PeterR-C Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 I recently bought a Sonnet Cascade Gold, date code A.III, which would place it in the first quarter of 2002. But it's a fake. No harm done because the vendor has agreed to refund the price, but I thought it would be worth describing the diagnostic points and showing some photos. I have seen a couple of poor quality fakes but this one is much better quality. The first thing is that the cap does not fit very well. It feels as if it is rough and grating - I have a genuine Cascade Silver, and the cap on this slides smoothly on and closes with a satisfying click. Completely different. The photos show some points. Superficially they look pretty similar. But the lettering on the cap band is cruder, it is offset and not central on the band, the 'III' in the date code are smaller than the 'A', the symbol before PARKER is the curly P and not the oval with an arrow - and the serif on the S in Sonnet is horizontal not vertical. The feathers on the top of the clip are different. On the real pen they are incised, deeper and wider in the centre and tapering to nothing at each end. On the fake they are cruder, and the 'gold' has been applied after the feather were stamped, so they look more blobby and rounded. Finally, on the other side of the band the P and W stamps are larger and cruder in the fake. And the waves in the cascade pattern are subtly different. In the fake the tops are pointy, but in the real one they are more rounded and assymetrical. This varies a bit depending on angle of view but there are definite differences. I hope this helps others not to make the mistake I made. Good luck! Link to post Share on other sites
PeterR-C Posted July 26, 2020 Author Share Posted July 26, 2020 Here (I hope) are the photos. Link to post Share on other sites
Matlock Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 I recently bought a Sonnet Cascade Gold, date code A.III, which would place it in the first quarter of 2002. But it's a fake. The photos show some points. Superficially they look pretty similar. But the lettering on the cap band is cruder, it is offset and not central on the band, the 'III' in the date code are smaller than the 'A', the symbol before PARKER is the curly P and not the oval with an arrow - and the serif on the S in Sonnet is horizontal not vertical. If it is 2002 then the "curly p" is correct. Peter Link to post Share on other sites
Parkette Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 Thanks for posting. The fakers have really upped their game, I have seen several fake Sonnets over the past few years and most were very good, hard to tell apart, especially if you don't have a Sonnet to compare. If you then say the fake is £10 and the real deal is £100, ................hmm not sure there. This is from someone who doesn't think that much of the Sonnet, could it be that the fake is actually a better, more reliable pen than the Sonnet. Does the fake Sonnet take Parker cartridges? Link to post Share on other sites
steve50 Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Other than the problem with the cap, is there anything else that is defective in the fake version? And is the nib real 18k gold? Seems like it's often easy to tell a pen's a fake by looking at the feed. I'm no expert, but the differences you describe may well be due to the variation in the model... Link to post Share on other sites
masao Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 http://masaotw.blogspot.com/2016/07/parker-sonnet-18k-series.html I come from Republic of China http://imageshack.com/a/img924/6433/wZUh69.jpg Traditional Chinese is the most beautiful writinghttp://imageshack.com/a/img923/6879/t523ZV.jpg Link to post Share on other sites
hankosaurus Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) Hello Forum. I bought a couple of the $9 Chinese Sonnets since May, 2020. Both had serious quality issues with the nibs. They were otherwise okay but not really on par with the French made Sonnets. Check out Post Number 50 on this thread on FPN for more detail: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/353689-fake-sonnets-on-the-internet/page-3?hl=%20parker%20%20sonnet Edited August 10, 2020 by hankosaurus Henry Link to post Share on other sites
PeterR-C Posted August 11, 2020 Author Share Posted August 11, 2020 Thanks for the responses. As ever, there are people out there who know more than me - that's why I'm on the FPN. Matlock - I don't know about dating the curly P vs the oval, can you enlighten? steve50 - I don't know about fake feeds, do you have photos? masao - thanks for the link. I take it these are made in China? Do you know if they are made under license? Link to post Share on other sites
Matlock Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 Thanks for the responses. As ever, there are people out there who know more than me - that's why I'm on the FPN. Matlock - I don't know about dating the curly P vs the oval, can you enlighten? The curly P was introduced in 2000. Peter Link to post Share on other sites
PeterR-C Posted August 15, 2020 Author Share Posted August 15, 2020 Thanks - I'll add that to the knowledge bank. Link to post Share on other sites
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