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#1 Wardok

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Posted 05 October 2010 - 10:12 PM

I lost out in the bidding for this item http://cgi.ebay.co.u...T#ht_500wt_1154 earlier tonight. Is it the same as the uncatalogued English prototype Vacumatic like the one on page 193 of the Vacumatic book? Can't tell the size from the listing and it seems to be the green candystripe rather than the brown one in the book. I didn't find the reference until after the listing ended so I was too timid in the bidding. Regret it now.

However I did receive a Black Canadian Vacumatic in the post today. It was just a bonus item in a larger lot, and is a bit of a mess, but it has a date code of 9, a lock-down filler, single colour Vacumatic nib, two cap bands and longitudinal "windows". It needs serious cleaning before it is worth taking pictures, but from my reading of the book, Parker stopped the longitudinal windows in 1934 or 5. Is this an oddity or something common for Canadian pens?

#2 david i

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Posted 05 October 2010 - 10:39 PM

I lost out in the bidding for this item http://cgi.ebay.co.u...T#ht_500wt_1154 earlier tonight. Is it the same as the uncatalogued English prototype Vacumatic like the one on page 193 of the Vacumatic book? Can't tell the size from the listing and it seems to be the green candystripe rather than the brown one in the book. I didn't find the reference until after the listing ended so I was too timid in the bidding. Regret it now.

However I did receive a Black Canadian Vacumatic in the post today. It was just a bonus item in a larger lot, and is a bit of a mess, but it has a date code of 9, a lock-down filler, single colour Vacumatic nib, two cap bands and longitudinal "windows". It needs serious cleaning before it is worth taking pictures, but from my reading of the book, Parker stopped the longitudinal windows in 1934 or 5. Is this an oddity or something common for Canadian pens?


Hi,

What we both missed (hey, even I cannot spot everything) is a Vacumatic retail value $1200-2000 in nice shape.

I would not use "prototype", an oft-abused word. The pens do appear to be English. The plastic is shared with other Parker-related pens from that era and locale. "Candy Stripe" and "colored mesh" are terms sometimes bandied for the plastic, though it is different from the "Candy Stripe" seen in Parker Televisor, Conway-Stewart, Moore (?) and perhaps others.


Speculation is that the pens were assembled from Canadian metal and British plastic. Three colors are known. Two sizes (Standard and OS) with Standard well more scarce, IMHO, than OS. I've seen fewer than 10 total pens in 12 years collecting. I own the brown OS shown in Paul Erano's book and have maybe four more lying about in the colleciton, some out for plastic repair (fragile plastic). The pens do not have typical imprint, usually marked just "Vacumatic" possibly a "registered," marking below (i'm not with the pens today)

Certainly these are low-run, niche-market, what have you. There is no evidence they were factory experiments not meant for release. Most are found in the wild and are found quite worn.

I wish I'd seen that auction ;)

A very neat quirk is finding a "Parker" (not just feather) clip on the Standard pen. I have strong suspicion this is correct, though not a typical finding on lockdown, first-gen pens, as the clip was intro'd after the end of typical 1st-gen production.

While I have not polled all collectors everywhere, I suspect at this point I have the heftiest hoard around of these English candy-stripe Vacs.

Here's a shot of a few. Additionally, I have a red OS and a second green OS

Posted Image


As to your black pen. The vertical-window block celluloid (not to be confused with the wrapped celluloid from the striped duofold era which does, very rarely, crop up anomalously on some 1939-40 second generation Vacs) appears in 1934 on high-line Vacumatic (Standard and OS) and on 1935 Junior/Slender-Junior pens. "Late" Vacs occasionally show up with early plastic, generally 1932-3 type pens (pre Vertical Window, Vacuum-Filler-ish) with 1937-8 date codes. That said, I have owned (actually might still, not sure which of my two I sold) an OS nearmint 1939-date vertical-stripe pen of this sort, maybe even with USA imprint.

Still, Canadian quirks happen. It sounds as though you know Vacs pretty well, but are you certain the black pen has "windows" clarity, not just black Shadow-Wave pattern, which would not surprise at all on a 1939 Canadian pen?

regards

David
David R. Isaacson MD. Website: VACUMANIA.com for quality old pens with full warranty.
Email: isaacson@frontiernet.net

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#3 Wardok

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Posted 25 October 2010 - 11:23 AM

David Thanks for the info (I'm not so sure I really wanted to hear the value given that I didn't win it, I gave myself a nasty bruise kicking myself). I shall try and post a picture of the visible part of the black vac when I manage to get one that is half decent, but in the meantime.... Whats this? http://cgi.ebay.co.u...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT It looks a bit like the ones we discussed earlier but is a different pattern and has a different style of blind cap. My gut feel is that this is a Vac copy although why anybody would go to the effort of doing so when it was bound to be challenged by Parker, I do not know. On the other hand it is in New Zealand so maybe it was easier to get away with patent infringement so far away. Thanks Simon

#4 david i

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Posted 25 October 2010 - 11:44 AM

David Thanks for the info (I'm not so sure I really wanted to hear the value given that I didn't win it, I gave myself a nasty bruise kicking myself). I shall try and post a picture of the visible part of the black vac when I manage to get one that is half decent, but in the meantime.... Whats this? http://cgi.ebay.co.u...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT It looks a bit like the ones we discussed earlier but is a different pattern and has a different style of blind cap. My gut feel is that this is a Vac copy although why anybody would go to the effort of doing so when it was bound to be challenged by Parker, I do not know. On the other hand it is in New Zealand so maybe it was easier to get away with patent infringement so far away. Thanks Simon




Hi,

That one looks to be a knock off.

Regards

david



David R. Isaacson MD. Website: VACUMANIA.com for quality old pens with full warranty.
Email: isaacson@frontiernet.net

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#5 penmanila

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Posted 25 October 2010 - 11:52 AM

yes, that one does suggest a knock-off, but interestingly, these sellers had what looked to be the real thing two or three years ago. i remember it well, because they had, at the same time, the emerald OS with the wide GF band that i acquired and posted about in another thread here.... what strange and wonderful creatures come out of new zealand!
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#6 Spen

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Posted 05 November 2010 - 11:45 AM

I asked about a pen similar to this over on FPN. The middle one in David's photo seems to be the one. It went for a reasonable price too. Link

Regards,

Nigel

#7 Wardok

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Posted 05 May 2017 - 11:08 PM

Nailed it this time 6 1/2 years on. http://www.ebay.co.u...cvip=true&rt=nc

 

Appears to be the standard size. Replacement Duofold nib and plastic showing some shrinkage around the top of the cap.

 

Imprint is purely Vacumatic and Reg TM. This last bit is how I identify English Duofolds so that supports it being English production.


Edited by Wardok, 05 May 2017 - 11:09 PM.


#8 penmanila

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Posted 09 May 2017 - 02:32 AM

congrats! the shrinkage around the cap seems pretty common to these models. i found mine some years ago in an ebay auction in ireland, and it exhibited the same problem. take note that the blind cap and section are made of hard rubber, unlike other vacumatics.


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