Mike Kirk

Haven't had much time to Antique Mall it lately but I did find some nice stuff in Decatur, IL this week. The Jotters are covered in the Parker forum in a couple of posts from the World Famous Hotel Bathroom Studio. Here is an unposed shot in a Sheaffer box from recent decades. The box is nice except for the fact that the outer cover is peeling off onto anything it touches. Very poor quality box material used.

There are Sheaffer Targa Ballpoints and a spotless Morrison's 14K GF pencil that the pencil brothers (term of endearment) would like (Jonathon, Michael & Joe).

One Targa BP is #1020 Imperial Brass which nicely matches my original set purchased new in Huntsville, AL in 1986. I also bought the matching accessories with my initials engraved in them but threw out the box (stupid me). http://www.sheaffert...ss classic3.JPG

I did not have the BP so that's a nice bonus and a keeper.

The second Targa is #683, the Medici Diamond as shown on the SheafferTarga website. Neither refills work so I'll have to replace them.

Another difficult-to-find Jotter has been scarcely present. One surfaced again, today. I found a Jotter with the following features:

1. Made In UK imprint.
2. “I.|||” imprinted next to that. The capital letter "i" followed by a dot and three vertical lines. This indicates 1^st quarter, 2004.
3. Concave button with Parker’s Script “P” logo imprinted.

For this date code, the feature of most interest is the concave button with Script “P” imprint. As a point of reference, Parker used plain, domed buttons from 1954 through 1973 when it introduced the concave button with a Parker “Halo” logo imprinted in the button’s concavity. In the year 2000, Parker began using a domed button again but with the new Script “P” imprint. In 2010, Parker dropped the imprint and continued to use the domed button with no imprint.

The year 2004 marked the 50^th anniversary of the introduction of the Parker Jotter. To celebrate this, Parker released anniversary edition pens with NO arrow feathers on the clip in special colors. These pens had the number “50” imprinted on the domed button top. But, it appears Parker produced at least a few typical colored (barrels) pens (i.e. blue, red, black, metal) that year. Perhaps for the retailers to sell (i.e. Staples, Office Max, etc). To properly mark them, Parker continued using the new script “P” logo imprint on the button but brought back the concave button for one year (2004). 2005 is suspect but I will ignore this for clarity.

It appears that 2004 is the only year Parker used the Script “P” in a recessed (concave) button. The buttons thereafter sported the Script “P” on a domed button top until the imprint was dropped in 2010. Therefore, the Jotter I found today is…as I said….difficult-to-find.

Here's another installment from the World Famous Hotel Bathroom Studio!

Two interesting finds from the same place and booth today (Antique Mall). I’ll address them separately.

First, a hard-to-find Parker Jotter. I have actually seen many more 1^st year ribbed Jotters than I’ve seen of this one. Here are the critical features:

1. Made In USA imprint.
2. “A” imprinted next to that.
3. Brass threads.
4. Concave button with Parker’s halo logo imprinted.

Now….it is collector convention (as I’ve never seen any supporting documentation) that Parker did not begin date coding their modern pens in the USA until 1979 (earlier in the 70’s in the U.K.). This is corroborated on Tony Fischier's Parker Penography website. That limits date coded pens with brass threads to only 4 years (1979-82). So the critical features are the 2^nd and 3^rd features above.

The date codes follow a typical 10 character pattern for years in a decade: Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y-P-E-N. This corresponds to the year in the decade starting with zero: Q=0, U=1, A=2 etc.

In the first 7 years of the decade of the 80’s, Parker used E-C-L-I to signify the quarter (of the year) the pen was made. E=1^st quarter, C=2^nd quarter, etc. I found one other pen that had NO quarter marking at all. My applied theory here is that no marking may be consistent with a 4^th quarter date, which Parker used to use (grinding off quarter dots in the imprint die until there were none). Oddly, in 1987, Parker switched to using III,II,I and none for quarter codes. No explanation has surfaced why they did this.

Therefore, I conclude this is one of the last brass threaded Jotters made in the USA. As a side note, I welcome any supporting documentation or other proof confirming Parker’s modern date coding conventions.

I know this is not spot on topic, but there are many FP collectors who are interested in other writing instruments such as the ballpoint. If you're wondering how the Parker "style" ink cartridge is made, view this videoon the process of making a Schneider Parker "style" ballpoint cartridge. The majority of the video is dedicated to this.

This post features two unknown, unmarked Parker Jotter suspects.

They are near identical to the 1973+ Jotters with three distinct differences:

1. The buttons are concaved (dished) but do not have the expected halo logo that the post 1973 buttons had.

2. There are absolutely no imprints/engravings that identify them as Parkers. No markings whatsoever.

3. The thread insert in the cap are plastic (as are 1983+ Jotters) but the thread pitch is somewhere in between the fine threads of the 60's and the coarse threads of the 1983+ Jotters.

They function equally as well as the marked Jotters. Difference #3 gives me the most question about origin of these pens. These are the pens closest I've ever seen to the authentic Jotters without proof of experimentation by Parker.

Yours to discuss.....

Mike Kirk