Parker Fountain Pens – History
Among the vintage pens, Parker Fountain Pens, are certainly the most comprehensively recorded and enthusiastically collected fountain pens. As other pen makers, Parker's history doesn't illustrate any bad experience or period due to the lack of "junk" pens. Parker Fountain Pens are now ranges from the humble but serviceable Jotter ballpoint up to limited edition fountain pens selling in the four figures. The value of technological research and development is never taken carelessly by Parkers.
The saga of parker starts in 1889, when George S. Parker of Janesville, Wisconsin established the company in order to produce reliable pens for his telegraphy students. Nearly as wildly copied as SheafferÃs lever filler, Parker also developed his own self-filling system and the button filler.
Parker's famous "Big Red" Duofold Fountain Pen
The golden age of the fountain pens started with the event of introduction of the Duofold in 1921. Innovation of both style and technique was able to crowd the market to ever-superior victory. Later, in the 20s, celluloid "Permanite" fountain pens were introduced by Parker. With the Vacumatic, Parker wraps a demonstration on other penmakers in 30s, and they set the competition further back with the futuristic 51 Fountain pen less than a decade later. Challenger and the Parkette are the lower price point discovery of Parker with colorful and reliable writers. The true classic from the 30s was Vacumatic, Parker's dramatically-styled fountain pen.
Around the turn of 1960s, with the very popular and stylish 45, Parker introduced the cartridge-pen market. Model 75 which was the prestige model of Parker during 60s and 70s, eventually leaded by the mark of the VP model. During 1980s, Sonnet arrived and replaced model 75. During 80s, the biggest news flashed dictating the reintroduction of the Duofold name in the form of the Centennial, which marked the company's 100th anniversary and harkened back to the classic Duofolds of the 1920s and 30s.
Parker was also involved in the overseas markets, especially UK and Europe where local concessionaires basically assembled Parker's Fountain Pens for local sales. The UK operation in particular flourished into a quasi-independent firm. Hence, Duofolds, UK-made Parkers like the 1950s-60s are known to collectors as stylish, well-performing pens. Along with the pace of time, the difficulty in further management in Parker's international lineup was noticed. Therefore, Parker transferred its fine-pen production to France from U.S. During 1970s but later it was relocated to UK. Parker closed down all production at its original Janesville site in the beginning of 2000s.
Parker's finest fountain pen during the 1960s-80s was the Parker's Fountain Pen 75.
Recently, variation on ownership of Parker has also been noticed. They were first purchased by Gillette and both Parker and former rival Waterman were taken over by office-supply giant Sanford in 2001. Afterwards, several models including fountain pen has introduced at lower price point, and the trusty Duofold Centennial and Sonnet series is also preserved by it.
 Vintage Nr MINT PARKER 61 CUSTOM Fountain Pen Capillary Fill English $148.52 (16 Bids) Time Remaining: 39m |
 Parker Ingenuity Large Chrome CT Pen $190.00 Time Remaining: 28d 10h 26m Buy It Now for only: $190.00 |
 Vintage PARKER ROYAL CHALLENGER 2 Jewel Senior Fountain Pen Silver Herringbone $169.99 (1 Bid) Time Remaining: 40m |
