Here are some pictures of the 1956 Blackbird. Part of the difference from the picture I published before is down to the excellent work that Paul has done in cleaning and polishing the pen. Great work! The rest – well it’s almost inexplicable! The colour is entirely different from the seller’s photo.

This photo also shows the difference between what Paul has and the colour called “coral”. It doesn’t look much like that stuff that grows in reefs under the sea – in fact the nineteen fifty-six pen looks a little more like what I would expect coral to be. Never mind. It’s Mexican Tan and that’s a name that reflects its appearance.

The original photos that the seller provided are as bad as they were for all sorts of reasons. Poor camera – perhaps poor operator. My own photos are far from perfect but I’ve put some effort into ensuring the colours are as near reality as possible. When I got this monitor (many years ago) I spent some time calibrating it. I usually photograph with some white in the shot so I can get the balance right. All that means that what appears on my monitor is an image that is close to the colour of the pen.

Of course, what you see on your screens may be very different. The only way to solve that problem is for me to visit you all and adjust your monitors to be the same as mine. And I’m really too busy at the moment to do that.

Thanks to Paul S for the photos

Edit:  I’m coming back on this one more time because I think it would be wrong to leave it.  I remain convinced that this is a /73, coral pen.  It’s identical in colour to others I have seen bearing that number.