Hello there,
I have just restored this 1st generation Parker Vacumatic Junior in Mottled Silver Pearl Celluloid with the Gold trim
rather than the usual Silver trim. The pen is in extra fine condition with no brassing and excellent transparency...
This reverse trim Vacumatics are pretty rare but this one seems a bit odd. This is because the imprint seems to date
the pen to the first quarter of 1940 – as 0 and the three dots indicate. But as far as I know the 1st generation Junior
was made only until 1938…
Under extreme magnification the 0 might be possibly interpreted as a squashed 6 but this would make even less
sense as Parker introduced the dot dating system only in the second quarter of 1938.
Perhaps the 0 is a squashed 8. But this would mean that it still predates the introduction of the dot dating system
or that this pen is one of the first Vacumatics with the new dating system in place… According to Richard Binder’s page
concerned with Parker’s Date Coding Systems “the earliest pens with three dots should be from 1939. However, some
pens made before the changeover exist with both dots and two-digit dates. Some of these pens have patterns of dots
that match the first (quarter) digit, while others have patterns that do not match.”
Unfortunately, the nib this pen came to me with is a Parker replacement nib (as I believe the R and the hole in the
base of the nib indicate) from the third quarter of 1946.
Still an excellent nib as you can see bellow…
I would be very interested in hearing your opinions!
Thanks beforehand,
Zed
Edited by Zed, 06 April 2016 - 16:49.