Found In A Box Of Junk

[chunya]

I went to an Auction and amongst one of the Lots that I won was what seemed to be a small wooden 'box of junk', which I didn't even notice when I was viewing them. When I got them home I was pleasantly surprised to see that the box included 10 pens and mechanical pencils; half really are 'junk' but these three ceratainly were a bit of a bonus. They really were filthy, but have scrubbed up nicely.

 

Now the black barrelled one is I believe a 51 Aerometric filler, with a 1/10 12ct gold filled cap, dating to the mid 1950's?

 

The turquoise one seems to be a 61, what is odd that at first I thought it was a 1950s model, with a silver and gold arrow clip, but the filling system suggests its a late 1960s one, What is a shame is that the section has a small split by the nib, so I'll have to see what I can do about that.

 

The steel one has me stumped. I have no idea what it is. But it has a lovely pattern.

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2018 by chunya

[doggle2]

I wish I would find boxes of junk. Nice 45,51, and 61, btw.

[chunya]

I wish I would find boxes of junk. Nice 45,51, and 61, btw.

Aha ..... it's a 45 ..... Many thanks for that !

 

And with that bit of info it seems that the pattern is 'Harlequin' Again, many thanks!

 

I know it's not a Parker, but also in the box was a very nice Stainless Steel Sheaffer Targa 1000 in great condition .....

Edited October 11, 2018 by chunya

[mhguda]

Congratulations on a great find!

[Erik Dalton]

Nice find. You did well.

[PaulS]

I agree, nice unexpected haul, surprises are always welcome - the Harlequin would be my favourite, but only because I don't yet have one. As for the aero 51 - date coding was dropped around mid 1950s, so later pens not easy to pin down date wise, other than saying that the black end on the sac protector means it belongs to the earlier Mk. 1 group. Assuming it's without a date code - lacks the double halo and No. 51 - but has the black end - then just somewhere in the second half of the 1950s might be as near as you can get. All subsequent models post late 1950s are usually without the black end, and carry, usually, the double halo plus the No. 51.

Date codes, if present, are located around the barrel, just below the clutch ring. But of course this is to ignore the well known habit of most pen manufacturers of using up old stock, so we're never quite sure about date, and even dated pens may have later replacement parts.

Burgundy, black, teal and grey - in descending order of commonness are how the Aero colours seem to come my way - grey being a least favourite in almost all pens - it has a habit of looking less that attractive.

 

The Targa is easy to spot with its split clip design - always amazes me the variety of colours/patterns with this model, they seem almost limitless but that very long inlaid nib is attractive, though nibs are nearly all nails, unfortunately. Anyway, well done.

 

you might strip that inlaid arrow from the hood of the 61, it's bound to be needed one day for a good example, missing an arrow.

 

P.S. making assumptions is always dodgy, but I've assumed the P51 here is a Newhaven pen, and it's to U.K. 51s that my comments above refer.

Edited October 11, 2018 by PaulS

[CS388]

Great find, chunya! Nice work.

 

I had a harlequin when I was at school in the 1960's. Slightly different pattern (black and silver) but I loved that pen. I was the envy of my class. Ended up swapping it for a rugby shirt! (Think I got the worse end of that deal, but I was happy at the time)

I thought of replacing it, a few years ago and looked at some examples online, but the prices were beyond my whim.

 

Enjoy

[Charles Rice]

I got a Pelikan 200 that way. Every time I pass a garage sale and don't go in, I'm sure I'm missing a box full of Waterman Patricians. "Seek, and ye shall find".

[JotterAddict62]

You had a very good day.

[inkstainedruth]

Any more, I scour the estate sale ads in the weekly Pennysaver flyer when it comes in the mail, then go online to check out photos (and listings not in the paper). Occasionally I get lucky -- as in the time a few weeks ago when a photo showed some pens in a box and I ended an hour away from my house, out in the boonies, around dawn... waiting for the doors to open up, and hoping that (a) I picked the right building to check out first; and ( the fifteen people there before me weren't there for the pens. And managed to score that Forest Green Parker 51 for a whole whopping $2 US before some guy was bearing down on the box....

Not so lucky at auctions, generally. The one time I saw pens listed in an in person auction that wasn't at a pen show, they turned out to be a bunch of junkers that weren't worth me bidding on, and I left before the auction started....

But wow -- a sweet looking 45, a 51 *and* a 61? Totally jealous. Any clue what the nibs are on them yet? (The 45 should have a code on the underside of the collar, BTW.) Like CS388, I look at the prices of the Harlequins and go.... Someday, when I win the lottery (because I'd love to also get one with a 14K B nib, but that's all lower priority than my grail pen, a YoL Viceroy Victorian Standard). Sigh. A girl can dream....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mitto]

Good catch. Are the nibs on all three pens ok?

Edited October 12, 2018 by mitto

[senzen]

The design of that 45 is fabulous.

[chunya]

Thank you all.

 

Yes, the four good pens are all working fine (they had a good clean and flush) the only issue being with the split in the 61, bur Paul's advice about the arrow is sound..

What has surprised me is just how much those Harlequins seem to be fetching, certainly a nice surprise. I could probably sell just these four off and get back more than I shelled out for the Lot I was after.

[alexwi]

The 45 you got has the Circlet pattern. The Harlequin is different.

 

They're both rare patterns, but the one you have even more so.

 

Congratulations!!!

 

Alex

[CS388]

The 45 you got has the Circlet pattern.

 

That's right. I remember browsing the variants, when I was thinking to buy.

But, isn't the Circlet still part of the Harlequin family?

My Harlequin was a Black Shield.

Ruth is right about prices. Just saw one on ebay for £200*.

 

Congrats again, chunya. You struck gold! Beautiful pens.

 

*It's a buy-it-now, so may not be a realistic price - but, still ... !

[chunya]

This might sound strange, but I also had a couple of 45s (probably Christmas presents) when I was at school in the 60's, and I know I've still got one of them as I came across it a while back, together with another SS 45 which I bought sometime in the late 70s or early 80s ... what is strange is that I saw these as utilitarian pens and never ever became attached to them, nor really took any real interest in them even to this day, unlike a lovely colouful CS that was passed on to me also in the 60's ... I had that pen for maybe 10 years but it then disappeared in the crazy days of the early 1970s when I seemed to be changing bedsits almost every week! . At that time it was just a lovely pen and model numbers meant nothing to me, so it could have been any CS made in the 1950s.

 

I went to the Parker Pen Penography and yes, this is shown to be a 'Circlet' design, which was one of the Harlequins. But what struck me as odd was when I went to date it, the pen has the imprint Made in England Q1 ...... making it 1979, but according to the Penography pens in the UK were not date coded until 1980?

 

£200 ???? Sounds like crazy money! I'd be over the moon to get even 1/4 of that!

 

Hi Ruth,

 

Managed to do some writing samples this morning (terrible natural light as it's so overcast)... but when it came to the Targa I forgot to flush out yesterday's ink before using the Diamine strawberry

 

BTW ... what would life be like if we'd realised all of our dreams ....

 

Edited October 13, 2018 by chunya

[mitto]

Good pens. Good writings. Enjoy using them until they are with you.

[PaulS]

But look what strikes us about the writing samples - they're all the same. Go on, I hear you say - that's because they've all been written by the same person. Oh, I see. nothing to do with Parker nibs then - only joking chunya Now if they had been Swan nibs ……………..ahhhhhh - so full of character.

 

I'll give you a quarter of that estimate from CS388 - any day, if you really want to be 'over the moon'.

Edited October 13, 2018 by PaulS

[alexwi]

 

But, isn't the Circlet still part of the Harlequin family?

My Harlequin was a Black Shield.

 

 

You're right. "Harlequin" denotes the family of Parker 45's with etched patterns on them. I've yet to see any that's not the "Circlets" or "Shields" in the wild.

 

Thank you!

 

alex

[chunya]

But look what strikes us about the writing samples - they're all the same. Go on, I hear you say - that's because they've all been written by the same person. Oh, I see. nothing to do with Parker nibs then - only joking chunya Now if they had been Swan nibs ……………..ahhhhhh - so full of character.

 

I'll give you a quarter of that estimate from CS388 - any day, if you really want to be 'over the moon'.

 

Indeedy ... early Swan nibs ... you can't beat them !