(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on image to enlarge)
Christopher writes:
"Being mainly based in Western Canada, British vintage pens do show up in my neck of the woods. Case in point, a superb Parker 'Super' 17 Duofold, new old store stock in a very attractive presentation box, Circa 1964. What is interesting about this particular vintage pen is its overall makeup. And allow me to add that unlike its Super 17 Duofold predecessor from two years prior, it sports a hooded 14K Gold nib and at the end of the barrel, a gold tassie with matching (to the overall jet finish cap, section and barrel) jewel. This is an injection molded pen, but I think the quality of the plastic the Parker Company used makes up for any lack of quality. Plus, this writing instrument really sits well balanced in the hand. The fittings are 14K Gold filled and the slip-on cap sports a very wide gold banding. Also, the cap clip was a new design, in that there are more tapered feathers at the top end, but the overall length of the arrow is shorter. All in all, a very well-designed vintage pen.
This brings me to the filler, which is definitely aerometric with a transparent ink sack. As for dimensions, this pen posts at 5 ¾ inches but caps back to 5 ½ inches. There is very conservative branding on the barrel in cream that reads, "17 Super" with, further up the barrel, an M for a medium nib. There is also a reference to the pen's place of manufacture -- 'Made in England'-- at the Parker Newhaven plant, and the 1958 released Parker double 'P' back-to-back with an upwards arrow and center halo logo etched into the barrel as well. This logo was, in fact, designed by the Dynamics Company of Chicago.
This brings me to the superb British made presentation box. It has a cream satin insert card to secure the pen. But the covering material on both the inside and the outside of the box lid is an attractive small, pebbled cream offset with small black dots. Also, on the outside of this box top is the Parker name in scripted gold. The bottom of this box is reversed in design with an overall small, pebbled jet covering with small light blue dots. On the top left corner there is L4, which could be the British Parker model of this particular pen container. The box overall is extremely well made, and the fit of the hinged top is superb.
Big points for this UK treasure which has already found favour in my vintage pen collection."
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