Parker Sonnet Chinese Laquer Amber

[touzeen]

I found this pen when I accidently walked into a very famous book store in Chennai, India – Higginbotham’s – while trying to pass some time in the locality. Taking it as a sign I headed straight to the Pens and Pencils section, which is still fairly well stocked in this more than 150-year-old building. There are a lot of handmade Indian Pens, some maybe 10 years old showing varying signs of age, but not use.

In a Corner are Parker and Waterman showcases.

 

I ask the clerk, a boy in his teens, to show me some fountain pens and he puts 2 boxes of Old Oliver and Camlin eyedroppers in front of me. He’s not amused when I ask for more and asks me to help my self, so I go behind the counter and inspect about 20 boxes of pens in 5minutes flat, to his surprise, and pick out 2 Demonstrators ED pens and a bottle of Waterman Black Ink which was grossly marked down. I ask him to pack it while I go for a casual scout around the section, when I passed the Parker Showcase.

 

It’s the usual stuff : Vectors in different colors, the 5^th Generation “Fountain” Pens.

And in the Back, almost case away I see a Brown/Mustard/Gold Fountain Pen with some Chinese characters on the side of the cap in red, Uncapped with a Dual Tone Nib with a crude piece of paper as price tag, which read 4000 rupees ($66). I ask the boy to show me the pen, and upon a closer inspection I see 18K on it and other gold markings! My eyes go wide and I very the price multiple times, to the annoyance of the boy. After a quick Google search I have the Pen ready to be packed but its apparently so old that they don’t have the box for it or the Entry in their Register! This gave me a perfect chance to haggle a bit more and get the price down to $58!

 

In the end what I got was a Limited Edition New Old Stock Pen from 1997 in a Sheaffer box.

 

 

The star of this pen is the lacquer Finish on it. On first sight it looks like a dull, brown/wooden finish. But if you see closer I was amazed at the different layers of the finish, almost 3 dimensional and the Gold Dust layers giving an amazing sheen/glitter when rotated against the light.

It is the standard Sonnet shape and size with a 24ct Plated Clip and a Broad Centre Band.

The top of the pen has a Black plastic portion with slots around it.

The section is black plastic with 2 golden rings, one at the edge and another about 5mm away from it. The section between the 2 rings tapers bigger towards the ring at the edge. This gives it a better grip if you hold the pen close to the Nib.

The Nib is a dual tone 18ct Nib in Medium.

 

 

I have used this pen with 2 inks so far: Sailor Jentle Black and Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black.

On first inking with the Sailor Ink I had some flow issues, skipping and dry writing. After a quick wash of the nib and feed the flow problems were solved but the pen still remained a dry writer.

With the Pelikan this pen writes a nice wet line which Im liking very much.

The Nib is a true Medium and some spring to it, going into Broad thickness.

There is some amount of feedback, which is very pronounced with the Sailor Ink and muted with the Pelikan Ink.

On a cold start, the pen does have a dry start with some trailing but once it gets going there are no Issues.

Also to note, this pen performs best when the feel is well saturated and starts skipping at the slightest hint of low ink.

 

 

Overall I would consider this pen a lucky find (not sure about its rarity in the US) and have grown to love the finish on the Pen (which was not the case during the first few days of ownership).

 

Have yet to test this pen out with different inks and papers, but it seems to do well on reasonable good 80gsm paper.

 

Size comparisons and writing sample coming soon.

[The Blue Knight]

Excellent find, the Sonnet it one of my favorites pens of all time even though others often call it a bad pen.

[pajaro]

Excellent find, the Sonnet it one of my favorites pens of all time even though others often call it a bad pen.

 

Those who pan the Sonnet haven't learned its secret, keeping its feed clean. I have the ballpoint and rollerball in this finish. It is truly beautiful and feels luxurious in the hand.

[Sridhar]

should give higginbothams a spin one of these days……….

Edited July 8, 2014 by Sridhar

[hari317]

Congrats.

In 2011, Luxor was clearing their Sonnet stocks off at 50%. The list price of the "Sonnet Lacque Ambre" was 6300/- it was being sold for 3150/- by luxor's official store on ebay.in.

 

I bought a few and they are very nice. I liked the Fougere too, also bought at 50% off. The best bargain was the firedance with monotone 18k nib at just 1750/- after discount.

 

4000/- for the Lacque Ambre today is still a better bargain. well done!

 

BTW which handmade pens do Higginbothams carry?

Edited July 9, 2014 by hari317

[maksim]

Very cool. I love the way sonnets write. Amazing nibs for the money.

[TrehanMD]

Hi. I am from India. Currently in US. Been very lucky in getting this great fountain pen from Flipkart in 2010 2011 for 3k INR. As I am using this in 2024, i just thought of randomly checking how popular or rare this find is. And lo.. i have some friends it seems.