Featured Pen - 1945 Parker Duofold

This has probably been the most difficult Featured Pen post that I have tried to write.

The Parker Pen Company has an extensive history and there are entire websites devoted to these pens. In addition, there are so many expert collectors and historians that I've been terrified that I may say something that is inaccurate.

So, for the history and facts I'm going to provide you with a few resources:

• Parker Pens Penography by Tony Fischier - this is THE ultimate site for Parker pens and Tony is certainly more qualified than I am in his knowledge.
• Vacumania by Dr. David Isaacson - another expert and the acknowledged king of the Vacumatic.
• Richard Binders website - reknowned nibmeister and vintage pen restorer, his website contains wonderful reference pages of invaluable information for all fountain pen owners and is definitely not limited to the Parker
• Last, but certainly not least, The Parker Forum on The Fountain Pen Network - this is one of the largest forums on the Network devoted solely to the Parker Fountain Pen.

My pen is a Parker "Striped" Duofold Senior, made in the 3rd quarter of 1945.

The following is borrowed from Dr. Isaacson's website :

Senior is the largest model of striped Duofold. The series ran from 1940-1948. As large as a Slender Maxima Parker Vacumatic, it employs the Vac's filling system. The Duofold is a high quality pen which features the marbled-striped celluloid on a pen which essentially is a Parker Vacumatic. More than 100 variants can be identified.

This pen has a nice deep imprint and beautiful details. There is a small amount of brassing on the clip, but none elsewhere and the blue diamond is still blue.

The nib on this pen is typical of most Parker's of this era, fine and rigid, but very smooth. When I purchased this pen it was unrestored and after the restoration it was clear that this pen was a beauty. The celluloid has little ambering in the ink window and because of the potential to stain the interior of this pen I have been confined to using nonsaturated inks.

In my case until I can find something better I have limited myself to filling it only with Parker Quink Blue Black or Black.