You may know that as well as fountain pens I have a fondness for mechanical pencils. Like some fountain pen collectors of my acquaintance, I don’t write with the pencils I accumulate. I don’t know why; I ensure that they write well then store them away.
In Fountain Pen Geeks some time ago, an absolutely splendid pencil appeared for sale, this delightful Parker Moderne. It was not expensive but as postage and the rapacious greed of the taxman and the Royal Mail would put it beyond my reach I had to just regretfully admire it and leave it alone.
It belonged to a dear friend and not only did he give it to me, he arranged with another friend to bring it over the Atlantic so that it came through my letterbox at no cost at all! I am very fortunate in my friends.
When Parker decided that it was necessary to produce cheaper pens – and pencils – during the hard times of the thirties, they did so without reducing quality and they enhanced those writing instruments with wonderful patterns. This green pearl with black lines pencil is one of those beauties that they produced. I wouldn’t want to overstate the case, but I think that it isn’t unreasonable to say that those glorious pens and pencils brightened those dark days for some.
Many thanks, Fred and Chris. My own days are rather dim just now and this pencil brings a warm glow with its beauty and the kindness of my friends.
Edit: I’ve been reliably informed that this is actually a Duofold Lady in one of the patterns known as Moderne. Many thanks, Simon.
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I think maybe the reason this is such good quality is that this is probably not a depression type pen, even though it would have been available through out the depression. This looks like a black and pearl deluxe pencil and, apparently, these were more expensive than the other colours as it was more costly to produce. In 1930 Parker introduced a new colour – Moderne green and pearl deluxe where the veins are green rather than black, and in 1932 the Moderne pearl green and black (commonly known as sea green pearl). That maybe is why this pencil is described as Moderne. To me though this looks like a classic lady streamlined Duofold pencil in black and pearl rather than a Thrift time or Depression era Duette / Premier / Moderne model.
Thanks for posting though as it has given me the incentive to delve into my Duofold book again and the Parker Pens Penography site to check what I was thinking wasn’t nonsense.
Merry Christmas
Thank you, Simon. I accepted what the pencil was described as, not being all that well up on Parker pencils. Seems it’s an even nicer pencil than I thought it was.
A Merry Christmas to you, and a Guid New Year.
I came on here to check that you received it safely, but I no longer need to ask. 🙂