Parker - Fountain pen

Parker 51 fountain pen and vintage mechanical pencil in metal laminated in yellow gold and silver finishes, in perfect condition with the original period case.

The Parker 51 fountain pen first appeared on the market in 1941 (the challenging year of Pearl Harbor and the United States entry into the war) at a price of $12.50, equivalent (at official inflation rates) to about $201 today.

The American house advertised its “51” as “the pen most sought after in the world,” a slogan that alluded to the difficulty of obtaining one due to the well-known restrictions on the American civilian market during World War II. The insistence on this slogan turned into enormous commercial success: during the war period it generated demand that would be satisfied only several years after the war ended.

The pen and the ink were named “51” to connote 1939 as the fifty-first year of the company’s activity. Moreover, giving a numeric designation to this new model inaugurated a new practice: giving new models a numeric baptism avoided translation problems of names in the many different languages.

With the 51 Parker seized the opportunity to introduce a series of important innovations, both stylistic and substantial: in particular the tubular “covered” nib and the multi-slit feed, together with the use of dedicated ink, allowed the nib to stay wet and leave a uniform trace even with super-fast inks as well as with traditional ones.

The composition of the dedicated ink proved aggressive toward cellulose nitrate (celluloid): this forced Parker to make an innovation in the very structural material of the barrel: for its chemical-physical characteristics, Lucite was chosen, an acrylic resin (polymethyl methacrylate = PMMA) then extremely innovative, which owes its name to the high transparency to light, comparable to glass.

Over its evolution Parker moved from the “Vacumatic” filling system to the so-called “Aerometric” system (with the metal converter containing a rubber sac).

The 51 represented, in short, a concentrate of innovations aimed at guaranteeing flawless and long-lasting operation, at least until production ceased around 1972.

It is said that it was actually a Parker 51 (or his wife’s Duofold, according to a less credible version...) used by General MacArthur (commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific) to sign Japan’s surrender on the battleship Missouri, on September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay.

Extremely rare variant not found in Parker 51 production.

Length of the fountain pen: 13.7 cm; diameter 1.5 cm.

Length of the pencil: 11.5 cm; diameter 1.2 cm.

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