Can You Tell Me More About This 61 Gold Parker Set

[bearda1025]

Looking to learn about this set, my grandmother gifted me a Parker 61 set and a Cross Classic set. I never could bring myself to using them knowing in the future they may be collectibles. But I'm not familiar with fountain pens. Can you tell me whether this is a common set, and its value? I believe it's a Parker 61 First Edition Heirloom:

 

Parker 61: Fountain Pen, Pencil, Case, Paperwork, Instant Ink:

 

http://i68.tinypic.com/16asaqw.jpg

 

http://i67.tinypic.com/faby2p.jpg

 

 

Off topic:

Cross Ballpoint and pencil, case, paperwork

 

http://i64.tinypic.com/2gwzyhg.jpg

 

http://i68.tinypic.com/11rsq5t.jpg

 

 

I appreciate any help and guidance

[joss]

That seems to be a very nice set that looks as new.

 

But I think that your Parker 61 set is neither a First Edition (which had a cap with a small shield with 'first edition' print) nor a Heirloom (Parker 61 Heirloom pens had the so called 'rainbow cap' with an attractive pink and green gold filled swirling design).

 

I rather think that this is a Parker 61 'Custom' set (rolled gold caps). The accompanying card has a date code "6-62" so my guess is that the pens are early 1960s and not later than 1962.

 

You can find more info on Parker 61 pens here:

www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/profiles/61.htm

www.parkerpens.net/parker61.html

 

For a value you can check the 'sold items' pages of Ebay. The fact that the pens are like new and that you have all the original paperwork plus the original box definitely adds to the overall value of your pens.

Edited December 14, 2016 by joss

[parkergeo]

The Parker 61 is a capillary-filling fountain pen, which is a fairly unique mode of action that accounts for the Instant Ink capsules, which were customized to that model pen. These blister-packed items have a bit of collectable value on their own, and the two included with your set appear to be in excellent condition.

[mitto]

Nice pen sets. Congrats. Enjoy using these family pens.

[bearda1025]

The Parker 61 is a capillary-filling fountain pen, which is a fairly unique mode of action that accounts for the Instant Ink capsules, which were customized to that model pen. These blister-packed items have a bit of collectable value on their own, and the two included with your set appear to be in excellent condition.

Thanks for the info! I was curious about those blister packs knowing they could be harder to find than he pens themselves. I honestly have no attachment to the ink packets.

[Mangrove Jack]

Lovely fountain pen, the Parker 61, despite its controversial ink filling system called the capillary filler.

My grandmother used one from the 1960's up to the mid 1990's, and I found it again recently. It had not been used for many years. I flushed it out thoroughly and it works well. I like the ergonomics of the pen and it is a reliable and smooth writer. Being my grandmothers pen it has sentimental value to me, so I bought another Parker 61 which I use to carry around and keep my grandmothers pen for home use only.

[inkstainedruth]

61s are nice pens. They don't get a lot of love around here -- I gather the plastic is similar to what was used on 21s, rather than the Lucite bodied 51s; and the capillary fillers can be finicky about what ink works in them. Plus, the hood arrows can come off (although it meant that I saved some money on my second one because of the missing arrow).

But they hold a huge amount of ink if the capillary filler is working. I ran one of mine for several months, just refiling occasionally as needed (and it's the simplest filler system on the planet -- just stick the end of the capillary filler in ink for a couple of minutes and let the ink just wick up into it). And with just using the ink in it which was reconstituted as I initially started to flush it out, I ran it for around four MONTHS -- until the ink was diluted to the point of illegibility; that's how much ink was still in the capillary filler when I bought the pen.

Yes, I'm a fan.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth