I am a little confused with the names of the old and new Sonnets.

I thought the *colour* lacquer (e.g. black lacquer) is the old one with the gold plated nib and a slim band, and the laque *colour* (e.g. laque black) is the new one with the sold 18k or two tone nib and a wider band.

Then I saw this Original Black Lacquer but the photograph has the wide band.

On Art Brown, this Black Lacquer under "Sonnet New for 2008" has a steel nib and the wider band while this Laque Black has a slim band, but it doesn't say whether the nib is plated or solid gold.

Can you tell me which name goes with which generation and with which nib & band please?

Thank you.

Honestly, save yourself some frustration and look up lewertowski on eBay (just googling on his name will find it for you).

Laque is simply the French spelling of Lacquer. (The pens are made in France.)

I don't think that it is a reliable method of trying to age a Sonnet.

G

tiny/slim band are early Parker while the wide band are the more to the late one. 18 k Nib always depend on how much you want to paid for the pen. steel nib are the cheaper but there are also gold plated Nib too (IMHO) they are = to steel nib, IMHO such are just blending into the made of the parker pricing together with the so call pen clip and how they (Parker) want to sell you. It will be hard for Parker to sell a pen to people who know alots about pen. You can still put a 18K nib or a steel nib if you like. If you really want to know if a pen are in proper fix with a proper nib, You may want to pm me. I have some book of the soonet the market with the Nib shown. This may help but all in all you can still decided your Nib after all this Nib are no big problem. Enjoy your purchase soon.

The 2008 Sonnets run only slightly less than what the 2007 and prior ones did, but the same price point now has a steel nib instead of a gold one, and the 18k isn't available on the normal line of pens.

Actually some of the early models had the wide cap bands - eg the Chinese Lacquer with the characters on the cap.
The models with the wide cap bands were later to be known as Sonnet Premiers.
However, all current models now have the wide band and the term 'Premier' has been dropped from the title.

G.

That's what I thought as well, but I e-mailed World Lux asking whether their Sonnets have the slim or wide band, and their reply was "these are the thin band new style".

Just had a look at the Parker website to check this:

All the standard Sonnets shown have the thicker band - as do this Sonnet Slim. There are some Sonnet Mini ballpoints without a band at all - probably because they don't have caps(!)

I had a look at the World Lux website and all their Sonnets seem to have what I would describe as thick brands so I am a little surprised by their answer. Perhaps it is all relative - but this is what I would describe as a thin band.


G.

I agree with you. I call the band that doesn't have "Parker" engraved on it a slim band.

I have e-mailed World Lux again in the meantime and this was the reply: "The band has the following engraved on it: (parker logo) Parker Sonnet Paris P."

This solves one mystery but leads me to another: is there a third kind of band that's even wider than the current Sonnet?