News — Vintage Fountain Pen

The Sheaffer Legacy Palladium set arrived today.  It is a very large and impressive pen that clearly has something of the Imperial about it but on a much grander, super luxury scale.  This is a pen that makes a statement, not sure yet what the statement is but I'll use it for a few days and post a full report.

I've just received a Parker 100 set in Smoked Bronze and was immediately 'taken' by the impressive dimensions.  It really is a large and very substantial pen with a very solid, chunky feel.  It was clearly inspired by the Parker 51 but on a much larger scale.  It put me in mind of a new 'Mini' car compared to the original.  I haven't written with the pen yet, I'll use it for a few days and post a report on performance. Parker 100 Review  This Parker 100 for sale here

I have noticed a number of Parker 51s being advertised, on eBay recently as 'Green'.  Most of them are, in fact, the much more common 'Teal' colour.  Given the poor colour rendering of the actual colour it is sometimes difficult to tell, on the screen, which is which.  I usually resort to photographing dark coloured pens against a coloured background to prevent them all appearing as black. This is a Forest Green pen: And this is a Teal pen: It is easy to distinguish between the two colours when shown together but if a seller just shows the Teal and...

The Parker 25 is much maligned, I have seen it described as 'an ugly writing stick'.  I disagree, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder after all and the 25 has a quirky, rugged, and functional appearance that appeals to me.  As for the 'writing stick' bit, well, yes, that's exactly what it is, and it does its job very well indeed. Its all steel construction and lack of moving parts make the Parker 25 virtually indestructible.  The steel tubular type nib isn't going to break if you look at it the wrong way and it writes very well....

The odd thing about the Parker Duofold Junior is that there is nothing 'Junior' about it!  It is actually a very long pen at 16 cm., well over 6 inches when posted.  It also has a very 'grown up', distinguished appearance, it's almost as if Parker took the very 'stubby' Duofold standard and stretched it to the correct proportions.  It is even comfortable in my great lump of a hand: And here it is alongside a modern, good sized pen, the Parker sonnet, and the real 'Junior' sized Parker Lady: Apart from being well sized the Parker Junior is also a...