1929/30 Lady Duofold Moderne Black & Pearl

[ardene]

I recently acquired my first vintage pen on an Ebay auction for 53 GBP. It is a Parker Lady Duofold in Moderne Black & Pearl plastic.Below it is pictured with my other three pens, an old design Urban, a Vector flighter, an old design IM, and finally my partner's Rialto (new old stock), for which I am responsible.

 

 

Here it is capped next to the Vector for comparison:

 

 

It has a missing chatelaine ring on top, some discolouration, some scratches. The pen was advertised as newly re-saced and it works. The barrel and cap both retain their iridescence:

 

 

 

The plastic looks more like a combination of marble and granite rather than just marble as this

Parker catalogue page of 1929 can make one think:

 

 

The Lady Duofold is the first from the left. The full catalogue, along with some earlier Parker catalogues, can be found here: https://archive.org/details/ParkerPensCatalog1923

 

The barrel has the readable, but not very deep, imprint.

 

GEO. S. PARKER DUOFOLD MADE IN U.S.A.

PATENTED

 

The imprint allows me to date this pen to 1929-30, following the information provided by Tony Fischier here: https://parkerpens.net/duofold.html

 

The nib is gold, bearing the imprint "Parker Pen Made in U.S.A." It writes in a fine/medium line and feels significantly more springy than the nibs of the other pens pictured above. Here are some close-ups of the nib and the Christmas-tree feeder:

 

 

 

 

Finally, this is how the pen writes with Waterman Serenity Blue in it.

 

 

Antonis

 

PS. Post edited to add pictures on the flexibility of the nib under slight pressure and at rest and some quick photos of the imprint under a certain angle. If you change the pen's angle all letters are legible as described above.

 

 

 

Imprint

Edited July 5, 2018 by ardene