There’s a lot of people around who don’t see very well. And I’m one of them. The seller of this pen advertised it as a Parker Vac and I accepted it as such. It was only when I got it home that I realised it was something more interesting and unusual.
Clearly Platinum admired and emulated Parker in those post-war days. It’s pretty shameless, really, with an arrow clip that is very like the Parker one and a nib bearing an arrow design like the original. That’s where the resemblance stops, though.
I sent it away for repair because it was a bit beyond me. When I got it back and opened up the blind cap I found a long shaft like a plunger filler. In fact I would have sworn that it was a plunger filler but Eric Wilson who did the restoration assures me that there’s a sac in there and in reality it’s a form of button filler.
I set about researching this pen but beyond the fact that it is distinctly rare I was not able to find out much. I don’t know whether it’s an RK 14 as engraved on the cap band or an R14 as engraved on the clip. Apparently it’s a Platinum 10-Year pen or rather more precisely the nib is warranted for 10 years. It’s gold-plated steel nib and if you ever had any doubt about the flexibility of steel nibs this should answer them. It’s only semi-flexible but it’s also exceedingly soft. Despite being very fine it glides across the paper and is a delight to use.
Two different authorities gave different dates for this pen, one saying that it was immediately post-war and the other saying that it was an early 50s pen.
Anyway, as well as having a unique filling system and being very rare it’s a nice pen to write with and that’s what pens were made to do.
Deb, I’ll phone you this morning that does not look correct ! Kind Regards, Eric
Haven’t heard from you. What doesn’t look correct?
10 Year nibs by Platinum were started in 1953: http://estilofilos.blogspot.jp/2012/05/10-years.html
Those came in a number of styles, and the Vacumatic was not the only Parker pen copied by Platinum at the time.
Great pen indeed. Congrats.
Cheers,
BT
That’s great information. Thanks very much.
I realize that I’m nearly four years late, but you might want to know that the R14 on the clip and RK14 on the band refer to the fact that those parts are rolled gold (what American makers used to call gold filled). They’re made from sheet material that is sort of a metal “sandwich,” usually with brass as the base metal and a thin layer of gold alloy (14K in this case) pressure-welded to the base metal by passing the sheet between two rollers that squeeze the two layers together.
Thank you for that, Richard.