Product Description
Type Desk pen base and a fountain pen.
Product Name Parker 61 desk pen with "Magnetix" base (pen holder is held in place magnetically)
Manufacturer and Year Parker, USA -- 1940s
Length The pen is 5-7/8" and the base measures 3.5" by 5-3/4" by 3/4."
Filling System Capillary filling system. Tested and working well. See instructions below.
Color The pen is black with a 1" gold end piece that has a decorative taper. The gold pen holder is about 4-1/2" long and the ball attached to a gold base smoothly rotates the pen. The base is an green marble with gold streaks. It includes a gold 3" x 1" gold piece that has an indentation that can be used to lay the pen down.
Nib Medium-fine gold nib.
Condition Excellent condition with no cracks, chips, dents, or dings. This is a classic desk set with a shiny pen and holder and a beautiful base. The fountain pen is in excellent condition, though there is a scratch on either side of the section that might be a tool mark. The barrel is shiny with some light scratching. The gold endpiece has some moderate scratching, but it is shiny. The pen holder has a few small dots of pitting and some light scratching but it is shiny and the imprint that is on it is clear. The gold piece anchor that holds the pen set has some moderate scratching as does the diagonal pen holder. The base has chipping especially along the front edge and along on the right angle edges. The green felt bottom is intact and looks new.
You'll need to be patient when you fill it the pen for the first time, as it takes a few minutes or so for the capillary system to suck in enough ink to get started.
A word or two about the Parker 61 Capillary Filling System. If you are not familiar with this unique design, you should read this.
Here is how you fill a Parker 61, and an insight into how the pen actually works. Unscrew the barrel and stick the back end of the pen (aka the capillary cell) into a bottle of ink. Wait a few minutes (probably more like a half hour when you first start one of these older used ones), and let the ink wick up into the capillary cell. The cell contains a sheet of perforated plastic that has been given a 3-D pattern resembling tire tread, and rolled up. The perforations allow ink to seep between the rolled-up layers, and the tread pattern maintains space between the layers. In the middle of this tube, which runs the entire length of the capillary cell, is the feed. To keep things clean, the capillary cell has a coating of teflon on the outside that is intended to shed ink as the user withdraws the pen from the ink bottle, leaving very little ink to be wiped off. The end of the barrel contains a spring-loaded piece which covers the open end of the capillary tube, but still allows it to vent.
