and then stand alone as is a really nice looking pencil. Simple and elegant.

 

Is this a first in your collection? Nice catch!!

[christof]

100N!! Off course! It makes sense what you say. Probably it started to be a pair of the 100N that did produce or was sold till 1954 I believe and then stand alone as is a really nice looking pencil. Simple and elegant.

 

Is this a first in your collection? Nice catch!!

Sorry, but I was too fast with my answer and just edited it after thinking twice...

according to Martin Lehmann, the pencil was only made for one year. 1956. This is clearly after the production period of 100N.

Maybe it was a single order from "Weltwoche"?

c.

Edited August 31, 2015 by christof

[fountainbel]

Congratulations Christof, I went over your complete post and i'm astonished seeing so many beautiful and rare pens !

Insuring such a collection must cost a lot.

Thanks for shearing !

I wonder if you also have UHU pens in your collection , I have a few and think these were extremely well made.

Francis

[christof]

 

I wonder if you also have UHU pens in your collection , I have a few and think these were extremely well made.

Francis

 

Thank you Francis. Compliments form you are always a honour! Unfortunately I don't have UHU pens (but I'd like to!!) As you I am thinking that these are great pens in terms of quality and design.

...but also unfortunately, one has to focus while collecting, sigh!

 

Would be great to see a picture of you UHU's here.

C.

 

 

Insuring such a collection must cost a lot.

 

PS: Haha! Insuring - You must be kidding! Haha...

Edited August 31, 2015 by christof

[fountainbel]

Not mine, but repaired for a fellow FPN'er a few years ago…...

Celluloid was extremely brittle so ink window broke off and was replaced with a celluloid insert.

Francis

 

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/fountainbel/P1000156_zps7f8fb613.jpg

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/fountainbel/P1000153_zpsea9c44c9.jpg

[DrCodfish]

Oh my, the definition of exquisite.

[christof]

very nice, thank you Francis.

 

I did not know the Noblesse.

 

C.

[christof]

Once I wrote here about my collaboration with the Museum of Desing Zurich: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/220855-whats-up-at-christofs/?p=2652929

 

Now it's time to inform about further steps in building a desing relevant fountain pen collection. After finishing the topic of Pelikan I was looking for something new. I had not have to look too hard... One of my personal favourite fountain pens ever is the Parjer "51". I wanted to show the diversity of it as next.

 

I took a small selection of relevant variants out of my own collection with it's predecessor and successors. Here's the result:

 

 

from left to right:

 

1. Parker Vacumatic Major DJ

2. Parker "51" Vacumatic DJ

3. Parker "51" Vacumatic SJ

4. Parker "51" Vacumatic Demi

5. Parker "51" Aerometric

6. Parker "51" Aeriometric Special Demi

7. Parker "51" MKIII

8. Parker 61

9. Parker 45

 

The color is limited to black and silver due to reasons of better comparison.

 

I did an album on Flickr with all the pens I gave, and want to give in future to the collection of the museum with group photographs, pictures of every single pen and descriptions (only in German for the moment, sorry). https://www.flickr.com/gp/30169694@N08/667fZX

 

My collection is getting smaller and the one of the Museum bigger, and this is a good thing I think!

 

But let's see what's next.

 

C.

Edited September 10, 2015 by christof

[BMG]

Beautiful! Such a pleasure to see the pictures, as always. Your idea of laying them out side by side for comparison's sake make them all the nicer. Congratulations!

[christof]

Thank you.
The group pictures for comparison are actually single pictures which I put togehter on Photoshop:

P51 Draft von -c_m_z-

...little bit of work, but the result is best.
I did try not to "over photoshop" the pics. Museum people don't like that.

C.

Edited September 11, 2015 by christof