Today and Monday, we'll be featuring reviews of two vintage fountain pens from the Parker Pen Company's venerable 'Vacumatic' line. Our thanks to Christopher for sharing these wonderful new finds with us!
Christopher writes:
"I think what has to be the most exceptional finish in the Parker Vacumatic line was their Shadow Wave.
It came near the end of the 1930s as something new and extremely
innovative. Basically a finish consisting of thin vertical lines on an
opaque cap and transparent black lined barrel integrated with a pearl
which could be brown, burgundy, green or grey. Like the barrel
transparency of the regular Parker Vacumatic, these Shadow Wave models
also offered that same barrel option. The purpose, of course, was for
the pen user to assess the amount of ink in the unit. There was also a
jet black to round out the colour finishes. The Parker Shadow Wave Came
in three distinct sizes, but definitely was considered in the Parker
Junior model classification. There was the regular and most familiar
double cap banded Junior. A regular Debutante model with the single cap
band chased with inverted chevrons and a smaller ‘Junior Debutante’ which was much the size of the regular Parker Vacumatic Juniorette."
(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on image to enlarge)
Although I do have a very early Shadow Wave brown ‘full sized’ Junior with a lockdown filler and wide feather clip, the other day it was my luck to run across the somewhat rarer Junior Debutante that is a full three millimeters shorter than the Shadow Wave Debutante. And this fine Parker pen is finished in a grey pearl with very good transparency. Also the outside finish is truly brilliant unlike some of the Parker Shadow pens I have seen, which usually are a bit on the dark side when it came to their finish. But what really surprised me about this pen was the fact that even at 85 years old, once washed out and inked, it came to life immediately. Needless to say, it has a proud place in my vintage pen collection."
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