High-Quality Fake Sonnet

[PeterR-C]

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!

 

 

[PeterR-C]

Here (I hope) are the photos.

[Matlock]

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.

[Parkette]

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?

[steve50]

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...

[masao]

http://masaotw.blogspot.com/2016/07/parker-sonnet-18k-series.html

[hankosaurus]

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

[PeterR-C]

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?

[Matlock]

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.

[PeterR-C]

Thanks - I'll add that to the knowledge bank.