Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 442

(Many thanks to the eleven brave souls that came to our in-person meeting last night, despite the awful weather; I'll post some photos from it in the next few days :)

The hits keep on coming... Here's another one of Christopher's latest acquisitions--a beautiful vintage Canadian-made Parker Vacumatic !

Christopher writes: "On the vintage pen front I have several new additions which I picked up on my travels last week. Here is the first one."

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

He continues: "Every once and a while I run across a vintage pen which, literally, I cannot live without. The second I lay eyes on this one, I was smitten! And it just kept getting better. When I got the pen home and into my workshop to restore and service, I noted immediately that it was Canadian and a good few years after the American Parker production of the Vacumatic had ceased. Checking out the Parker Date Code on the barrel it was a quite clear imprinting ’52’, or 1952. I should add that there is a lot of reference to the Canadian Parker plant in Toronto closing down their production of the Vacumatic in 1953. But according to Kenneth Parker’s journal, it was 1955 when the last full Parker Vacumatic rolled off the human assembly line. This makes perfect sense because in 1998, I drew an illustration of a pen I had in 1955. which, according to my dear olde Mum, was a Christmas gift from her and my father to yours truly that year. Since I had no idea what a Parker Vacumatic was when I drew that illustration from memory in 1998, I would have to say when I became a full blown vintage pen collector in 2010 that my illustration of this fine pen I had was none other than a Vacumatic. And to qualify further, as I recall it was a silver and pearl model."

"Turning the clock forward, the overall finish of my newly acquired Parker Vacumatic is brilliant Burgundy and Pearl. Being definitely a late third generation model, the back end of the barrel sports a plastic button Vacumatic filler covered by a jewel-less long rounded ended blind cap. Atop the other end of the pen is a Major single, inverted chevron 14K gold filled single wide banding. The Parker arrow clip does not have the blue diamond warranty but, finished also in the 14K gold filled, is still very attractive. The single jewel which covers the clip screw is jet and underneath this cap is a very impressive 14K sold gold Parker Vacumatic Canadian imprinted flexy nib. This nib sits on the Parker ‘Wide ink Channel feed that is marked on the underside with a ‘W’."

"Still, I have saved the best tell for last, and that revolves around both the other finish brilliance and a totally clear barrel transparency. So clear, in fact, that one could read through it!!! Evidently the Burgundy finish in the third Vacumatic generation is rather rare and does not surface all that much. So I guess that I would have to admit that there is nothing about this fine Parker pen that I don’t like. It will be come a cornerstone in my vintage pen collection to be used often."

(Above: Christopher's own illustration of his Parker Vacumatic from his memories of Prep School)

Our thanks to Christopher for sharing another wonderful vintage find with us!