Vacumatic Mystery

[Mountain Man]

I bought a nice-looking double-jewel silver pearl Vacumatic on eBay and wonder about some of its attributes.  First, the imprint, which is very clear only says “PARKER VACUMATIC” with nothing else – no Made In, no date code.  It certainly does not look like portions of the original imprint were worn away.  Also, as shown in the picture, beneath that is a symbol that I can’t identify. The same symbol appears on another vac from the same lot – but on that one (made in Canada) has the full imprint.  Could this be a Parker symbol or perhaps it is a prior owner who owned both pens.

I also wonder about the nib.  I looked at the  Parker collector site (http://parkercollector.com/vacumatic/nibs.shtml ) and it looks either like  a “two-tone gold and platinum ‘USA Parker’ nib used on the topline pens until 1936,” or a “‘Parker Vacumatic Reg TM Made in Canada’ from the Canadian production line.”  But, the nib on my pen says nothing about the country of origin.

Any thoughts or input about what I've got, or what any of this means would be much appreciated.

Stewart

 

[FarmBoy]

Christian Olsen

[Mountain Man]

Thanks FarmBoy.  With that information I see lots of other good information both here and elsewhere.  The lot of pens I bought came from France - that explains a lot.  It's a nice pen.

Cheers,

Stewart

[VacNut]

Is the twisted nib the result of a nib not properly set to the correct length and being bent by the cap? The nib seems to extend too far out.

[Paul-in-SF]

Also, the nib stamp doesn't look right, as if it was stamped in two steps and the PARKER is stepping on the tail of the feather. Nothing to do with the original question, I suppose, but it is a curiosity.

[VacNut]

It is unclear to me what the nibs on an Olsen Pen should look like. I am guessing they are not like the UK or Canadian nibs. This 2-tone nib is interesting. The Reg T M imprint is different.

[Mountain Man]

Quote

Is the twisted nib the result of a nib not properly set to the correct length and being bent by the cap? The nib seems to extend too far out.

 

Yes -- the nib was "way out" when I got it and clearly it had been bent by the cap. After a soak it popped out with a push; I didn't need to knock it.  I pushed it back in for storage and will try to straighten it out when I'm ready to restore the filler.

 

I haven't found any reference to a similar looking nib.