Here's a lovely story from Christopher about one of his newest vintage finds, and the pen that inspired this purchase--enjoy!
"Many years ago, my dear olde late Mum worked for a lawyer in New York City. His business was definitely confidential and, in light of this
interest, he asked my mother for her confidence and assured her that he
would reward her for a tight-lipped attitude.
To this interest, she followed it without question and as a reward at
Christmas in 1940, he rewarded her with a very handsome bonus. At the
same time, Mum told me that she needed a pen which resulted in a trip to
the downtown New York outlet of Tiffany's.
At their pen counter, the attendant showed her a number of Parker
Vacufold pens and, from these, she selected one with a Blue and Pearl
finish. Years later, when I was a young lad, she entrusted the inking
and care of this wonderful treasure to none other than
me. Frankly, it was an honour, and I treated that pen like it was solid
gold. Then, in my Mother's twilight years, she insisted that this pen
become mine but, admittedly, this was prior to my great hobby interest in
collecting vintage fountain pens. Oh sure, I
had used the likes in prep school, but the time had not arrived in my
life that an entire old desk in our current house would be full of them.
I displayed this pen on a Brass Napoleon bust inkwell stand, but it
was missing a leg. This missing appendage I
filled in with one of my Mum's metal thimbles. Sadly, at one point, this
support fell away and, in turn, that priceless family treasure
disappeared. Admittedly, I have turned over stones in our house hoping
to find it for years but, as of late, it still eludes
me. So, as a solution and to pay tribute to my mother, I came up with
the idea of acquiring a similar vintage pen, but at the same time making
it even more special!
(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on image to enlarge)
This replacement pen came to me a month ago, as a Parker Vacufold
double cap banded Junior, but finished in the Gold, Black and Green
Parker Laidtone Parker patterned, Lucite plastic. But what made my Mum's
pen somewhat rare, was that it was double jeweled,
and not the more common single cap jeweled model. Fortunately, this new
acquisition on my part was, in fact, a double jeweled Vacufold as well. A
true first year model, with its Parker Date Coding on the
barrel of the second quarter of 1940.
The fittings
are 14K Gold filled and the cap clip is the straight tapered plain
arrow, typical of this Parker pen line. The barrel presents the
'Duofold' branding, which is essentially what this pen really is and, at
the business end, is a rather short black but responsible
section, sporting a somewhat small 'Parker Fountain Pen' 14K Gold
marked nib. But as small as this point is, it cannot be discounted for
its truly amazing ability to apply ink to paper. It definitely falls
into the league of a general writing medium flex
nib. A winner in my books. Still, if you add in the matching mechanical
pencil and original Parker display box that came with this fountain pen,
what more can I say? Well, there is actually one last point of interest
in regard to this pen. And that is that
I replaced the blind cap jewel with a real emerald, professionally
set. The result is a perfect item and set to honour my dear olde Mum and,
in turn, add to my vintage pen collection."
Our thanks to Christopher this review!
Hope you can make it to our February meeting, which will be held on Thursday February 20th at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library (all information in the blog post directly below this one)!
