51 & 61

[Aislingean]

I have returned to my collection and today unearthed two of my Parkers
The 51 is a standard work horse but the 61 has a "Rainbow" cap and has retained the arrow

[PAKMAN]

Nice!

[inkstainedruth]

What Pakman said.  
I don't have a 61 in that color, and I certainly don't have any with fancy caps. But that's now reminding me that I probably have to refill the 61 Flighter....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Aislingean]

The Heirloom cap is the British version as shown by the yellow gold but is that "rage"red?

[Carguy]

All of the red 61’s I have are this color and I believe they are rage red. I have never seen another shade of red 61.

[jchch1950]

The material of the Parker 61 is more "delicate" than that of the Parker 51, so is the Parker 61 more prone to colour changes?

[Carguy]

That’s a good question. I have seen several that have faded and some have turned brownish from exposure to sunlight….

[Sheptonian]

There were two red production barrel colours for Parker 61s, Rage Red and Maroon.

 

The P61 in Aislingean's photo appears to be Maroon (aka Burgundy or Red).

 

English Parker 61s were produced with a more limited range of colours than USA variants. The descriptions changed over time in Parker's advertising but the barrel colours available when the pen was launched into the UK market were: 

• Black
• Red (Maroon - similar to P51 English Burgundy)
• Grey
• Blue (similar to P51 Teal Blue)

Rage Red was not a Newhaven colour. That is not to say that some English pens might not exist in that colour but if any do they are likely to have been, for example, test market pieces, so few in number.

 

Here are two photos of an English Maroon P61 Custom alongside a USA P61 in Rage Red:

 

 

 

It is difficult to capture the colours accurately. The Maroon can appear considerably redder than shown above in bright light (and, of course, similarly the Rage Red becomes lighter). 

 

Here is an advertisement from the Sunday Times Magazine in late 1963 confirming the available P61 colours in the UK:

 

 

With the replacement of the capillary filler with the cartridge/converter system  in the UK came the introduction of the P61 Flighter Deluxe (this advertisement is from 1971):

 

  

 

Grey had been dropped from the P61 colours offered in the UK by the mid-1970s, and "red" had become "maroon":

 

 

My day-to-day writer is a somewhat battered English P61 Custom Maroon (or red or burgundy...).