My Parker 51 Aerometric - tell me things?

[LandyVlad]

I can't even remember how I came to own my fountain pens, but in any event I have a couple of Parkers.

 

One is this Parker 51 Aerometric.

 

I'd appreciate anything people might be able to tell me about it based on the pictures.

 

(there's two small dents on the back of the lid here - character!) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks !

 

 

[Mercian]

4 hours ago, LandyVlad said:

I can't even remember how I came to own my fountain pens, but in any event I have a couple of Parkers.

 

One is this Parker 51 Aerometric.

 

I'd appreciate anything people might be able to tell me about it based on the pictures

 

Firstly - and trivially - I don't recognise that colour.
But it may just be a version of Parker's 'Teal Blue' (the colours varied slightly throughout time, depending on what colours of plastic Parker could get from its suppliers).

 

Your other photos show that your pen has a filler-shroud that was made at Parker's factory at Newhaven in England, in the 1950s.

The cap may have an imprint on it back that says 'R.G.', or one that says 'G.F.'.
'R.G.' is Newhaven's marking for 'rolled gold'; 'G.F.' is the Janesville factory (in the USA) marking for 'Gold filled'.

 

IMPORTANTLY:

This ↓ photo...

 

4 hours ago, LandyVlad said:

 

 

 

...shows that the feed of your pen has become mis-aligned with respect to the nib and the grip-section.
This MAY result in uneven/inconsistent ink supply.
The rounded 'point' of the feed should be aligned with the slit/point of the nib, and the point of the hood of the grip-section.

 

I advise you to either take your "51" apart and re-align the components correctly (the method of doing this can be found on threads in the 'Repair' forum here), or to pay an experienced repair professional to do it for you.
Given that the alignment of the feed is wrong, other things may well be wrong with your pen 'under the hood'.

I wish you good luck with it

 

Slàinte,
M.

[Mr Gutsy]

4 hours ago, Mercian said:

But it may just be a version of Parker's 'Teal Blue' (the colours varied slightly throughout time, depending on what colours of plastic Parker could get from its suppliers).

 

It's almost certainly a variant on teal blue. I've a similar example in my own collection with the same filling shroud and RG cap from Newhaven.

[LandyVlad]

Thank you all, esp Mercian (evidently an Irishman) for that useful information re the damage/misalignment.

 

I'd hate to screw it up and would be happy to get it fixed but need to find someone reliable locally... 

 

Colourwise - looking at it in person it has a greener tinge than indicated by the photos. The variables of cameras, monitors, colour temperature etc make these things hard to consistently convey. 

[LandyVlad]

20 hours ago, Mercian said:

Your other photos show that your pen has a filler-shroud that was made at Parker's factory at Newhaven in England, in the 1950s.

The cap may have an imprint on it back that says 'R.G.', or one that says 'G.F.'.
'R.G.' is Newhaven's marking for 'rolled gold'

 

It actually appears to say R. GOLD. rather than RG.

Does that still mean Newhaven or is there a third option?

Aside from "51" and R.GOLD I can't make out the rest of it.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2024 by LandyVlad

[Mercian]

18 hours ago, LandyVlad said:

esp Mercian (evidently an Irishman)

 

Actually, I'm 100% English.

I'm from a part of England that used to be (admittedly, over 1000 years ago) the 'Kingdom of Mercia'.

 

I appropriated my sign-off from my Scottish cousins, out of my love for - and in honour of - their 'Water of Life'

[Mercian]

18 hours ago, LandyVlad said:

It actually appears to say R. GOLD. rather than RG.

Does that still mean Newhaven or is there a third option?

Aside from "51" and R.GOLD I can't make out the rest of it.

 

It says "51" (the trademarked name of the pen includes those quotation marks).

Beneath the "51" imprint it says: 1/10 12ct R. Gold.

I presume (but don't know) that the '1/10' is a reference to the depth/thickness of the 'Rolled Gold' that was impressed onto the cap.

And I further presume that to be 1/10 of 1mm, rather than 1/10 of an inch - a 2.54mm thick layer of 50% pure gold over the entire cap would have a 'non-trivial' cost 😁

[theredfalcon]

Hi LandyVlad,

 

Looks like an early 1950s Newhaven "51"-

 

• most "51"s of the 50s & early 60s have a brushed stainless steel filler shroud with the "Parker "51" " spelled out in double lines. Yours has the polished stainless steel filler with the double lines closer together that Newhaven used around 1950-early 1952.
• the rolled gold cap is also the early 50s Newhaven version (later ones omit the number "51" over the rolled gold line). The 1/10 is the amount of gold by weight so 1/10 (10%) of 12ct (50%) rolled gold means that 5% of the weight of the cap is pure gold.
• can you see if there are any markings around the top of the barrel (they may have worn/been polished off)? Up to around 1956, Newhaven imprinted the barrels with "MADE IN ENGLAND" followed by a date code.
• if you do get the pen dismantled to reset the feed, have a look at the nib as these are date marked up to the end of the 50s

Hope this helps

[Mercian]

12 minutes ago, theredfalcon said:

can you see if there are any markings around the top of the barrel (they may have worn/been polished off)? Up to around 1956, Newhaven imprinted the barrels with "MADE IN ENGLAND" followed by a date code.

 

This is good advice.

 

On one of my own two Newhaven aerometric "51"s (both of which date to 1954 Q3) the imprint got worn off when restorers polished it, and only a few slight impressions of it still remain visible - and even then only with a loupe, under angled light.

[inkstainedruth]

Additionally, I've read that you can sort of figure out the time of production for when Parker DIDN'T do date codes, depending on what it says on the metal covering/press bar over the sac (I think there's details on Tony Fischier's website: Parkercollector.com) where you can narrow down the timeframe somewhat by whether it says to press 4 times or 6, and IIIC, also stuff like what it says to use in the pen (such as whether it says to use Super Quink, etc.).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LandyVlad]

Thanks this is all great info I really appreciate you all. Meanwhile I found another 51 so about to do a  thread on it too.  

[inkstainedruth]

Well, after diving headfirst into the Parker Forum when I first joined FPN, I decided I wanted a 51 and someone who doesn't seem to be on here anymore, OcalaFLGuy, walked me through the questions to ask sellers on eBay and also help me scope out ones on there and say whether he thought they were a good deal or overpriced -- which was AMAZINGLY helpful to someone who was a relative newbie at the time.  And recently got a Cordovan Brown 51 Vac packed in with the Parker 45 I went to look at at an estate sale in the next county.    And paid $5 US for the two pens and two spare press bar converters for th 45 (in addition to the one already installed in the pen.  

51s are GREAT pens!  I know some people don't like hooded nibs, but everything about the design of them was to make them what they are -- superb writing instruments.  The 51 Aeros in the wild often just need to be flushed out really well; the early 51 Vacs might need more work to get them up and running (such as replacing the diaphragm -- but they also, I think hold more ink in them (if I have to do a lot of research, and take copious notes, I have a 51 Vac with a nicely tuned EF nib that I reach for...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Targa]

On 11/20/2024 at 12:13 PM, Mercian said:

 

Actually, I'm 100% English.

I'm from a part of England that used to be (admittedly, over 1000 years ago) the 'Kingdom of Mercia'.

 

I appropriated my sign-off from my Scottish cousins, out of my love for - and in honour of - their 'Water of Life'

Americans do not get taught much geography in school, except about their own county.  Not British history.  Nor the etymology of uisge beatha.

[Targa]

Just now, Targa said:

Americans do not get taught much geography in school, except about their own county.  Not British history.  Nor the etymology of uisge beatha.

And can't find Watling Street on Google maps.

[inkstainedruth]

2 hours ago, Targa said:

And can't find Watling Street on Google maps.

That's probably because they're too busy changing the maps to say "Gulf of America".... 

As for the first part of your post?  Yeah, I like some single malts (but not the "peaty" ones ) but bourbon?   That's completely lost on me....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Targa]

1 hour ago, inkstainedruth said:

That's probably because they're too busy changing the maps to say "Gulf of America".... 

As for the first part of your post?  Yeah, I like some single malts (but not the "peaty" ones ) but bourbon?   That's completely lost on me....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Agree.  There are some liquors that I can’t understand, and bourbon and Screech are 2 of them.  Gimme Redbreast any day.  Or Aberlour.  

On a very distantly related note, we had unusually fair weather so did a cedar plank salmon on our grill outside on Sunday, with a Kim Crawford dry rosé.  We were blown away - that wine was fabulous and perfect with smoky Pacific salmon.

 

 

[Targa]

On 2/4/2025 at 1:27 PM, Targa said:

Actually, I'm 100% English.

I'm from a part of England that used to be (admittedly, over 1000 years ago) the 'Kingdom of Mercia'.

Just cycling back around to this.  It's a curious way to express it ... 100% "English".  Of course "English is about the same as "100% hybrid", since surely it incorporates the the neolithic types that pre-date the Celtic and Armorican Britons, and then the admixture of Gallo-Romans, and then northern Germanic groups and the Danes and Norwegians, Watling Street notwithstanding), and finally the "French" from Normandy who were just Dane / Norwegian hybrids with northern semi-Celtic and Frankish from northern France ? "Less Britain, and then the Franks were just displaced eastern Europeans in their own past.  

So, like me and everyone else on the planet, 100% mutts.  If anyone on the planet can claim anything close to a high percentage of ethnicity, it is probably e.g. Bushmen from the Kalahari, or a few remaining pure-ish Inuit in the Canadian northern archipelago.  

[Mercian]

5 hours ago, Targa said:

Just cycling back around to this.  It's a curious way to express it ... 100% "English".  Of course "English is about the same as "100% hybrid", since surely it incorporates the the neolithic types that pre-date the Celtic and Armorican Britons, and then the admixture of Gallo-Romans, and then northern Germanic groups and the Danes and Norwegians, Watling Street notwithstanding), and finally the "French" from Normandy who were just Dane / Norwegian hybrids with northern semi-Celtic and Frankish from northern France ? "Less Britain, and then the Franks were just displaced eastern Europeans in their own past.  

So, like me and everyone else on the planet, 100% mutts.  If anyone on the planet can claim anything close to a high percentage of ethnicity, it is probably e.g. Bushmen from the Kalahari, or a few remaining pure-ish Inuit in the Canadian northern archipelago.  

 

Yes, this ↑. Exactly this!  

(Except that you forgot to mention the dark-skinned and blue-eyed Palaeolithic types, one of whom is the earliest known burial in these islands after the last Glacial Maximum, and their Mesolithic successors who, like them, had only to wander across Doggerland to get here.)

Describing myself as '100% English' is just my shorthand way of saying that I do not know that I have any Welsh, Irish, or Scottish ancestors.

 

Incidentally, I consider my genome as one that is 'optimised' for me being a mid-latitudes Mesolithic hunter-gatherer (so, if you will, rather like being a T-800 in what is now a T-X world).
I do though (for a couple of reasons) also suspect the presence of some Viking berserkers in my more-recent ancestry... 🤔

 

Additional observation: as far as I know, we 'English' are the only 'people' in the world whose accepted 'formal' demonym is actually a mash-up of the names of two separate tribes of foreign immigrants

 

[Beechwood]

14 hours ago, Targa said:

Just cycling back around to this.  It's a curious way to express it ... 100% "English".  Of course "English is about the same as "100% hybrid", since surely it incorporates the the neolithic types that pre-date the Celtic and Armorican Britons, and then the admixture of Gallo-Romans, and then northern Germanic groups and the Danes and Norwegians, Watling Street notwithstanding), and finally the "French" from Normandy who were just Dane / Norwegian hybrids with northern semi-Celtic and Frankish from northern France ? "Less Britain, and then the Franks were just displaced eastern Europeans in their own past.  

So, like me and everyone else on the planet, 100% mutts.  If anyone on the planet can claim anything close to a high percentage of ethnicity, it is probably e.g. Bushmen from the Kalahari, or a few remaining pure-ish Inuit in the Canadian northern archipelago.  

 

 

I know someone who sent of their bodily fluids for DNA analysis to determine their ancestry, they were shocked when the results came back including <1% non human.

 

All depends on your view of the migration of species. Probably too hot a topic for a Parker 51 thread.

 

 

[FarmBoy]

I analyzed my 51 fluid and it came back 93% Sheaffer 7% Waterman …