17 replies to this topic

[penmanila]

I got lucky last night and finally landed one of my last few “grail” pens, a Parker Royal Challenger from around 1937, in the brown herringbone pattern with the stepped spade clip. I’d always admired these and had wanted one for a long time (a sword clip would’ve been nice) but they were either priced quite high or had problems if affordable. I picked this apparently good specimen up from eBay for $89 plus shipping from Europe, and there’s a bit of rust or tarnish here and there on the metal trim but it seems all right, otherwise, just in need of a new sac.

 

It’s advertised to be 135 mm capped, so my question is, was there just one size for the Royal Challengers? 

 

 

 

Edited by penmanila, 28 June 2014 - 01:15 AM.

[JonSzanto]

Lovely - congrats!

[david i]

Two sizes, though from the image this might be the smaller. Seems a bit narrow at butt.

 

regards

 

d

[Procyon]

Sweeeet!   Love it!

[Peterg]

If that was the pen I was bidding on there was also a shorter Royal Challenger from the same seller finishing shortly after as well.

[penmanila]

thanks, folks. i found david's previous thread on the royal challenger (and his predictably impressive collection):

 

http://fountainpenbo...al-challengers/

 

peterg, i saw that other pen as well which was being sold as a "gold lady challenger" or some such, but i'd never heard of a lady challenger before, and upon closer inspection it seemed to me to be a diamond point pen that apparently used the same plastic as the RC. i posted a thread about this lookalike sometime ago. i hope the eventual buyer knew that.

Edited by penmanila, 28 June 2014 - 01:11 PM.

[jonro]

Congratulations! I picked up a brown herringbone Royal Challenger a couple of years ago and it was one of my grail pens. Now, the burgundy herringbone Royal Challenger with the sword clip is one of my grail pens. You probably already know this, but there were two sizes for the Challenger. The smaller one is 4 ⅞" capped; the larger is 5 ⅛". It's frustrating when eBay auctions list a Challenger as about 5" long. That ¼" makes a big difference, since the smaller Challenger is more slender. Since Parker only produced the blue Challenger for one year, and only in the base model, my wish would be to discover a prototype blue Deluxe Challenger. That would really make my day.

[David Nishimura]

Now that would be a proper "grail" pen: a blue Royal Challenger (with Excalibur clip?)

[John Danza]

I really like the RC pens. I had this same brown herringbone in the senior model with a sword clip, and like an idiot I sold it. I need to find another one, but my preference is the red herringbone.

 

David Isaacson shot a photo a few years ago showing the three colors and various sizes/trims of the RC model. I'm sure once he's available, he'll post it to this thread.

[david i]

 

-d

[david i]

Here's a nice one lying about...

 

 

 

regards

David

[penmanila]

well, the pen finally arrived at my sister's place in virginia (on a slow boat from hungary) and i had her take a quick-and-dirty shot of it. it looks to be a bit over 5 inches long. would that make it the bigger size?

 

[david i]

Yep, that's the Standard not the Slender. Final trim style.

 

regards

 

david

[Frank(Federalist Pens)]

I was in vacation up in Long Island last week (North fork/Rte 25), and I nabbed a Sword clip FP/MP set in Grey! Also got a Waterman 52, and a Sterling 452! A good lot of very nice stuff- It's nice to be a "sumgai"!! (Pics later!)

[david i]

Nice finds!
 

-d

[Norm]

I was in an antique store in Arkansas in 1992 and asked if they had any fountain pens.  They brought out some and this one was one of them. It was so dirty and messed up looking I said I didn't want it. They came down on the price a couple times and I finally got it for $2.00.  It cleaned up pretty well, I think.

 

[Frank(Federalist Pens)]

WOW! $2!!

 

That's the deal of the year!!

 

That is the pen I got (FS w/matching pencil), but I did have to fork out $500, I did get 18 total pens (some pencils), and those previously listed were some of the better items! 

 

 

Frank

[Frank(Federalist Pens)]

Nice finds!
 

-d

 

Thanks David!