Parker
Pens and Ephemera

Welllll, it looks just like a Parker Vector, but trusty readers have told us that it is a Parker Rialto. It has a brass cap and barrel foundation, unlike the mostly plastic Vectors. We like the two-tone color scheme. You will like the smooth-writing golden alloy nib that lays down a dry, fine line. It comes with an earlier aerometric-style squeeze-bar converter that still works. Takes modern Parker converters and cartridges, too. Light wear from use...not significant blemishes. 13.2cm capped.

Affordable and easy-to-use, Parker Vectors are great gateway drugs into using fountain pens. This preowned pen with a very modern design comes with a super-smooth steel nib that writes a great medium line. It fills with Parker cartridges or Parker converters. It comes with neither, but they are plentiful and easy to find. This dark-blue pen is very light weight. You'll find light wear from use, but there are no significant bits of damage. 13.1cm capped.

We like to call these nibs "farmers' specials." Click the headline for close-ups. When I was just getting started, I bought a Parker pen with a custom ground nib from the 1930s. All the tipping was gone and the nib had likely been broken in a drop. The farmer or handyman fashioned the remaining nib into a smooth writing affair, as it was too expensive to get the pen fixed during the Great Depression. This nib looks just like that. It is a smooth, wet and triple-broad firehose. The pen is a fully restored Parker Challenger Deluxe from 1935. No cracks, some wear and brassing. We gave it a new ink sac. Slender. 11.8cm capped.

If you prefer the smoothness of a fountain pen with the no-hassle ease of a ballpoint, then this luxurious Parker Duofold rollerball might be for you. Rollerball pens are like ballpoints, only they use cartridges with water-based fountain pen ink instead of the oil-based ink refills of a ballpoint. This preowned pen is based on the vintage pearl-and-black Parker Duofolds of the late 1920s. We include a brand-new black refill with the pen. Our pen shows a little wear from use, but it remains in attractive, great-working order. It has a 1994 date code. It is doing great for 30 years old! 13.1cm capped.

New to vintage pens and looking for a reliable daily user? Old to vintage pens and looking for a reliable daily user? Either way, this Parker 51 Special is a reliable daily user. Burgundy with a polished steel cap, it is a handsome pen with only light wear from use and neither cracks nor dents. Its aerometric filler is original and working well. Specials are different from standard 51s in that they have steel nibs. However, this pen writes as smooth an extra-fine to fine line as any gold nib. There is a black jewel in the top of the cap. 13.9cm capped.

Continuing our small collection of European Parker Duofolds, this vintage pen comes from London in the 1950s. It remains a sharp-looking pen in a burgundy finish with only light wear from use. Its greatest asset might be its gentle stub nib made of 14k gold. Click the headline for close-ups. You will get some nice line variation from extra-fine to broad at about .75mm. It is fairly smooth, too, with only a little feedback. Its original pli-glass ink sac is still in great working order. We love that its sac protector states it takes at least 5 squeezes to fill the pen with ink. American pens state either 6 or 4. 14cm capped.

Few cheap pens really impress us much, but our Parker Reflex definitely surprised us. We found its steel nib to be a very smooth fine-point writer. The wider rubberized grip made for easy holding and writing, too. The 1990s successor to the Parker Vector, this pen is in great condition with minimal wear. It takes Parker cartridges or converters, but it comes with neither. Ya can't beat the price, though. 14.1cm capped.

Made in the late 1940s or 1950s, we believe this to be a Danish Parker Duofold. Not the most common of finds here in the U.S., it is a fully restored pen with a new ink sac. It has a button filler just like the Parker VS pens in the U.S. It feels like a Vacumatic Maxima in size. No cracks. There is some wear from use and brassing on the clip. You will write a smooth nib that just when we think it writes a fine line...it writes a medium line. Whatever it is, we love writing with it. 13.6cm capped.