Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 457

The pen we're featuring today is a modern classic that (arguably) should be in every serious fountain pen collector's collection--the venerable Parker '75'! This one belongs to Christopher...

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

Christopher begins: "Regarding complete casing metal fountain pens, I will admit that I am rather fussy about what I like, and what I don’t like regarding the chasing on the finish. Then again, when this Parker 75 was gifted to me, it kind of grew on me until I found myself quite liking it.

The 75 was introduced in the mid 1960s to boost sales and reclaim market share for the Parker company. It was the brainchild of Kenneth Parker, George Parker’s son who was commander-in-chief at the time and definitely at the driving end of the Parker’s success. Well versed with what a newly designed and innovated product could do, he had targeted the upper end of the pen market in the over ten dollar price category. Subsequently, the Parker 75 was a thoughtfully designed writing instrument well suited to any man’s pocket or lady’s hand bag. Strikingly elegant in its own unique way, let us start off with the stacked coin ends of both the barrel and cap. Add the Parker signature arrow clip and any number of barrel and cap finishes. In fact, the selection seemed endless. Something for everyone and anyone. But the good quality design did not end on the outside but followed suit on the inside with a very comfortable faceted and ribbed jet black grip. This rather longish part, under the cap sported an easily adjustable 14K gold nib. Adjustable for any hand by rotating a calibrated chromed metal ring. This set up was brought forward from the Parker VP where it had proven most successful. There was also a choice of fillers regarding a Parker converter style, or one could just apply a Parker ink cartridge to allow for quite a bit of writing.

My 75 has a 14K Gold Filled casing and falls under the Parker branding of an ‘Insignia’ model. The chasing on both the barrel and cap is a very attractive cross hatching. Which brings me to the pen’s size. It definitely is not a small pen, but does have a wee bit of tapering in its overall design from top to bottom and does sit very well in the hand posting at a full 5 ½ inches for writing but capping back to 5 inches for the pocket or purse. Definitely a elegant addition to any vintage pen collection including mine."

Our thanks to Christopher and everyone else who has sent in pen/ink reviews -- keep 'em coming, folks! We'll be featuring one of my own reviews (of an obscure modern German fountain pen) on Saturday :)

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