Just Discovered A Parker 75 With 14K Fine Italic Nib

[bbbdco]

With the current COVID-19 crisis, I have been spending a lot of time at home. I have rediscovered all my old calligraphy pens and have been relearning the art of fine writing. I was still missing a few items, and I came across an old box in my basement. I found several old items of ink, nibs, etc. In one of the boxes I found my old Parker 75 14k fine italic fountain pen. I remember purchasing it about 1985. So it is 35 years old. It was hardly used as it had the original cartridge still in the barrel. I hoped that the pen was not ruined because it had been left with the ink inside. I spent about an hour cleaning it up. Removed the nib and feeder, then pit it back together. I re-inked the pen and it works like a charm. I dont know how much these things are worth today, but I did a quick check on my particular nib, and a new old nib would cost $125. I remember spending $50 for the pen in 1985, a lot of money for me back then. Anyway I was just excited to find this old treasure in my basement. I am including a few images of the pen. The pen itself is extremely slim and quite small. It has to be posted in order to use it. Any interesting comments about the Parker 75 would be appreciated.

[rickap]

Parker 75s are great, highly desirable pens. That italic fine looks nice. Any chance of seeing a writing sample? Enjoy your newly refound hobby!

Edited May 20, 2020 by rickap

[Honeybadgers]

classic pen and extremely uncommon nib. Enjoy it or sell it here, you'd definitely get some bites!

[bbbdco]

Someone asked me to demonstrate my handwriting with this pen. So here it is I just wrote this out a minute ago.

[Larry Barrieau]

Nice writing!

[Carrau]

Looking good!

[steve50]

Someone asked me to demonstrate my handwriting with this pen. So here it is I just wrote this out a minute ago.

That looks really crisp for a factory italic!

[bbbdco]

Yes, it is a very crisp nib for a factory nib. My Mike Masuyama italic nib is not as sharp as this. The majority of people would never be able to write with something like this unless you had studied calligraphy and Italic handwriting. I took four years of evening calligraphy at a Benedictine monastery, and also taught calligraphy one semester in college. That was 35 years ago.

[jchch1950]

Nice finding, good memories,and wonderful dog. Congratulations.

[inkstainedruth]

Very cool story, and lovely calligraphy. I just recently (within the past couple of months) gotten my first Parker 75, a sterling silver Ciselé pen from I believe the mid-1970s (eBay purchase) with a broad nib and what the seller said was the original squeeze converter, and I'm liking the pen very much.

I had seen one at an estate sale a little over a year ago, but didn't know enough about the model to judge the condition of the nib or whether the price tag on the pen was reasonable or excessive (turned out to be pretty much in line with the average prices on eBay). So I didn't buy that pen, but then spent a good amount of time researching the model; and while I paid a little more for mine than some of the listings were going for, I think I did okay price-wise.

I got lucky in that for some reason nobody was watching that listing except me, so I waited until the clock had nearly run down (the pen had already been relisted at least once before) and then bid the minimum. I'd been outbid on one a week or two before with an F nib that there was this huge piranha feeding frenzy over, and when I saw the final price I was going "What the.... No WAY should that pen have gone that high unless there was a MAJOR bidding war going on...."

I'm not a "c-worder" collector, so I didn't mind that the one I got wasn't an early flat top model. I don't buy pens to put them in a display case -- I buy pens to USE. But after seeing the one at that estate sale that I passed on, I could well understand the comments that I had read on here about how their 75 was their favorite pen (okay, in mine it's not, because I found Parker 51s and went down that rabbit hole long since; but I do like the look and weight of the pen and find the Ciselé finish to be attractive and classy looking).

But to have bought a pen like that new, and with that rather exotic nib on it? Awesome! (My journey began with a couple of Parker Reflex cartridge pens, and then I graduated to a Parker Vector -- had no idea back then, a decade or so ago, that there was more out there than just Quink Permanent Blue cartridges....)

What's the ink you were using for the writing sample? It's lovely (oh, and fair warning -- that's another rabbit hole to go down...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Pensei]

Nice nib, very attractive script.

[Bo Bo Olson]

My P-75 cost me a whole $22 (silver)*** and the as thin as a top of the line the $8.00 Cross ball point, a Jotter was very expensive also at $3.75.....pre free ball points.....yep, once the only free ball point was a stolen one.

A silver 'P-75' ball point with a mechanical pencil cartridge cost a whopping $18...in '70-71.....

That was real big money....for the draft time Air Force.

 

There I was in the BX drooling over a classic Black and Gold Snorkel I'd promised my self when young, when I got mugged by those two P-75 brothers.

 

Knowing about the P-51, I yanked the fountain pen out of the box, and tossed the box.....some 40 years later I discovered that P-75 could use a cartridge also .............I hated cartridges, in I couldn't afford them as a working man's kid in the 60's............they cost a fortune.....still do. Can put a converter in a P-75 too, so it's a triple option pen.

 

****Back before Nixon took us off the silver standard, one could take any dollar bill to a bank and swap it in for real money, a silver dollar.

[bbbdco]

[What's the ink you were using for the writing sample? It's lovely (oh, and fair warning -- that's another rabbit hole to go down...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth]

In reply to Ruth (above), the ink I used was Diamine Oxford Blue. I have already gone down the rabbit hole of ink. In fact, I am now working on finishing an Ink Journal. I am listing all the pens (fountain and calligraphy) that I own, all the special nibs, and all the ink. A lot of my ink is only 3 ml samples. But that way I can play. If I really like something, I can always order a bottle. I'll include some images of my ink journal. I decided to do a "loose leaf" journal. Then when it's complete, I'll either have it spiral bound and include some extra pages, or I'll put in a A5 6 ring binder.

[brokenclay]

Your work is beautiful.

[Says]

Wow your ink journal is incredible

[dms525]

A bit late to the party ...

 

I also resumed practicing italic handwriting after a bit of a lapse - 40 years in my case. It is amazing how much of the motor memory one retains. The other side of that is that it took me hundreds of hours of reflective practice to overcome the bad habits I had developed when I first learned - self taught and practiced in little snatches of time stolen from doing homework in college.

 

I never did and never will have your talent for drawing. But it's nice to see another aficionado of the sweet Roman hand.

 

Regarding the Parker 75: I have one silver Ciselè with the same nib of yours and a Flighter with a factory broad italic nib. They are very nice writers.

 

Happy writing!

 

David