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View Full Version : Davey scores Monster Off-Catalogue 1920's-1940's Parkers in the Janesvile Hoard



david i
November 3rd, 2013, 10:22 PM
Last month I bought my first big Parker hoard found in Janesville, where I have been spending half each month due to bizarre coincidence. I didn't go there just because I am a Parker collector

Shown below are four monsters, or so I believe ;)

I tend to favor "off catalogue" rather than "prototype", a term bandied about too casually. I don't ascribe intent, but note that all of these are the first of their sort I've seen and that some might be only one known to hobby, though contrary views are invited. All share features with other known (if not necessarily catalogued) Parkers.

Four items Left to Right

Green Stripe Parker Vacumatic, mid 1930's
Red Stripe Parker Vacumatic, mid 1930's
Gray/Lustraloy Parker 51, 1940's, cap-band resembles the lined "jeweler's cap-band" found on Parker's Vacumatic
Parker Lady Duofold flat-top, orange celluloid, 1920's (noting one cap-band slipped from pen, soon though to be swaged by Ron)

Comments are invited. Can you identify what is interesting? Do you agree with my assessment? Doubts? Challenges?


I consider this a very special find. After all, as my profile in PENnant Magazine states, more or less, "Always it is nice to find a big or glitzy pen, but for me the key hobby charm rests in the obscure, the anomalous, the off-catalogue"

I posted this over Fountain Pen Board (FPnuts.com). I'm not sure if the more modern-oriented crowd over here at FPGeeks will relate to this batch, but there are pens in here that are off the charts.


http://vacumania.com/penteech2/parker_janesville_offcatalogue900a.jpg

Do have it. There truly is a fair bit to consider with this lot. You might never see this stuff again.


regards


david

Jeph
November 4th, 2013, 01:03 AM
I know very little about Parker pens so I have no business opening my mouth. The little I have seen, however, has impressed me. So, as a test, I am going to try and answer without any research in order to help myself learn. I will check later to see how well I did.

1) Green Vacuumatic: Vertical stripes? I actually hope that I am wrong about that but I think I would remember vertical stripes as the only thing that has prevented me from buying a vacuumatic is that the horizontal stripes do not really appeal to me.

2) Red Vacuumatic: The elaborate cap band and barrel jewel?

3) Grey 51: The cap band and maybe also the blue diamond on the clip?

4) Orange Duofold: I have no idea.

AndyT
November 4th, 2013, 01:38 AM
I'm a complete ignoramus about Parker, but I can certainly relate to those pens.

david i
November 4th, 2013, 04:45 AM
I know very little about Parker pens so I have no business opening my mouth. The little I have seen, however, has impressed me. So, as a test, I am going to try and answer without any research in order to help myself learn. I will check later to see how well I did.

1) Green Vacuumatic: Vertical stripes? I actually hope that I am wrong about that but I think I would remember vertical stripes as the only thing that has prevented me from buying a vacuumatic is that the horizontal stripes do not really appeal to me.

2) Red Vacuumatic: The elaborate cap band and barrel jewel?

3) Grey 51: The cap band and maybe also the blue diamond on the clip?

4) Orange Duofold: I have no idea.

Hi Jeph,

Only way to learn is to explore. I'd hate to think unfamiliarity would discourage... ;)

Note it's "Vacumatic"

The green Vac indeed shows off-catalogue plastic. Most Vacs show hoops/rings similar to the red Vac next to it. Other Parker-documented patterns are known including longitudinal/vertical wavy thinner lines (Shadow Wave), marbled pattern and an orange-pearl brickwork known to collectors as Golden Web. However these thin vertical lines are not catalogued for Vacumatic. Parker did use that plastic for re-badged pens Sears sold under its own house-label of Diamond Medal, but DM pens in this plastic are different, in shape/trim (tale for another day. I can give link to a lengthy thread at FPB on the Parker-made DM's). Occasional Parkers do show up with that plastic, but they have the shape and trim features of the DM pens. This is the only Parker, proper, done in typical Vacumatic Standard (model name for this mid 1930's pen) trim/shape I've ever seen in this plastic. Very special

The Red Vacumatic is not special for the cap-band and/or jewel, though the extra-stack bottom tassie (trim ring at butt) is seen with only a couple models. You guys should try again on this. Look at it for structure, compared to the green pen, which at least has normal structure.

The Parker 51 cap-band looks like the Jeweler's (its name, still a Parker original) cap-band and blue diamond is common to 1940's 51's. Need to try again

Orange flat-top Duofold has uncatalogued cap-band pattern, that wide middle band not normal to flat-tops

For those who want an Advanced Placement course on Parker Vacumatics (and such) made for Sears and rebadged as Diamond Medal, here is thread on that, including a pic of a similar but different vertical green-stripe Vac. It is NOT the same as the one in current thread; it has same plastic but has Diamond Medal structure, with thin washer ring clip, plain black blind cap contoured without tassie ring)

1930's Parkers rebadged as Diamond Medal for Sears. 4 page hefty thread (http://www.fountainpenboard.com/forum/index.php?/topic/179-pics-o-the-gold-brick-funky-parkers-from-the-thoities/)

regards

David

fountainpenkid
November 4th, 2013, 04:47 AM
I think the second pen is a thermometer case.

david i
November 4th, 2013, 05:05 AM
Excellent, Will. The Burgundy Pearl (red stripe) Vac indeed is not a pen or pencil. The cap does not overhang the barrel and there is no mechanism at the bottom. Parker Thermometer cases to match pens/pencils of course are Parker catalogued ~1934. That thus is not what makes this off-catalogue. More...?

kaisnowbird
November 4th, 2013, 06:23 AM
My knowledge of the vintage pens is not very much and kind of all over the place so I'm just thinking out loud here:

1. The red Vacumatic, as you said, is not a pen, pencil or thermometer case, and the shape is quite different from the Vac FP to begin with. Taking a wild guess, could it be one of those scale things?

2. The Parker 51 is a dove gray vacumatic filler, with what seems to be a polished lustraloy cap. A brushed lustraloy cap is more common, but still, I don't suppose the fact that it's polished is not special enough. The jeweler's band looks tarnished. Could it be a polished sterling silver cap or something other war time special metal?

I hope I'm getting a teeny bit warmer. :p

fountainpenkid
November 4th, 2013, 06:24 AM
That band seems to me to be something used only in the late
30s and 40s...but you say the pen is mid thirties, and the clip and jewel would make me think so.

Jeph
November 4th, 2013, 06:54 AM
Reading that Sears/Parker thread made my eyes cross so my energy is depleted. I am not sure that I learned much other than how much I don't know and that I now have an entire new group of pens to be hunting for. Last attempts, after research has not really helped:

2: Not a pen, pencil, thermometer...the only other thing I saw referenced was a holy water sprinkler.
Thinking about it did give me a neato idea to cram a small maglight into an old (useless as a pen) pen though...

3: The only thing that I can think of that is left is size. Size numbers for the various pens are harder to come by than I had thought. I am going to say that the 51 is longer than normal.

Now I will simply sit back and wait for the true wisdom to flow.

david i
November 4th, 2013, 07:56 AM
Reading that Sears/Parker thread made my eyes cross so my energy is depleted. I am not sure that I learned much other than how much I don't know and that I now have an entire new group of pens to be hunting for. Last attempts, after research has not really helped:

2: Not a pen, pencil, thermometer...the only other thing I saw referenced was a holy water sprinkler.
Thinking about it did give me a neato idea to cram a small maglight into an old (useless as a pen) pen though...

3: The only thing that I can think of that is left is size. Size numbers for the various pens are harder to come by than I had thought. I am going to say that the 51 is longer than normal.

Now I will simply sit back and wait for the true wisdom to flow.

Hi,

Sorry to Jeph and Will if I was unclear. The red stripe Vac indeed is a thermometer holder (opens in the middle), something that (in the general case) was catalogued by Parker for limited time around 1934. That it is a thermometer holder, not pen or pencil, is not what makes it off-catalogue. The thermometer in fact was catalogued only in Silver Pearl celluloid. This is the only red I've seen, also packing a later date code than is usual for thermometer cases by Parker. I also own a similar green one, also late production.

As to the 51. I'll let you play a bit more (nice of me, right). It is a Vac-fill mid 1940's "51". The cap does look more or less like a typical "Jeweler's band" 51 cap. This 51 is not longer than normal. That it might appear to be so perhaps is a clue...

regards

david

snedwos
November 4th, 2013, 08:58 AM
Does the cap not fit properly? Is there something underneath?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk (http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1)

david i
November 4th, 2013, 09:15 AM
Hi,

The cap fits. Nothing of significance is hidden.

regards

david

Farmboy
November 4th, 2013, 09:48 PM
On my phone the 51 is the wrong color.

david i
November 5th, 2013, 03:47 AM
Hi Todd,

Color is ok onthe "51". Dove Gray vac-fill pen.

regards

david

Ernst Bitterman
November 5th, 2013, 03:19 PM
Hi,

The cap fits. Nothing of significance is hidden.

regards

david

That lets out a red-band filler on the 51, then, although the gap on the blind cap suggests something is up at that end. "That it might appear to be so perhaps is a clue..." makes me want to cry out Holy Water Sprinkler, but that is also a significant thing hidden from view.

The extremely rare Parker 51 Tire Gauge?

david i
November 5th, 2013, 03:46 PM
Hi Ernst,

Again, perhaps "my bad". I left the gap at butt of pen (by not fully closing blind) just to illustrate the pen was a vac-fill (not aerometric) pen. I'm not hiding anything there. I would not obscure the nib because something else is there. The pen appears as it is. Question is, and it is tough given the image, is anything funny about it.

regards

david

dannzeman
November 5th, 2013, 04:14 PM
Hi Ernst,

Again, perhaps "my bad". I left the gap at butt of pen (by not fully closing blind) just to illustrate the pen was a vac-fill (not aerometric) pen. I'm not hiding anything there. I would not obscure the nib because something else is there. The pen appears as it is. Question is, and it is tough given the image, is anything funny about it.

regards

david

For some reason The blind cap on the 51 looks longer than normal to me.

Farmboy
November 5th, 2013, 09:43 PM
Two bits of black flake on the barrel I shall assume are not what we are looking for. Perhaps we are to see what appears to be the hole in the blind cap?

david i
November 6th, 2013, 05:24 AM
Black on barrel of 51 is ink/dirt. Don't think that is a hole on barrel, but that never caught my eye in any case so it not the "off catalogue" issue.

The blind cap might appear longer than usual, and while camera artifact indeed can generate such a look, I note that in this case the blind cap in reality at first peek indeed might appear a bit longer than usual. Good pick up on that. But, in fact it is *not* longer than usual. That it appears that way indeed is... interesting. I'll have to add another pic soon...

regards

david

Jeph
November 6th, 2013, 07:22 AM
So, not because I know but simply by deduction, I declare that the blind cap is more tapered than normal.

david i
November 6th, 2013, 06:26 PM
Another look at the "51", next to a typical "Jeweler's Cap-band" pen. The lines are higher relief on the gray pen's cap. The flanking smooth bands might be bit narrower. But, there is much much more...


http://www.vacumania.com/penteech2/parker51prototypeTweak850b.jpg

regards

d

fountainpenkid
November 6th, 2013, 07:57 PM
I knew those proportions were off! But after the optical illusion with the blind cap, I decided that it was probably because of the camera angle and lighting.

david i
November 6th, 2013, 08:07 PM
The gray pen in fact is slender. Demi diameter. Short cap. Demi Aero caps fit the pen.

So, Will... have you ever before seen a slender (Aero girth) Demi vac-fill 51?

regards

d

fountainpenkid
November 7th, 2013, 04:11 PM
No, but that is awesome!