First year Parker Jotter

[Greg W.]

Found in the wild - first year 1954 Parker Jotter green with original ballpoint filler. An interesting piece of ballpoint history. 

[kingfisher]

Nice.  I like the color of the barrel.  It seems that it wasn't long before almost all the Jotters were black.  It's an iconic look, to be sure, but rather boring.  

 

I have a couple of the South American-made jotters with swirled acrylic, and one with a brushed cap and a shiny patterned body.  

 

I like Jotters, in general, except that the sections are so thin.  I have large hands and I grip my pens overly firmly.  Therefore, if I write with a Jotter for any length of time my hand tends to get sore.  

[kingfisher]

Forgot to add that I was surprised to see that it lacks the feather pattern on the clip.  I'm not a Jotter historian; I guess I had just assumed that the Parker Jotters from day 1 had the classic feather pattern. 

[Greg W.]

4 hours ago, kingfisher said:

Forgot to add that I was surprised to see that it lacks the feather pattern on the clip.  I'm not a Jotter historian; I guess I had just assumed that the Parker Jotters from day 1 had the classic feather pattern. 

Parker really waited and took the time to develop a quality ballpoint. I do find he clip odd and rather dull compared to the arrow, but it is fitting to the 1950’s modern vibe. Parker used this clip and another plain “v” clip early on before finally giving the jotter the traditional arrow clip. I don’t generally look for or collect ballpoint pens but the jotter is historically significant and I couldn’t pass it up when I found it for a mere $2.00. 

[joss]

Very nice catch! I think that these early Jotters with through clip and nylon barrel really stand out among the zillions of later Jotters with feather clip.

You are probably the Sumgai of the week if you got it for $2.00.

Can you also share a picture of the ballpoint cartridge?

[Greg W.]

11 hours ago, joss said:

Very nice catch! I think that these early Jotters with through clip and nylon barrel really stand out among the zillions of later Jotters with feather clip.

You are probably the Sumgai of the week if you got it for $2.00.

Can you also share a picture of the ballpoint cartridge?

The cartridge is unremarkable. Parker didn’t even bother to put their name on it. 
Modern refills work just fine. A true testament to good engineering. 

[Zookie]

2 bucks ? 😵

[bsenn]

Greg - nice find!  My story is buying an old almost-empty Craftsman machinist toolbox (similar to Kennedy and Waterloo Professional) at an auction for $40, and selling the box to the guy I was bidding against for $35 after the auction.  I kept the green first year Jotter that was in it. I would have kept the toolbox but the guy seemed very interested in it and noticed I had homed in on the pen. Two of us went away happy.

 

Brian

[pen lady]

Many years ago, before I knew too much about pens, I bought a blue ribbed 1st year Jotter in a job-lot at an estate auction. I put a new Parker refill in it and happily used it for writing shopping lists etc. etc. until one day when I dropped it, nose down in a parking lot! The barrel broke, I took out the refill and threw away the pen.  Only later did I find out what I had done. 🙄 

[Black Spot]

13 hours ago, pen lady said:

Many years ago, before I knew too much about pens, I bought a blue ribbed 1st year Jotter in a job-lot at an estate auction. I put a new Parker refill in it and happily used it for writing shopping lists etc. etc. until one day when I dropped it, nose down in a parking lot! The barrel broke, I took out the refill and threw away the pen.  Only later did I find out what I had done. 🙄 

ouch.

how do you tell a first year Parker Jotter from a not first year ?

[joss]

11 hours ago, Greg W. said:

The cartridge is unremarkable. Parker didn’t even bother to put their name on it.

 

No name but normally there is a tiny number imprinted at the top of the cartridge, together with Made in USA. I have a few of these early refills and they all have a different number so I wonder whether it is either a serial number or, maybe more likely, a batch number.

[Number99]

1 hour ago, joss said:

 

No name but normally there is a tiny number imprinted at the top of the cartridge, together with Made in USA. I have a few of these early refills and they all have a different number so I wonder whether it is either a serial number or, maybe more likely, a batch number.

The shape appears to be just slightly different. Is this refill also classified as a G2 refill?

[pen lady]

Black Spot, the clip on the first year Jotters wasn't a feather one, it's a trough, plus it didn't have the metal ''nose-cone'' that are on later ones.  Live and learn, live and learn!

 

[Black Spot]

Thank you, I will keep my eye out. 

[joss]

Maybe it is important to note that the term 'first year’ is not correct for these early Jotters with inverted V-style clip and ribbed barrel because they were in the Parker catalog from 1954 to early 1957. In fact, the colour of the OP's pen is green-gray and this is one of the six new colours that were introduced in 1956 when also the material of the barrel was changed from nylon to Hercocel W plastic. This info comes from the Jotter book, page 84-85.