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Parker 25 Variations


gvl

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I must confess that I have not paid a great deal of attention to these sturdy well made pens in the past although the design and shape of the Parker 25, when produced, was quite a change from previous models. I was curious to see that one regular pen seller on eBay recently advertise the pen he was selling as a Mk II Parker 25. This prompted me to examine the pens I had in my possession in more detail.

 

I believe the stainless steel version of the pen with the blue trim was made throughout the 15 years of manufacture so it is probably a good one to choose. I have found three differences to the pen.

 

The first and perhaps most significant is that early nibs had a vent hole and were more tapered with longer tines. The photo below illustrates the difference.

 

http://gvlewis.fileave.com/2010_0120pens0129.JPG

 

The second difference, this is one which was highlighted by the seller on ebay, is that whilst the earlier pens had a flat top to the cap, later ones had a slight dimple - as shown below.

 

http://gvlewis.fileave.com/2010_0120pens0130.JPG

 

Finally, there was a change to inscription at the base of the cap from Made in England to Made in UK.

 

My guess is that these changes occurred fairly early on during the Parker 25 life cycle. The most common pens as far as I can see are those with the Mk II style caps with the Made in UK inscription. The Mk II style caps with the Made in England inscription are also fairly common. Flat tops are relatively scarce and I have only found one example of the vent hole type nib. So I would suggest that a timeline would be something like:

 

EARLIEST: Vent hole nib, Flat top, Made in England

EARLY: Mk II nib, Flat top, Made in England

LATER: Mk II nib, Dimpled top, Made in England

MOST RECENT: Mk II nib, Dimpled top, Made in UK

 

These suppositions are made solely from items in my own collection. I would be interested to hear the views of others, particularly those that have come across the vent hole nib.

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Very interesting. I have three of them, and I never realized the differences. All of my pens are stainless steel with blue section, but after reading your post I can point the following differences:

 

#1: Vent hole nib, flat top, Made in England

#2: MK II nib, flat top, Made in England

#3: MK II nib, dimpled top, Made in England.

 

My #3 arrived boxed and with the instructions leaflet, but no dates at all. :crybaby:

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Very interesting. I have three of them, and I never realized the differences. All of my pens are stainless steel with blue section, but after reading your post I can point the following differences:

 

#1: Vent hole nib, flat top, Made in England

#2: MK II nib, flat top, Made in England

#3: MK II nib, dimpled top, Made in England.

 

My #3 arrived boxed and with the instructions leaflet, but no dates at all. :crybaby:

 

Yes, it would be useful to have production dates for the different versions. My own thoughts are that type 1 and 2 would date from the 1970s.

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So I would suggest that a timeline would be something like:

 

EARLIEST: Vent hole nib, Flat top, Made in England

EARLY: Mk II nib, Flat top, Made in England

LATER: Mk II nib, Dimpled top, Made in England

MOST RECENT: Mk II nib, Dimpled top, Made in UK

 

These suppositions are made solely from items in my own collection. I would be interested to hear the views of others, particularly those that have come across the vent hole nib.

 

Hmmm,

now you have opened a can of Parker 25 worms

I have more than a few of these sturdy pens and would be more than happy to help with their time-line, (a lot of mine have date codes) it may get a tad boring on open forum.

Let me know if you want me to P.M. you with the details.

 

If it interests forum members I will happily post the details here.

 

http://freespace.virgin.net/paul.barrell/pics/p25o.JPG

 

Regards

Paul.

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interesting read. my dad loves his parker 25 that I offered him 19 years ago.

Pens are like watches , once you start a collection, you can hardly go back. And pens like all fine luxury items do improve with time

 

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Thanks for the info, Paul

 

The green pens are in some ways the most interesting. I always thought that these were prototypes but based on the date codes they seemed to have been produced over a number of years and well into the 1980s. The green ballpoint with the flat top + the LI date code seems to be bit of an oddity - perhaps the people at Parker found some of the older style plastic tops which they added to a few later pens.

 

Otherwise my suggested timeline looks a possibility..? This would be based on the view that early Parker 25s didn't have datecodes and had flat tops. Production of dimple topped models commenced in the late 1970s and date codes were introduced in 1980.

 

Just an idea really.

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Thanks for the info, Paul

 

The green pens are in some ways the most interesting. I always thought that these were prototypes but based on the date codes they seemed to have been produced over a number of years and well into the 1980s. The green ballpoint with the flat top + the LI date code seems to be bit of an oddity - perhaps the people at Parker found some of the older style plastic tops which they added to a few later pens.

 

Otherwise my suggested timeline looks a possibility..? This would be based on the view that early Parker 25s didn't have datecodes and had flat tops. Production of dimple topped models commenced in the late 1970s and date codes were introduced in 1980.

 

Just an idea really.

 

 

Hi gvl,

 

Very interesting observation on the Parker 25. We can put a time line on these differences by What Parker printed in ther catalog. The Febuary 1978 Show the Nib with the weep hole and by Febuary 1979 Catalog it is already gone. Looks like this was a product of only the 1st year. This should help with the time line. All later catalogs show the same Parker 25 as shown in the 1979 Catalog. :thumbup: :notworthy1:

 

Take Care, Francis

 

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b11/fjm111/scan0011-4.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b11/fjm111/scan0012-3.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b11/fjm111/scan0013-4.jpg

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Please do!

 

/Tony

 

Hi Tony

this file is an xls (spreadsheet)

Hopefully you have office or some thing better to view it with.

 

My link

 

 

Excellent spreadsheet - this is just the sort of detail people like me love. Well done for posting. I only have 1 Parker 25, a Ballpoint - flat top, green trim, made in England. I'm glad you LIKE them but personally I find, the ballpoint at least, a bit too thick in the barrel and as mine is a flighter a bit slippery. Tough as nails though.

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There does not seem to be any consistency when dating the flat top or dimple top tassies in the 25 range - I would think it depended solely on batches that were made and used at the factory - it is not a feature like a 61 tassie or a 75 clip screw. Although it seems from the limited information that the earlier models have a flat tassie. Collectors may also like to consider size and depth of engraved text on the cap lip. I only collect ballpoints - my green ballpoint has a flat tassie, not my blue or black. It should be considered that when dating stainless steel models four colours of plastic were used. Blue was the first in 1975 - it is likely Parker used blue because their other Flighter models such as the 45 and 61 used black plastic parts. Black followed later in 1979 in USA, late 1980s in Europe - as the components were available from the 25B. Certainly green was not as readily available as other colours and I am not aware it appeared in the catalogues; although I don't consider it a prototype. The red/orange was produced in small numbers but at that time Rotring felt it could be confused with their trademark and consequently Parker had to take it off the shelves (if anyone has a red ballpoint for sale I would be most interested, in fact, does one exist?), a bit ironic when you think that Parker and Rotring are now owned by the same company. The matte black model, known as the 25B, was introduced in 1978 - this was Parker's first range of epoxy matte black pens, and the epoxy white with blue trim (25 White CT)in 1983.

Finally, the fibre tip (softtip) was available from 1975, but the rollerball was only available from 1981.

Regards

Graham Hogg

www.ballpointpen.co.uk

Edited by ballpointpen
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IMHO allow me to share with you of the information may be consider.

 

I was told by Parker that the design actually help people holding more than one pen in breast pocket to id what pen they want to draw from the pocket easier. This are still in use if you note the jotter pen/pencil, Sonnet ball/roller/fountain pen,

 

When the parts run low, the system cannot follow thru esp roller and fountain pen......

 

Or look at lamy I just fall in love recently and noted the pen have a (O) a (-) Or a (+)........

 

For your consideration

 

Sorry for my bad english....... :thumbup:

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Dear Pual,

Save your trouble and time. :roflmho:

Quick send me a orange P25 soon........... Thank you :thumbup:

 

 

Hmmm,......

Let me know if you want me to P.M. you with the details.

 

If it interests forum members I will happily post the details here.

 

Regards

Paul.

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From my own collection I can confirm that the vent hole nib (Mk I) has been used in the first year ot two of production. Also, in advertisements later than 1976-77 no Mk I nibs appear.

 

All other nibs are Mk II, including the italic nibs.

 

As for the flat/dimpled tops, I am not sure. I tend to agree that the flat top is first made, the dimpled one being Mk II, as all of my orange trims are flat topped.

 

One of my sources on parker info copied from a Parker manual/catalogue the following:

http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz137/UncleShaughn/prodP25.jpg

 

Remark: On the roller ball there are two varieties, see https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/107757-help-for-parker-25-spare-parts/

Quoting from there:

 

There are the FP, the ballpoint and the pencil, then there are the fibre tip with a small metal band around the shell and the roller ball/floating ball with a broad metal band on the shell. That's five. The fibre tip will not take roller ball fillings.

 

BUT.

 

There is also a hybrid form that takes both fibre tip and roller ball and I've found them in blue, green and black. I suppose the threads of these shells were in the end too vulnerable and therefore replaced by a somewhat sturdier design. The fibre tip refill was taken out of production, as I heard because it dried out too soon.

 

Anyhow, this goes for stainless steel and colour trim, not for matte black and matte white pens as these were manufactured after the fibre tip shells and the hybrids disappeared. Nevertheless, because retailers might have changed and replaced parts, you can probably expect to find all combinations 'in the wild'.

 

Another thing that I noticed is that the early engraving on the cap is very rough and it seems to be that it gets finer and finer through the years.

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IMHO allow me to share with you of the information may be consider.

 

I was told by Parker that the design actually help people holding more than one pen in breast pocket to id what pen they want to draw from the pocket easier. This are still in use if you note the jotter pen/pencil, Sonnet ball/roller/fountain pen, ...

 

This is probably not correct for the P25 series.

 

I own a few P25s that are still sealed and in their presentation boxes. These boxes date them as productions from the 1980s (i.e. not the first generation futuristic P25 presentation box). All three, pencil, fountain pen and rollerball have the dimpled tassie.

 

Regards,

Shaughn

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IMHO allow me to share with you of the information may be consider.

 

I was told by Parker that the design actually help people holding more than one pen in breast pocket to id what pen they want to draw from the pocket easier. This are still in use if you note the jotter pen/pencil, Sonnet ball/roller/fountain pen, ...

 

This is probably not correct for the P25 series.

 

..... These boxes date them as productions from the 1980s (i.e. not the first generation futuristic P25 presentation box). All three, pencil, fountain pen and rollerball have the dimpled tassie.

 

Regards,

Shaughn

 

I would have thought that 1980's 25's would have been date coded which would provide a qtr/year of production.Sorry just noticed you said they were sealed. :headsmack:

Edited by streeton
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Hi,

In the spirit of adding to the knowledge base, I have an obviously later P25 FP and Pencil, both with dimpled cap and "MADE IN UK" but with a code of IIP, a code that doesn't appear in the spreadsheet. I also have an earlier ballpen, "MADE IN ENGLAND" and with code TI. The ballpen was a birthday present in 1987. All have blue furniture.

 

I would be interested in knowing what date the FP and Pencil are, if anyone has a clue?

Graham

Schiet naar de top

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