Parker 51 Elusive Plum

[Tom Heath]

Nice photo's indeed.

 

Thanks for posting

 

Could you tell us what kind of lighting you use tobring out the Plum

 

 

Tom H

[Estycollector]

Nice pens 👍👍

[pajaro]

Yes, the colors come out fine. :-)

Tenth and twelveth, right?

Very nice collection btw...

 

Best

Jens

 

Yes, tenth and twelveth. I had stuc a burgundy pencil in between for contrast.

[pajaro]

Nice photo's indeed.

 

Thanks for posting

 

Could you tell us what kind of lighting you use tobring out the Plum

 

 

Tom H

 

I took this picture in bright sunlight, in the afternoon on the west side of the house. I live in southeast Michigan.

 

I did this on 10/09/2011. I accidentally broke the yellow pen with the yellow cap, but I got some yellow parts from Ariel Kullock and made another, unfortunately with a different cap, one of his steel caps. However, it has a design from the Kama Sutra, quite risque. I lament the yellow plastic cap to this day.

Edited October 25, 2020 by pajaro

[Paul-in-SF]

Congratulations. I understand the hunt for plum, having tried for one for years until I sniped a plum set on ebay in the last few sections of an auction. That was after buying burgundy after butgundy and being outbid and outsniped again and again. I put the plum pen and pencil in a Venlo leather 5-pen case. There it stays. The hunt felt like a grail hunt. I don't think I would want to do it again. Beyond 51s I don't want any more pens.

 

I too got my plum set by sniping on eBay, back in August. Bidding was surprisingly not very active, but active enough to push the price well over $200. It's definitely a user grade pen, with a very plain steel cap, and a faint Made in USA imprint, and the number 8 with no visible dots (so 1948 4th quarter, unless the dots wore off, but the 8 is still pretty visible).

 

I got it mostly so I could see the color in person to know what it actually looks like, so many pictures of it are either so bad you can't see a color or they look enhanced so I don't trust the results. Anyway, I now have a burgundy, a UK burgundy ("blood red"), a cordovan brown and a plum, and I like to look at them together to see the differences in the flesh, so to speak.

 

There are colors that seem more rare and more expensive than plum, all of them Vacumatics: buckskin beige, yellowstone/mustard, and even nassau green seems to be hard to come by. I think these generate less discussion here than plum does because the colors are not easily mistaken for something else.

[Tom Heath]

Except for a Fine mate , the thrill really is in the pursuit

 

Then we are quickly onto NEXT

 

WE may be fickle , what do yoy think

[Estycollector]

Except for a Fine mate , the thrill really is in the pursuit

 

Then we are quickly onto NEXT

 

WE may be fickle , what do yoy think

You are most correct. 👍🙂

[pajaro]

When I had a plum, there was a big letdown after a multi-year quest. It was about the last pen I wanted. I like the plum, but I don't use it. Writes nicely, good flow. A user grade pen, Lustraloy cap. I think I will reach a point where I will sell most of my pens before kicking the bucket. Don't want to leave it to my wife or her son, because they don't understand the pens or their value. There a couple I won't part with, plum not included eventually. Just not yet.

[thx1138]

Any thoughts on this auction?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/One-Set-Of-Vintage-Parker-51-Pen-And-Pencil-Box-Extra-Lead-Desk-Set-/392970175474

[Estycollector]

Any thoughts on this auction?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/One-Set-Of-Vintage-Parker-51-Pen-And-Pencil-Box-Extra-Lead-Desk-Set-/392970175474

Apparently someone liked it....lol!!

[Tom Heath]

what is your interest the listing said sold

[Mercian]

There’s a seller in England who has several “Plum” “51”s listed for sale on his eBay ‘store’.

He actually lives quite near to me, so I was initially quite excited by his listings, because I could in theory travel to pick one up in person. I was mildly discouraged by the fact that they’re all around the £200 mark, but then that’s ‘market forces’ for you.
I just have to decide whether or not the pen is ‘worth’ enough to me to justify spending that much money.

 

I was very disappointed (or do I mean ‘relieved’?) when I looked at his photographs - most of his pens seem to me to be Burgundy ones, not Plum.
That may of course be an artefact of his photos/my screen/my eyesight, but I do think that I can see a difference in the colours of his pens. At least one of them - a ‘Demi’ - does seem to be an actual Plum.

All of the listings for Plum “51”s that I have found have been for Demis, or for pens with gold caps.

I would like to get a full-size aerometric Plum with a frosty Lustralloy cap. Preferably with a nib on the ‘Fine’ side (although I could always get its nib swapped). One day maybe, one day....

[Mercian]

Any thoughts on this auction?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/One-Set-Of-Vintage-Parker-51-Pen-And-Pencil-Box-Extra-Lead-Desk-Set-/392970175474

I’m not bothered about the desk stand or the pencil, but that pen seems to be exactly what I would like to buy.

More annoying than the fact that the auction has ended, 210 USD would be a ‘bargain’ in the UK, even for just the pen.

[thx1138]

I’m not bothered about the desk stand or the pencil, but that pen seems to be exactly what I would like to buy.

More annoying than the fact that the auction has ended, 210 USD would be a ‘bargain’ in the UK, even for just the pen.

Does it look like a plum to you though?

[Barry Gabay]

Pajaro: Great photo! No mistaking the plum pen & pencil. Excellent color representation in your photo. Thank you for sharing. The UK Bloody Burgundy (I assume) up top is right sweet too. Thanks again.

[Mercian]

Does it look like a plum to you though?

That one does, yes.

 

One has to bear in mind that I’ve never seen one ‘in the flesh’, so am forced to rely on being able to detect pale-purple hues on pictures of pens (as opposed to the wine-coloured tones of the pens in Burgundy).

[pajaro]

When I sniped my plum 51 pen and pencil set in 2009, it cost $209 and change. Kind of ironic, $209 in 2009. That's to give you a bit of perspective on current prices, an older price at a point in time. I suspect prices are a bit up, based on some ebay prices I have noted lately. Frankly, I was such a cheap buyer of 51s that I wonder what motivated me to spend $209+ for the plum set. Since I don't go to pen shows or have any local pen contacts, I think I just wanted to see one, and I was still working back then.

[Carguy]

I actually bid on this item, but quit at about $160 because that’s my general limit.

[pajaro]

Until that plum, my limit was about $75.

[Estycollector]

There are limits and there are limits. Like saying I wouldnt pay more than $150 for a Parker 51 and then a first year restored shows up.....lol!!