Product Description
Type Vintage ballpoint pen, mechanical pencil, and capillary filling fountain pen set with vintage packaging.
Product Name Parker 61, Mark II.
Manufacturer and Year Parker, made in USA – 1962-69
Length Fountain pen is 5-5/16", ballpoint is 5-1/8, pencil is 5".
Filling System The fountain pen has the capillary filling system which is unique to this model, and comes with a vintage Parker "Instant Ink" pack for easily filling the capillary system. (Not recommended because we don't know the condition of the ink cartridge.) See further details on the system below. The ballpoint takes standard Parker style refills, with a working one included. The pencil takes 0.9mm leads, which it extends via the traditional twist mechanism. We'll include a small pack of leads and a vintage Parker Erasers box. See photos below of all the pens and their extras.
Color Black barrels with 1/10 12k gold filled caps, gold plated trim, and pearlescent jewels.
Nib BROAD gold nib is in good condition, very smooth with lovely tipping material. It's a little on the smaller side of broad, but we judge it to be larger than a medium from this era.
Condition Excellent condition. There's just a little plating wear on the clip, no real brassing. There are a few small scratches and marks but no wear at all on the capillary system's teflon coating or the gold arrow inset on the section. The spring-loaded valve in the end of the barrel is nice and springy. We tested the pen to make sure the capillary fill system was working properly, and we can confirm that it does. No personalization, no cracks or chips in the pen. The ballpoint pen and pencil both have some scratches and marks on their barrels and the same light plating wear on their clips as the fountain pen, and the pencil has a little plating wear on its cone as well. No dents or dings, cracks, chips, or personalization.
They come in a vintage Parker pen set box with original handouts.
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 on a coating of teflonon 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 thingey which covers the open end of the capillary tube, but still allows it to vent.
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