66 replies to this topic

[John Jenkins]

Very nifty pen. The piston filler is a real head scratcher. Still one I'd love to see in my Vac odd-ball drawer! Add me to the list of twenty or so who wish to purchase it.

Why do I get the idea that somewhere (heaven perhaps), George S. is laughing his a** off as he watches our so sincere minutia follies?
Sorry, a rare moment of introspection and self mockery - please take no offense!

John

[david i]

Very nifty pen. The piston filler is a real head scratcher. Still one I'd love to see in my Vac odd-ball drawer! Add me to the list of twenty or so who wish to purchase it.

Why do I get the idea that somewhere (heaven perhaps), George S. is laughing his a** off as he watches our so sincere minutia follies?
Sorry, a rare moment of introspection and self mockery - please take no offense!

John

Yep

At this point I see two core options (one can add tweaks no doubt)

1) The pen really is a Parker (it certainly looks like one) with some sort of retrofit. Cannot prove a negative though I disfavor true prototype (i keep open mind). Nothing like this has ever been seen from Parker. Those with archive visits have never found anything like it. Given that Vacs have sealed barrels, if the piston unit has matching threads to those of the usual vac busing, it could work.

2) The pen never was a Parker (looking like it by coincidence), and somewhere along the line was fitted with Parker nib and clip. I do note that the black end-pieces have somewhat different contour from the those of the de-re-badged Vacumatic-Diamond-Medal pens, proper.

Headache inducing no doubt. But very interesting. I really would like to do a side-by-side with the brown Parker of this sort in my possession.

regards

David

[John Jenkins]

Yep

At this point I see two core options (one can add tweaks no doubt)

1) The pen really is a Parker (it certainly looks like one) with some sort of retrofit. Cannot prove a negative though I disfavor true prototype (i keep open mind). Nothing like this has ever been seen from Parker. Those with archive visits have never found anything like it. Given that Vacs have sealed barrels, if the piston unit has matching threads to those of the usual vac busing, it could work.

2) The pen never was a Parker (looking like it by coincidence), and somewhere along the line was fitted with Parker nib and clip. I do note that the black end-pieces have somewhat different contour from the those of the de-re-badged Vacumatic-Diamond-Medal pens, proper.

Headache inducing no doubt. But very interesting. I really would like to do a side-by-side with the brown Parker of this sort in my possession.

regards

David

Good synopsis, I lean towards, #1.

I'd like to be looking over your shoulder as you do the side by side.
John

[David Nishimura]

I'm not so sure that there was complete exclusivity of the Vacumatic striped rod stock. Some of the Italian pens of the forties and fifties seem to use the same celluloid. I guess I don't know the dating precisley enough to say whether the production of these pens overlapped with vacumatic production or post-dated the Vacumatic, or if exclusivity agreements were only for the US, or if the plastic is just a really close copy.

Late reply:


Where IP law was enforced, you did not see Vac rod stock knockoffs, since the design was covered by a Parker design patent.

[parkercollector.com]

. Still one I'd love to see in my Vac odd-ball drawer!

John

We'd like to see your Vac odd-ball drawer!

/Tony

[David Nishimura]

Now that I can see pictures of the filler mechanism, I am quite certain that this is no prototype, but rather a European retrofit. Nor does the feed look like an original Parker Vac feed.

The threads at the end of the barrel very much look like those for a Vac filler. The filling mechanism is not what one would expect for a top-line maker; this is the simple version used for cheaper European pens, distinguished by a simple drive screw, a piston without any keying that is kept from turning only by the friction of the cork seal, and a one-piece turning knob that threads into the end of the barrel. Better piston-fillers would at minimum have had a two-piece turning knob assembly.

[david i]

Yeah, ebay still coughs up some good ones.

Here is final pen/image from my current store of info. Only pen i've ever seen in this color either as Diamond Medal (the rebadged Parker) or as a Parker, proper (de-re-badged Parker, "meant" to be a DM). Like yours but in one of the other two color cited, in this case brown. Bought this even with the chip in the cap-lip (hidden on other side of pen).

Happy to see more info, but I now have no more. After this, I can address other Sears (and Woolworth) re-badged Parkers, though perhaps should dive into that in another thread. This one already is... long

And, now I have the Diamond Medal version to match. A nice find early Summer 2011

regards

David