Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 415

In our last blog post, we featured a birthday gift Christopher recently got from his wife Chris--a special Parker gift box in which Christopher is now storing some of the jewels of his vintage Parker writing instrument collection. One of those fountain pens is the one we're featuring today...

Christopher writes: "Originally in my early vintage pen collecting days, I was not one for black pens. Just too ‘Plain Jane’ for me. But in time, I grew to like the smartly finished jet back colour. Let’s just say it grew on me! With this in mind, I expanded my collection to include some really nice examples in black. More recently, I ran across a jet black Parker Vacumatic, double jeweled and in superb condition. Still, with old dried up ink in the barrel, it was impossible to see any transparency. So, the pen had to come apart but, once rinsed out thoroughly, I was astounded to find that it was in fact the somewhat rare barrel with the black transparent longitudinal windows."

(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on images to enlarge)

He continues: "The pen holds a Parker‘ Speedline Vacumatic filler’ at the end of its barrel. This filler resides well buried under a long black jeweled blind cap with a 14K Gold Filled tassie. At the other end of the barrel, the grip section sports a Parker 14K Gold arrow nib, with generous flex. This nib is, in turn, covered with a cap having the double 14K Gold Filled Junior model rings. At the top of this cap is the typical Parker arrow clip with the wide feathered ends. To finish things off nicely, this clip is held in place with a brass clip screw covered with a matching black cap jewel.

Overall, this pen’s condition says it right and very well looked after prior to my involvement, may I add. It will now become part of the Parker Vacumatic division of my vintage pen collection and brought out from time to time to lovingly use."

What a great find! (you rarely see vintage Parker Vacs with those kind of windows, as Christopher pointed out). Well done, Christopher!