For the sake of symantic fun (what, nobody else finds that fun?)... Surely this would be proto-atypical (the first of a different kind), right? A true and literal prototype (first kind) establishes the form or pattern of something that is subsequently followed. A prototype establishes a pattern, and thus typically is difficult to distinguish from what follows.
Sorta like if you were to call my house and a deep male voice answers the phone. Good luck being able to tell whether you've got me or one of my four sons. The newer models are pretty tough to distinguish from the prototype.
What this nib is though is very interesting.
Tim
Hi Tim,
You're lobbing me the softball for a classic
David Pen Semantics Rant.
To set up my answer, I start by noting that hobby jargon can carry specific meaning, nuance or import not found in general definitions. If you have any doubt about that, note that in real life most of us are happy to have done a
good job at something, or to get a
good grade in schoolwork or to be considered a
good guy by our acquaintances... and so forth. But in collecting- whether pens or coins or what have you- if you spend money blindly for that pen or coin in
Good Condition expecting to have it turn out to be in good condition, you will be sorely disappointed to find out that "good condition" means rotten in hobby jargon.
SImilarly if you buy a Parker Vacumatic sold as a Demonstrator (hey, you can see the guts do their thing via the transparency, so it does... demonstrate, right?) that turns out to be a generic boring black Major, you would be disappointed, even though the pen indeed does deomonstrate.
Hobby jargon matters.
Moving on...
Indeed, quick dictionary peek for prototype offers
pro·to·type (pr
t
-t
p
)
KEY NOUN: - An original type, form, or instance serving as a basis or standard for later stages.
- An original, full-scale, and usually working model of a new product or new version of an existing product.
- An early, typical example.
However-- and recognizing there is room for debate as we have no rule book for this sort of thing--- hobby usage for capital-P Prototype transcends absolutely simply the use of the term for "early issue". If it didn't , the legitimate gravitas and cachet carried by the term would be lost as every first year Balance, every first year Vac could be called a prototype.
Just as in pendom "Good" means "Bad" and "Demonstrator" transcends "to demonstrate" instead meaning a specific and usually not-for-sale special issue pen issued in limited quantities to dealers in order to demonstrate the function of pens that actually were for sale to the public, so to does Prototype carry specific definition, even if the edges grow fuzzy.
Vintage pen prototypes in hobby jargon reference factory trial pieces, overlapping the notion of "experimental", often different from items released for sale to general public, or at least marked (if no different from released items) by factory markings to suggest the trial status. And, yes, I realize that there are finds that can push the edges. Too, hobbyists have habit of attributing this status to things that are anomalous, off-catalogue or new in their experience, which imo is incorrect to do.
As to this nib.
Could it be a prototype that leaked to the public? Could it be a nib not meant for general sale, made in tiny number, a trial piece to hone the technique of the two tone effect that eventually would be released publicly in different form?
Well... maybe. But that should not be the default assumption following first observation, as it plumps the status of the finding, perhaps inappropriately.
And, again, if it is an early form of the nib (my speculation), I note again I don't want to use "prototype" simply for "earlier form", although obviously, most prototypes will be- literally- early forms of that to which they lead.
Too, while I have handled literally thousands of Balances and have peeked at most of the nibs of pens handled, It is entirely possible that others of this sort have fallen under my radar and of that of most casual observers. We'd have to ask how many people have looked at, say, 100 Lifetime nibs found in relatively early model pens and how many of them were paying attention to the two-tone divider line, to see if there even is a sampling out there of anecdote for this sort of nib.
And, that's my rant.
-d