20 replies to this topic

[david i]

Parker USA gave us the original flat top then streamlined Duofold, the "toothbrush" Duofold, and finally during the 1940's the "striped" Duofold.

England as late as 1940's made Duofold (in some wild colors) that resembled the early 1930's USA-made streamlined Duofold, then in the mid 1940's briefly manufactured a mottled celluloid Duofold that had shape quite like the Parker Vacumatic. Soon after that injection plastic Duofolds appeared from England. Button-fill (Double then(?) Single Jewel), later Aerometric, even a lady model with hooded nib evoking "51"

But, at the Philadelphia Show (Jan 2011) a Duofold I'd never before seen walked right up to my table.

What could I do... I bought it.

And, yeah, I know, "I've never before seen" is accompanied by all the usual caveats

Still...

This one has Canadian Duofold markings.

I've seen blade style clip (iirc) on some striped Duofolds made in Canada, similar to USA-made striped 1940's pens. I've never before seen a blade clip on an injection-plastic (seems to be that, anyway) pen. The pics above show injection-plastic British Duofolds, all of which pack the expected feather clip. Anyway, take a first peek at the pen. The blade clip, smooth cap-band, and Canadian markings are not the key findings, but they provide some context.

There is more. Opening the back end, we see this one is a button filler, note the neck proximal to the threads on the button assembly is consistent with what is shown in the olive colored English pen shown above. Earlier USA Duofolds (eg. Flat top) iirc have threads that emerge directly from the barrel

But, now we get to the killer finding.


When I tried to unscrew the pen, the entire barrel separated from the capped pen, leaving the sac exposed and still attached to the guts under the cap. I rethreaded the barrel... and... pulled...

This is a clutch-based friction cap Duofold. First I've seen.

The clutch arrangement appears to be functionally similar to that of Parkre "51". A 51 cap fits the barrel and this Duofold's cap can close properly on a 51 barrel.

Here is a close-up of the cap and clutch

Really, far fewer Canadian Duofolds (even of more conventional structure) are found than USA and English pieces. So, while we do have in play the usual "Canadian Caveat" as in-- those wascally Canadians have habit of giving us weird pen variants-- this pen nonetheless is very interesting.

Thoughts?

Has anyone else seen one of these?

regards

david

[John Danza]

Very interesting David. It's a kinda-sorta VS, but not really. The section, clutch ring, button filling mechanism, clip, and clutch in the cap are pretty much VS. But the two major differences are significant, the first being the Duofold imprint and the second being the plastic cap.

Those Canucks are whacky!

[parkercollector.com]

Very nice!
There are a lot of cool stuff popping up from the Canadian factory. The Parker "19" and the Arrow, just to mention two.

I had a look at my Parker Archive pictures and found a few similar items. Parker was clearly working on an open nibbed "51"-style pen, that allowed some flex. They began experimenting with Vac-style pens with slip-on caps, and vac-fills, eventually they got to the button-filled Parker "VS" (Vacumatic successor), which eventually got the aerometric filler, but there were lots of cool stuff manufactured in between and it seems Toronto also had some fun in the work shops? Here's the Arrow (yeah I know I've shown this before, but it's cool, isn't it?):




And here are a few Archive pictures from the experimental drawers:





/Tony

[David Nishimura]

Here's another interesting Canadian Duofold, sold not long ago from the www.vintagepens.com catalog:

[John Danza]

Here's another interesting Canadian Duofold, sold not long ago from the www.vintagepens.com catalog:

Looks like planned obsolescence with the plastic clutch ring. That thing will wear pretty quickly and need to be replaced to keep the cap from getting loose. Good thing Parker made it removeable.

[ceejaybee]

I replied to a request to help id one of these Canadian Duofolds over on FPN a while back but my suggestion was met with silence...... in fact I'd say it killed the thread

the photos are still posted if I'm allowed to post a link?

ETA: I had seen one prior to this and the reason I had remembered it was because of the colour - it was a very unusual rusty orange, a colour I've never seen before on any Parker.

[Admin]

I replied to a request to help id one of these Canadian Duofolds over on FPN a while back but my suggestion was met with silence...... in fact I'd say it killed the thread

the photos are still posted if I'm allowed to post a link?

SNIP

Hi,

Pen links to any source, any board, always are welcomed. Whatever grows the knowledge....

Feel free, too, to reload the images to our Gallery, or just clone the current address so the images show here.

Regards

You know who (hiding behind the curtain).

[John Jenkins]

I've nothing to add, but nice thread gents.

[Terry Brack]

Has anyone else seen one of these?

why, yes I have one that I found a few years ago. I tried to generate some interest in discussing it on another board but there was only a little interest. It was agreed then that no one watching had seen one before and that it seemed to be related to the VS.

Here are some pics:



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]

[FarmBoy]

I had a look at my Parker Archive pictures and found a few similar items. Parker was clearly working on an open nibbed "51"-style pen, that allowed some flex.

They were clearly working on something.

This one escaped the archives.

Farmboy



(Someone that knows how to make the pictures full size can do so. They are in the gallery.)

Pasting the image link code from Gallery after hitting the photo icon in the posting editor seemed to do the trick.

-Admin

[matt]

And here is one of those spoon clip slip cap Canadian Duofolds

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160927554729

[Sir. Ebaysalot]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I would like respond to David's question Has anyone else seen one of these?

 

I didn't know that they were that rare, although I have a Canadian Duofold with the same clutch style friction cap above in MINT, NOS condition with a rare clip and trim style. Pictures are soon to come.

 

-Vincenzo

[david i]

Hi Vincenzo,

 

It is a good thing to bump an old thread. Better than a new thread about identical topic. Keeps things manageable.

 

Interesting to here some of these are bouncing about.

 

regards

 

david

[Drdd]

I have had a few of these actually. They were sold through a Canadian dept. store called Eatons ( I've seen copies of the ads dating back to the early 1950s). The clip styles tended to vary - from the one illustrated to a flimsy aluminum clip to older 51 clips. There is an interesting variety of nib that is imprinted vertically. The plastic in the pens is not all that stellar. A few years ago I obtained a green Arrow with a vac. Nib. Great pen.

[david i]

Hi Drdd,

 

Do you have an advert that shows this sort of Duofold?

 

Best regards

 

David

[Drdd]

Let me dig around for it

Dave

[Drdd]

Actually check out the post by Matt on this board - under elements of collecting. April 18, 2012. I have the pen (w/o blind cap) illustrated in the upper left corner

[david i]

Thanks. I'll peek.

 

regards

 

david

[Sir. Ebaysalot]

Here are some pictures (I thought I took one of the clutch ring, but I guess that is not so).

 

[Drdd]

So here are my Canadian Duofolds, and a Canadian Arrow - of about the same vintage.  Note that the Black pen has a replacement blind cap.

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