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The Parker 75 'ancestry'     The 75 was launched in 1964 but it's roots can be traced back to the Parker VP which was introduced in 1962. The 'VP' derived from 'Very Personal', referring to the way that the pen could be set up for use by a particular person, it also had 15 choices of nib style.     The VP was a bold attempt by Parker to appeal to 'serious' fountain pen users and was moderately successful. Unfortunately one design element was disastrous and led to the pen's early demise. The filling system used a refillable cartridge...

The Parker 180, for a long time considered a 'sleeper' in terms of collectability, now seems to have been rediscovered and has 'woken up'. The pen was introduced in 1977 and advertised as having “One nib. One point. Two ways to write.” This is because the pen is designed to be used “right side up” and “upside down” with two different line widths.  This claim is perfectly justified but, I have to say that, in my experience, the 180 almost always writes better the 'right way up'.  Parker had dealt with numerous complaints from customers using Gold nibbed pens, such as the...

I recently wrote about a MacNiven & Cameron 'The Cameron Pen', dating from around 1912.  The pen is, essentially, a bulb filler but it originally had two metal bars that were used to compress the sac, much like a modern 'aerometric' affair.  I have now finished work on the pen but am still unable to source the filler bars, but I live in hope. It's a hard rubber pen, in outstanding condition, with no signs of oxidation, it must have been kept in the dark for most of its life.  It uses a full length ink sac so all of the...

Chalk marks on vintage pen take the form of small, white lettering on a pen barrel giving, usually, the make, model, nib size, and retail price of the pen: This is an almost intact example of a chalk mark on a Parker 17.  Part of the price is eroded but I think it was '49/-, forty nine shillings. This is pre-decimal U.K. currency, the changeover date from 'old to new' currency in U.K. was 15th February 1971.  Pens produced, and chalk marked in the year or so prior to this date were dual marked, with prices shown in currencies, in this...

In 1921 the Wahl company produced their first self filling pen under their own name, the Wahl All Metal Fountain Pen, stamped simply 'Whal Pen'.  Contemporary lever fillers, having a metal casing, were made by overlaying the metal on to a hard rubber pen, but Wahl, largely because of their vast experience in working metal, were able to dispose of the hard rubber and build an all metal case. The pens were not only lighter than those of their competitors but were also stronger and allowed more room inside the barrel for a larger ink sac. The patterns were engine...