Posted 18 May 2011 - 01:49 PM
I'm still in post-show mode, with no time to spare -- so this will be brief.
First, could we split off the discussion of the blue Sheaffer Balances into another thread?
Second, thanks to Daniel for the background on the status of credit jewelers vs retail jewelers in the first half of the 20th century. I had not had time to investigate this after finding the references in the Parker document.
Apologies if there was any confusion about the document that started this thread off. I posted two quick camera-phone snapshots to give a glimpse of what I was talking about -- visual footnotes, if you will. The actual document is a bit of a mystery, the bulk consisting of a (mostly) numbered list of Parker products, in the form of typewritten pages numbered 1 to 99, with a good number of pages missing (the missing pages are identified in a handwritten note on another page as 48, 52, 56, 60, 63, 66, 71,77-78, 85, 87-88, 90-92, 94-96). Appended to this are some pages having to do with the 51, including a few memos dated 1944 and two pages titled "SPECIAL '51' LIST" -- which, as we will see, appears to be an appendix to the main document.
Most of the memos and the Special "51" List refer to the 51, using the contemporary inventory numbers in 51-XXX format (the basic steel-capped black 51 being 51-061, for example). One memo (#505, dated Jan 26, 1944), however, is different, referencing the 99-page document instead. This memo is, in fact, a list of changes to be made to the main document, which is named in the memo as [your] "Catalog List of Pens and Pencils". Our copy of this document incorporates the changes requested in the memo, so we can safely say that it was last edited no earlier than late January of 1944. It does appear to have been a compilation, which is another way of saying that its organization is messy and inconsistent. There are many duplications of numbers, with some pens listed under their original model numbers and others under some other schema (the pearl-slabbed Parker 15 is listed as #15, for example, alongside another #15, "O.S. Black Jr. Deluxe Pen"). Each item has a price listed, and in some cases, a range (e.g., 7.00-8.00). Note that the Parker 51 has been placed in an appendix: under #51-00 is the note, "See Special Section". There is one exception, however, as the "'51' Demonstrator with transparent collector" appears as #1951 (which would appear to be a duplication of the more terse listing ("Demonstrator Pen") in the Special "51" List".
I understand this entire compilation came from Michael Fultz's house, and asking around, I could not get any definitive answer regarding its backstory. Dan Zazove believed that it was an attempt to catalog the Parker archives, with the numbering system based on tray location. This might explain why the Black and Red Giants are listed with no number, if they were too large to fit in a regular tray slot. Still, there are other items without numbers that are of normal size, and one still wonders why prices are listed for each item.