I have a Q4 1949 English Cedar Blue 51 Vacumatic bought on E-bay. Some attempts at research suggests that it might be less common than some other 51 vacumatics however I am curious as to whether it might be rare. I am not particularly bothered either way as it is a nice pen, it works well and I have had it serviced. Can anyone comment?

Are you sure it's a 1949? My impression was that most Vacumatic production had ceased and the Aerometric had taken over by 1949.

The vacumatic ceased production in 1948.

While the vac model 51 ceased production in 1948,it wouldn't be too surprising to me to find a vac model 51 with a"9"
date code. The blue diamond guarantee,however had to be dropped by Parker by 1948(required by the FCC)because of
the Reynolds ball-point pen scandal.

BTW,Parker was planning to change the arrow clip by 1948 anyway.

John

It would to me and just about every 51 junkie I know....

I have 3 English 51 Vac fillers all dated 1947. The English Vac fill 51 is a fairly uncommon find as production for Parker did not get back into swing until after the war and the reconstruction and repair of production facilities.
I have had well over 100+ 51s come past my hands and have yet to see a Vac filler with a date code of 9....

I take back my statement....I mentally forgot that it was an English 51. Was thinking of the American 51.

BTW,I have an English 51 in burgundy (and gold-filled cap) w/an oblique nib that writes beautifully and didn't find a datecode on that either. The imprint is worn down enough that the datecode is probably gone...

John

Is the date code visible? My reason for asking is that according to David Sheperd's Parker 51 book,the brits had to offer
a note of apology to their citizens in 1948 for not being able to offer enough 51's to the populace(pg. 35).

John

Perhaps.

Production of the Parker Vacumatic ceased production in USA in 1948, though is believed to have continued in Canada through 1953.

The Parker 51 Vac-fill ceased production in the USA in 1948. In England?

-d

I have a very nice azure blue Canadian Vacumatic with a '53 date code. I joke to myself that it's the very last Vacumatic to roll off the assembly line. Here's a photo of it before it was polished.

Remind me to show you my "61" code sometime. Headache inducing, no joke. Still, 53 is the current consensus for final regular production.
d

I have a box of Vacumatic stuff. Mostly incomplete pens abused beyond repair that I have harvested for nibs and fillers. I remembered seeing some odd dates on a few barrels. I looked.

I found the following all marked PARKER VACUMATIC

Made in USA: 54 60 61 and 61
Made in Canada: 51 51 53

and a very clear 58 on one that has no legible "made in". The spacing on the 58 is odd.

I've also got another bit of Vac weirdness--two Liquid Lead Vacumatic pencils. A blue one and a green one. The blue has no markings. The green one has the usual writing: Geo. S. Parker PARKER VACUMATIC Made in USA 59

Any speculation on the late date codes?

Todd

Hi Todd,
The 51-3 Canadian codes do not surprise.

The other stuff is... interesting.

I'd be interested to borrow for a photo session if you are so inclined.

Speculation. In some cases the late codes suggest repair pieces (57 codes on "made in USA" nibs).

The VERY late barrels with USA codes (eg. 58, 61) seem to be found on pens that- despite location imprint- have a very "canadian" look to the plastic.

regards
david

Hi Alastair
I also have a 1949 Q3 English Cedar Blue 51 Vac.
I started a thread a while ago regarding my pen and no one seemed to be able to give me a definitive answer.
The best i got was it may have been an unstamped repair barrel that was stamped at the time of repair.
However, one way or another this pen exists!
Hope this helps

regards
Paul

p.s.
if Old Griz is happy to pay round trip postage I will happily send him mine then at least he will have seen one


Quote Old Griz
"I have had well over 100+ 51s come past my hands and have yet to see a Vac filler with a date code of 9.... "

Never said they did not exist... just said I have never seen one.... then again I have only seen a few English 51 Vac fillers..... have seen a load of English Aerometrics....

Hi Old Griz.
I am just pleased i could surprise you.
Compared to your experience I am still wet behind the ears
The English Vac fillers are a lot less common than the Aerometrics.

Here are some pics of a nice cordovan Vac I snagged a while back.
This one has the less common 4 line cap and typical English clip

Regards
Paul

Hi Everyone
Thank you for your varied replies. The stamp on the barrel is as the picture from Paul, although the stamp isn't as deep, however the 9 is clear enough and there is no apparent dot to either side. The original receipt in the box shows that it wasn't bought until 1955, so even if it might be desirable now, it wasn't quick to sell at the time.

Why .. Why do I have to be a nasty , suspicious, fault finding fool? I have a bad, bad suspicion that the cap is a mid 50's aero cap.....
Well ok, I do have a few English aero's and I was under the impression that the '51' marked cap started appearing in mid '50's English aeros? Maybe I am wrong.....

It may mean the date was stamped in the 5day of the 8th week of a year, at exactly 00.58, when the moon was exactly at 58 degrees angle with the Earths vertical axis...

Liquid lead vacumatic pencils.... these tells about a more interesting story.. The liquid lead pencils was an American invention of wartime.... it was planned to export them in large qualities in the opposition.. to seriously cripple their writing abilities. I have one of them, and if you try to use it you will completely believe the story.

It is 1.30 am here, and as I was talking about the moon, isn't there a word 'moonstruck', in English?
Just for a bit of fun..

Just has a look through my collection. I also have an English manufacture 51 with a 9 datecode, in teal.

I remember paying £7.50 in Covent Garden (Jubilee market) a couple of years back.

I also got a gold filled blue diamond cap, single line English imprint on a black barrel at the same time -- and it too cost me £7.50.

- Mark

Well,after reading the entire thread up to this point,I must say that I do feel vindicated for what I said in my 1st post in this
thread.....

...the proof is in the pictures.....


John