Early French Parker 75s

[RegDiggins]

Looking through my selection of Parker 75s I came across 2 examples of the early French production. One is Rolled gold and the other is silver plated.

Both have flat tassies with no room for logos and the bottom of the caps are marked as follows " PARKER then the PPshield then 30 Microns" ( silver plated )

and "PARKER the PP shield then 20mu Made in France. ( rolled gold ) The nibs in both pens are 18ct gold and marked with the French hallmark.

They are presumably made before date codes were adopted . The 18ct nibs are marked 750  and at the time France would not allow any metal with less than 

750 parts per 1000 to be described as gold. I noticed later models have 14ct nibs 585 parts so either the law changed or Parkers found a way of using nibs from

the USA in the later production. The perforated tassie is also evident in later production.

 

If these pens had been made in USA there would be records of numbers produced and dates when variations to the nibs, tassies, and inscriptions took place.

does anyone know these figures ? Or does anyone know how I can pursue this matter further ?

 

P.S.  I  found a reference to the Rolled gold example in a Collectibles book published in 2009 . The price quoted for a similar example was around 6 times as

much as the later more common versions    

  

[Sheptonian]

In case you have not come across it already Lih-Tah Wong's superb Parker 75 resource has a wealth of information about the Parker 75. Here is a link to his main page about French production: http://www.parker75.com/Reference/French_made_pens.htm 

[joss]

I think that the earliest (=flat tassie) French Parker 75 pens are a bit scarce but I doubt that they are 6 times more valuable than the slightly later (dished tassie) French P75 pens. The 18K nibs would be fitted for the internal market (France) only because flat tassie French P75 pens can also be found with 14K nibs.

The version with flat tassies would never bear a date code because date codes appeared only in the 3d quarter of 1979.

 

I guess that you already consulted Lih-Tah Wongs Parker 75 website:

- http://parker75.com/Reference/French_made_pens.htm

- http://www.parker75.com/Reference/whnjs.htm

 

[RegDiggins]

Hi Joss,

 

      A somewhat delayed reaction to your reply of July 20 but I am sure you will realise that more serious matters have occupied my mind

     in the past months.

 

     Yes I have already consulted Lih-Tah Wong many years ago when I told him he had misrepresented an early French 75 as a Prince de

     Galles when it was in fact an Ecosse with 11 bands on the cap. I think he suffered from the same lack of documentation from France.

     The reason I know it was an Ecosse is because the silver plate specimen I referred to in my original post was originally given to the

     Production Director of Parker UK by the French factory Director General when they first started production as a gift. When he died

    his grandson auctioned his collection of Parker Pens and I bought several including the one with 30 microns engraved on the cap band.

    This is the reason they are so rare as only the early gold and silver plated pens are engraved 20mu or 30 microns. The same reason they

    are fitted with 18k nibs to comply with French law as it existed in the erly 70s.  I have also a S.T.Dupont cigarette lighter from around the

   same time and that is marked 20mu to indicate the thickness of the gold as it was made in France.

 

   I do of course have several flat tassie pens with 14k nibs so I assume the law had been changed by then, and they were certainly made before

   1979 but it is the original production examples I am interested in.  As I said in my post there appears to be  very little information on these items

   which have engraved thickness of plating figures . How long were they made for ? how many were in the production run ? and assuming they may

   be prototypes is the figure of 6 times the value of later flat tassie examples justified ?

 

    I hoped somebody on this site might have been involved in the Meru factory at the early stage or have similar pens .

 

             Thanks for your interest     Reg Diggins.

[joss]

Hi Reg,

 

I am not an expert on Parker 75 pens but I find your question interesting. Do I understand it right that your hypothesis is that the "20µ" or "30µ" imprint on the cap lip of French 75 pens in gold or silver may indicate early production? If so, you might have to rephrase your question and ask the FPN community to specifically check their French 75 pens on this particular feature (cap lip imprint) in relation to the tassies (flat vs dished) and nib (14K vs 18K).

 

For what it is worth: I have two French Parker 75 pens in silver with the 30µ imprint: one is silver Grain d'orge with flat tassies and 14K nib and the other is silver écossais with dished tassies and 14K nib. Nibs can be replaced easily but the dished tassies on the latter pen would rule out early production then?