All Pens and Ephemera

Brilliant orange looks great on the modern Parker Duofold International pens. Based on the old "Big Reds" of the 1920s, these are every bit as good. Our preowned luxury pen only shows light wear on the pen and trim. No cracks, deep scratches or engravings. There is a little black schmutz in the barrel threads for the cap. You will write a nice, smooth medium line with its two-tone 18k gold nib. Included is a working Parker converter. Click the headline for close-ups. The International models were slightly thinner and shorter than the Centennial models. 13.1cm capped.

To our way of thinking, the Parker 61 capillary filler was the last great invention of the battle to create exciting new fountain pen filling systems. Just dip the Teflon-coated tube in ink for a few seconds, and you are ready to write. Sometimes you need to prime these by dipping the nib in ink the first time you fill it. After that it works great. We flushed out the old capillary filler as best we could with fresh water. However, you never quite get all the old ink out. That is what makes these pens less desirable for people who change ink colors daily. You pretty much need to commit to one color for these pens. Our pen comes with a Parker 61 box numbered 261. We don't know where the matching pencil is. The pen has light wear from use but not cracks or dents. You will write a smooth fine line with its 14k gold nib. 13.5cm capped.

Here it is! The granddaddy of the Jade Parker Duofold Centennial fountain pen. The largest of the modern Duofold line is in nearly mint condition with little to no wear from use...except for possibly a light ring of wear around the center of the golden cap bands. Our preowned luxury pen comes with a working Parker converter. You will write a very smooth, wet fine-medium line with its two-toned 18k gold nib. Click the headline for close-ups. Our pen was made in the third quarter of 1996--the first year these pens in this color were made. The Centennials were the "oversized" version of the pen at 13.6cm capped. However, oversized might be overstating how big it is. It certainly isn't as fat as a Montblanc 149 or Pelikan 1000.

Jade isn't the rarest color in the modern Parker Duofold line, but it was only made from 1996 through 2001 and was not a big seller. Our jade Parker Duofold International is the more slender version of the pen and was made in the 2nd quarter of 1996, the first year of this design. Our preowned pen is in like-new condition with minimal, if any, wear. When we dipped its two-tone 18k gold nib, it wrote a very nice fine line on what we felt was the dry side. A Parker converter is included with the pen. 13.1cm capped.

Click the headlines for close-ups. You are gonna want to see this stellar Waterman 52 fountain pen in nearly mint condition. It genuinely looks as it must have the day it left the Waterman factory in New York roughly 100 years ago! Deep, clear chasing. No cracks. No scratches. The barrel imprint is a bit weak in the center, but the rest is pretty good. We did not replace its ink sac, but it comes with a working ink sac. You will likely love how its 14k gold #2 nib writes a razor thin line to a shade over 1mm wide with a little feedback. It isn't just museum quality good...it is almost too good for a museum. We think the "Clip-Cap and lever box are nickel trim...not sterling silver. They might have referred to it as "German Silver." 13.6cm capped.

Easily confused with a Parker 51, this Parker 17 is actually a British model. Instead of a metal cap, such as the 51, this one has a plastic cap made of the same lovely green material as the barrel. It also sports a wider cap band and a tail jewel. You will see some scratches that were mostly made by the cap in its closed position. There is a tiny dimple in the wide cap band. The original pli-glass ink sac still works well. We get a kick out of how the sac protector instructs to squeeze the sac 5 times just to fill it. Early aerometric 51s were imprinted to squeeze 6 times and laters ones said to squeeze only 4 times. You will write a very smooth fine line with its 14k gold nib.

The rebirth of the Parker Duofold in the late 1980s as a modern pen with a vintage look was absolute genius on the part of Parker. We especially love that they adapted the vintage pencil look for the modern ballpoint pen. Many colors have been made for the newest Duofold line in the past 35 years. However, one of the rarer, and more collectible, colors is this jade green. Only made for a short while, it wasn't very popular with customers at the time. Now, however, it is a special treat for modern Duofold collectors. Our preowned pen show a little wear from use. There is a 1mm hairline crack in celluloid near the pocket clip and a tiny chip missing not far from it where the celluloid meets the metal topper. The twist mechanism works smoothly. We just installed a new blue-gel refill. 13.1cm capped.

History forever remembers the winners, but sometimes the losers have the more compelling story. That seems to be the case for the Eversharp Skyline and the Eversharp CA. The Skyline was Wahl-Eversharp's best-selling pen of all time. In an effort to be the first to bring ballpoint pens to market in the U.S., Eversharp CA pens looked just like the Skyline but featured the new and exciting technology of a ballpoint. "CA" represented the "Capillary Action" of the new ballpoint system. Unfortunately, Eversharp nearly went broke obtaining the rights to the first ballpoint refill and to get it to market in a mostly untested state. Once released, most of the pens failed to work as promised and Wahl-Eversharp lost their shirts on the lifetime warranty. This set is in good condition, though it has a little wear. The CA still has an original, nonfunctional, refill. The pencil still works well. A great curio for vintage pen collectors.