Parker/en

Parker is one of the few American historical fountain pens brand remained continuously active to this day. The Parker Pen Company was founded by George Safford Parker in 1889 in Janesville, Wisconsin. Today the company is owned by Sanford, a division of Newell Rubbermaid that also owns Waterman.

Parker early plant

Although the company always produced good quality fountain pens, Parker golden age goes from the '20s to '60s, when the company has distinguished itself for its great innovation capacity, obtaining always strong success. Thanks also to the creation of a vast network of branch offices (Canada, England, Denmark, France, Mexico, and Argentina), the company always maintained top rankings in worldwide sales of fountain pens, and was successful also in the ballpoint pen era. Together with Sheaffer, Waterman and Wahl-Eversharp is a recognized member of the Big Four.

History

Parker was foundend in Janesville in Wisconsin in 1889 by George Safford Parker, which previously had operated as a reseller for the John Holland Pen Company. George Parker, who worked as a teacher of telegraphy, supplemented its income with the trade in fountian pens. Having to repair the pens that he sold, it began to improve their functioning, and because the pens he changed worked better than the original and had success, he decided to found his own company.

Early Lucky Curve

He obtained his first patent (nº US-293545 ) in 1889, and a subsequent patent (nº US-512319 ) in 1894 for his special Lucky Curve feeder, which went back inside the pen with a special curved shape that is claimed to be able to call back the excess ink when the pen was not in use. In 1891 George Parker associated with W. F. Palmer, an insurer and they incorporated The Parker Pen Company in Janesville.

In fact, the "Lucky Curve" was simply a good feeder, which remained in production until 1928, and was used as a trademark for a number of pens, but there are doubts that the curved form actually had the effect to avoid the accumulation of ink, because much repairers cutted it, because the curved part makes it difficult to reinsert it between the nib and section.

File:Parker-Snake-Capped.jpg

A rare Parker Snake

In the early years Parker began manufacturing good quality ebonite pens. In this period it was famous for her silver overlay pens, and in particular for the Snake pen with a snake shaped overlay, that is sought after by collectors for its rarity, and for the Black Giant pen, characterized by a very large size. Another distinction point for Parker pens was the creation of button filler, introduced in 1916 as reaction to the creation of the lever filler, which was never been used in the company's flagship models, despite is diffusion between all the competitors of that time.

Duofold advertisement from '20s.

Parker continued to produce ebonite pens with good results, focusing on the functionality of his pens and on the benefits of the button filler, but the real breakthrough came in 1921 with the launch of Duofold, which was a huge success, by getting the company at the top of sales. The creation of a large pen, made of hard rubber of a bright red color, was a revolution in the fountain pen world until then dominated by the black color, and foreshadowed the introduction of the celluloid colors by several years.

The success of the Duofold, despite its price (10 dollars) was high for the time, continued for over a decade in which the models were revised several times, adjusting the production to the introduction of new materials such as celluloid or the new Streamlined style with tapered models. In 1923 was opened a plant in Canada, and was introduced a Lady Duofold model for women. In 1926 also the Parker began to move production from ebonite to celluloid.

All color for Vest pocket Duofold.

In 1926 was introduced an economic model, the Parker DQ, named such as Duofold Quality. In 1927 the company introduced the Pastel models in pastel colors, as an alternative to the Duofold ladies model, sold at a lower price, but with the coming of Great Depression, the company was faced with a critical period.

In 1929 the profits that were enormous suffered a steep fall, many producers failed and others had to sell off their pens at low prices. Parker, that taken years to establish its brand, decided not to devalue his pens, and kept prices high for the Duofold, but in order to compete in 1932 introduced a range of economic models, school-type, for which they did no advertising. These models did not have a name and are usually indicated by collectors as Thrift Time, or depression pen.

A Vacumatic advertisement of 1941.

File:Vacumatic-Major-Clip.jpg

The Vacumatic arrow clip

The company, the had wisely piled stock in the good period, continued to invest in research, testing new materials and new filling systems, up to the realization, in 1933, of the wonderful Vacumatic, with the arrow clip drawn from Joseph Platt (who has since then become the company symbol) with a transparent tank thanks to the new filling system with the same name. The new pen reported the company at the top of the market.

In 1939 (or 1940), following a trend initiated by Sheaffer with his White dot and followed by other brands, also Parker adopted a symbol to indicate the lifetime warranty, puttin in the head of their pens clips the Blue diamond, a small diamond in blue enamel. Unlike what happened for other brands the symbol was introduced late and for a relatively short period, going to disappear after a few years.

The Blue diamond for lifetime warranty.

Despite the commercial success and the good technical quality of its pens, the Parker continued to invest heavily in research and innovation, and in 1941 introduced a revolutionary model, the 51, the first pen made of plastic resin (called Lucite) with a characteristic hooded nib, which is necessary for the use of a new quick drying ink (the Superchrome Ink), which tended to degrade the celluloid. The pen, although could not be considered particularly beautiful, and despite being built in ordinary plastic, was a tremendous success, and is probably the most sold fountain model of all time.

The 51 had a number of changes in the following years, such as switching in 1948 to a new the filling system called aerometric, the creation of different versions, including some luxury models in precious metals or with complex decorations for the metal cap. Some of these are extremely rare and highly sought after by collectors.

In the following years the Parker continued introducing of new models and new technologies as the unique capillary filler of the 61 model, or the realization of T1 model in titanium. The company was active in the fountain pen market with luxury and economic models, and at the same time achieved great successes in the production of the new ballpoint pens.

The Parker remained active in the pens market, although since 1976 the company obtained more profit by the temporary employment agency Manpower than from the sale of pens. In 1993 the pen production division was acquired by Gillette Company, which already owned the Paper Mate. In 2000, Gillette gave the division the writing instruments Newell Rubbermaid, which already owned the Waterman.

Chronology

Year	Event
1889	Birth of Parker
1891	Parker becomes a corporation under the name The Parker Pen Company
1894	Obtained the patent for the Lucky Curve feeder (nº US-512319 )
1898	Patented the slip-on cap
1899	The Jointless Pen was patented (nº US-622256 )
1900	Introduced the Lucky Curve models with gold filigree overlay
1904	Introduced a first filling system whit compression of a rubber sac
1905	The spear-head feeder was patented (nº US-758930 )
1907	Creati i modelli Snake in argento ed oro
1911	Brevettato un alimentatore Lucky Curve perfezionato (nº US-990288 )
1912	Introdotto il modello Jack Knife (a cappuccio di sicurezza)
1913	Introdotto un anello d'oro in testa ai cappucci dei modelli da donna
1913	Introdotto il caricamento a pulsante di fondo
1914	Introdotti i modelli Black Giant e RedGiant
1916	Brevettato il fermaglio washer clip (nº US-1197224 )
1917	Prodotta per conto del dipartimento della difesa la Trench Pen per i soldati al fronte
1920	Prodotta la prima matita meccanica
1921	Introdotto il modello Duofold
1922	Aggiunti i modelli Lady e Junior alla linea Duofold
1926	Introdotti i modelli in celluloide (Unbreakable) della Duofold
1927	Introdotti i modelli Pastel in caseina
1928	Introdotto il modello Three-Fifty, più comunemente noto come True Blue
1930	Introdotto il modello Duette Vest pocket
1929	Introdotti i modelli Streamlined della Duofold
1929	Viene dismesso il modello True Blue
1931	Introdotto l'inchiostro Quink
1932	Introdotta la serie Thrift Time
1933	Introdotto il modello Vacumatic e la clip a freccia
1933	Dismessa la serie Thrift Time
1935	Introdotta la linea Parkette
1936	Introdotto il modello Challenger
1936	Introdotto il modello Golden Web
1937	Introdotte le versioni Speedline della Vacumatic
1937	Introdotte le versioni Shadowave della Vacumatic
1939	Introdotto il modello Duofold Geometric (detto anche Toothbrush)
1939	Dismesse le linee Parkette e Challenger
1940	Introdotto il Blue Diamond come indice di garanzia a vita (o 1939?)
1940	Introdotto il modello Laidtone Duofold, (dette anche striped)
1941	Introdotto il modello 51 e il relativo inchiostro
1946	Introdotto il caricamento Red band filler sulla 51
1947	Introdotto il modello VS, le 51 Demi e la nuova clip e dismesso il Red band filler
1948	Introdotto il modello 21, il caricamento aerometric sulla 51 e il Superchrome Ink e dismesse Vacumatic e Laidtone Duofold
1950	Introdotto il modello 41
1951	Dismesso il modello 41 e la stampigliatura della data sulle 51 prodotte in USA
1953	Dismessa la stampigliatura della data sulle 51 prodotte fuori dagli USA
1954	Introdotta la penna a sfera Jotter e la stampigliatura Made in USA sul cappuccio della 51
1956	Introdotto il modello 61 e dismesso il Superchrome Ink
1960	Introdotto il modello 45
1962	Introdotto il modello VP
1963	Introdotto il modello 75
1970	Introdotto il modello T1 in titanio

Models

Model	Period	Dimension/Version
Duofold	1921-

Parker/en

Indice

History

Chronology

Models

External References