24 replies to this topic

[Teej47]

Looks downright Demi-esque!

Tim

[david i]

Looks downright Demi-esque!

Tim

 

Yeppers, with a twist.

 

The key to the Parker 51 in this thread is that it is a vac-fill truly slender  Demi (smaller of the two pens made at any one time.

 

Demis were intro'd in the mid-late 1940's, not long before the vac-fill pen gave way to the Aerometric.

 

Vac-fill Demis had short barrel and short  metal ncap but were normal diameter pens.  Hood and Blind cap were normal length. Indeed, marriages are made when people plop standard caps onto the short Demi pens.

 

Later 1948+ Aerometric pens in Demi are actually more slender than standard pens, not just shorter.

The pen in the first post is a vac-filler. Yet it is a slender pen.  Standard caps won't physically fit properly.  The cap itself is short and slender with a cap-band that is not the usual "stacked coin"/"Jeweler's style" cap-band seen on the standard. It is done in higher relief and has narrower flanking smooth areas. 

 

I showed the pens to several fellows at the Ohio Pen Show who play with this series even more than I do.  At risk of misquoting and/or misrecalling...  Ernesto, Tim Laros, David Nishimura, Dan Zazove  Don Hiscock had not seen one before like this. There be yer gravitas

 

And, too, this shows yet another of the charms of attending a big pen show, the chance to discuss interesting pens in person with serious fellow collectors.

 

Had a sound preliminary chat  at Ohio about selling it.  I generally hang onto oddities, but 51's I do not collect with the same intensity as I do some series, and I can see letting this one eventually move to a more serious 51 collector's collection.  But, I want to keep it a bit longer and I already did promise right of first refusal to a serious 51 collector who plays at Fountain Pen Board, which, I guess, reveals one of the charms of playing at Fountain Pen Board, you get to be first to know I have one or another pen 

 

 

 

regards

 

david

[david i]

For first time since grabbing this collection, I had chance to sit down and peruse leisurely.  Eranowitz was down visiting and wanted a closer look. Go figure more off-catalogue (prototype?) material turned up.

Parker VP, the Very Personal. This one though with lined barrel and atypical nib shape. I might actually have owned one like this before, albeit in black.

 

Just some of the stuff turning up...

 

 

regards

 

David

[david i]

In a tray of Parker 51's lurked a vac-fill black pen with sterling cap.   The barrel imprint I found interesting.

 

 

 

regards

David

[Christof Z]

For first time since grabbing this collection, I had chance to sit down and peruse leisurely.  Eranowitz was down visiting and wanted a closer look. Go figure more off-catalogue (prototype?) material turned up.

Parker VP, the Very Personal. This one though with lined barrel and atypical nib shape. I might actually have owned one like this before, albeit in black.
 
Just some of the stuff turning up...
 

 
regards
 
David

I love VP's, but this is a treasure!
Congrats on this fantastic find.
Christof