Parker Luckycurve Eyedropper fountain pens

Early Parker Luckycurve Eyedropper fountain pen

The story has been told many times, how the telegraphy teacher George Safford Parker bought tools to help his students with repairs of their poor quality fountain pens. Which he incidently also had sold to them, since he was moonlighting as a sales agent for the John Holland Gold pen company. And when he realised that he already had most of the tools to make pens of his own he eventually ended up starting his own production with the help of a local jeweller.

I have always love the Parker lucky curve eye dropper..its nice filigree design. truly elegant. Early fountain pens had no levers, buttons, or other filling mechanisms. To fill one of these pens, one will need to screw it apart, usually at a nearly invisible joint between the gripping section and the barrel, and fill it with an eyedropper. When you reassemble it, you cap it with a cap that slips over the tapered section and is held in place, if you’re lucky, by friction. Pens of this type were notorious for uncapping themselves and leaking, and it was this fault that led to the invention of “safety” pens such as Parker Jack-Knife.

Parker Vacumatic

The Parker Vacumatic from the 1933-1953.

After a year or so of test-marketing trials, the Parker Vacumatic was formally launched in 1933, replacing the Duofold as Parker's premier line.  Vacs were initially released under the name "Golden Arrow", and then "Vacuum Filler".  US production continued through 1948, and until 1953 in Canada.  Although other patterns were used, Vacumatics are strongly identified with the laminated celluloid which they pioneered.  Clear celluloid alternating with pearlescent allows the ink level in the barrel to be immediately visible.  Vacumatics are pump-fillers, with a large ink capacity.

Great marketing campaign from the past:

Montblanc

My latest Montblanc pen

Big red & others

Sheaffer mother of pearl fountain pens & others

Sheaffer fountain pens

Waterman safety fountain pemns and filigree

These are my favourite. Many of the filigree pens are in black. I am lucky to be able to find one in red!

Parker duofolds

Parker Duofold

In 1921, the Parker Pen Company took a risk by introducing a new pen based on the design of the company’s successful Jack-Knife Safety pen. The new model, proposed by a Parker branch manager named Lewis M. Tebbel, was the Parker Duofold. It was identical to the oversize Jack-Knife Safety Nº 26, and instead of the usual black, It was red. It was known as the Big Red. It was priced at $7.00, a dollar more than the Jack-Knife Safety Nº 26. Tebbel insisted that the Duofold would sell, but very few in Janesville were optimistic — until sales took off with great success. 

There are various sizes and colours for the Duofold collection. The maxi size is considered to be the most desirable and the  mandarin yellow the most desirable for the Duofold collectors. The Mandarin yellow color appeared in Parker’s catalog after a visit George Parker made to China, where he discovered this particularly bright yellow and observed how popular it was there. 

But it wasn’t as popular in the West and as a result, not that many yellow Duofolds were made. To make things worse, the yellow celluloid turns out to be much more fragile than the material used for any of the other Duofold color as these pens, when they turn up, frequently have cracks at the cap lip.

Even during the early 1920s, Parker has already started to target female consumers with the below advertisements:

Vintage filigree eyedropper pen & Montblanc snake

My Collection of vintage fountain pens: Parker, Waterman, Sheaffer, Montblanc, Peliken,

Dunhill Namiki from the 1930s

Dunhill Namiki from the 1930s

In England during the 1920s, the Alfred Dunhill firm had gained international renown as purveyors of tobacco pipes, smoker’s supplies, pens, and the finest luxury goods. With stores in prominent locations in London and Paris, the name of Dunhill was synonymous with quality.

Clement Court, the Managing Director of the Paris operation, had a long-standing love for Asian art, especially the art of Japan. In 1927, Setsuji Wada, Namiki’s representative abroad, convinced Dunhill to sell makie pens on a trial basis. Wada and Court were introduced that year, and Court was so taken with the Namiki line that he immediately began importing not only pens but other lacquered objects into his Paris branch. 

They were sold under the new brand-name of “Dunhill-Namiki”. A strong bond had been forged, and Court’s excellent business relationship with Namiki led to an exclusive 1929 contract giving Dunhill major distribution rights for Namiki pens and pencils outside of Japan. By this time, Dunhill had a retail network in all the best locations in over thirty countries  

Parker Giant Eyedropper Fountain pen

Parker Giant Eyedropper fountain pens

The Parker Giant was one of the pen that my Sifu, Mr Lee has advised me to hunt (owing to its size and its reality). When holding in your hand, it feels like the fattest cigar one can find. No one knows why it was build that way. Some says its for salesman demonstration. My question is if its for salesman demonstration use, wouldn't it better to use a transparent demonstrator pen? Perhaps transparent pen were not invented and ready then. Maybe it was build so huge that it can contain more ink and eliminate the need to refill the pen?

Look at the size of the vintage Parker Giant fountain pen vs. the modern day Parker above!

Brand new old stocks vintage Parker Pens

NOS Vintage Parker fountain pens

 have managed to find brand new old stocks vintage Parker fountain pens during the 1980s.

It was a fun period as I was able to buy good deal from those old stationary shops, pawn shops and people are thanking me to help them clear away these rubbish".

With the internet and ebay, everything has become expensive... 

Vintage Eyedroppers fountain pens

These are vintage eyedroppers that dates back to the early 1900s-1910s. Many of the early eye droppers comes with beautiful filigree designa dn mother of pearly inlay and represent the work of art.

Demontrsation fountain pen & Parker Duofold

These are vintage demonstration fountain pens. During the ealier years, salesmen will use these transparent looking pen to explain to their customers how the fountain pens work.

Vintage Parker, Waterman, Sheaffer,

These are some of my collection of eye droppers and filigree pens. Look how much detail and how much work has been put into the making of these pens.

Even though these are from the 1910s-20s, many of these pens are still in useable condition. Many of the fountain pens were made to last ( which is very environmental friendly).

Key brands include Waterman, Parker amnd Shaffer.

Vintage Mont Blanc fountain pen

This is an early Mont Blanc eyedropper with the snake pen clip. Mont Blanc has re-launched the snake pen clip Agatha Christie in the mid 1990s.

I have found the vintage montblanc from a flee sunday market when i was working in Taiwan. As I was born in the eyar of teh snake, I immediately fall in love with the poen and boght it straight away...at a very good price too!

Vintage fountain pen collection

The start of my Vintage Fountain pen collection journey (SINGAPORE)

The start of my Vintage Fountain pen collection journey

Collecting vintage fountain pens is my first "serious" hobby. My first fountain pen belongs to my father.

I damaged my father's Parker 45 fountain pen during my childhood days and rediscovered the fountain pen when I was in the University.

I took the pen to a local dealer and to my surprise, the fountain open could be repaired. At that time, I was told of the meaning of "Life time guarantee".

This incident in 1988 has inspired me to start my search for the vintage fountain pens. The first areas of my search were the old book stores in Singapore & Malaysia. I ahev managed to find several Parker 75, Parker 21, Parker 51, 61 and several Sheaffer's fountain pens in near mint condition.

As I was only an University student with limited income, I have to work part time as T shirt salesmen (I went to the "Glomenti "Polo T shirt factory to source for the T shirt and then sell them to my school mates with some progfits) In addition, I was very active in giving tuition and doing part time works (such as helping other students do their school project works) plus selling T shirts in order to generate income for the hobby.

During the early 1980s, there were very little books on vintage fountain pens, I will have to gather my facts from the old bookshops and old fountain pens repairer (in Peneisula Plaza and at Bras Basah complex). In addition, I was fortunate to have met my vintage Fountain pen's Sifu Mr. TK Lee who has provided me with clear directions on how to collect and what to collects. The meeting of Mr. Lee was an interesting story. Mr Lee was formerly working and staying in Hong Kong. During the early 90s, I was featured in a Singapore Vantage magazaine. His friend in Singapore found the magazine while visiting a dentist. After the dentist session, he then took the magazine back and mail them to Mr.Lee in Hong Kong.

Upon reading the magazine, Mr Lee then visited Singapore and contacted the GM of Parker who then passed my contact to Mr. Lee. We have had several session of interesting exchanges and we viewed each of our collection. Upon seeing his collection, my eyes began to open and I finally know the meaning of "collection".

I have since lost contact with Mr TK Lee. If Mr. Lee, you have happen to read my blog, please drop me a line so that we can re-establish contact...