The Parker Duofold is a range of fountain pens produced by the Parker Pen Company.
The Parker Duofold is a range of fountain pens produced by the Parker Pen Company.
The first model was produced in 1921 and was a large pen – 5.5 inches long when capped. It was made of a showy bright red hard rubber and expensively priced at $7.00, equivalent to $106in 2021.
The original full-sized Duofold was soon joined by the smaller Duofold Junior, Duofold Special, and Lady Duofold. While the Junior and Special could also be fitted with Parker’s Washer Clip, the Lady Duofold was available with a Chatelaine, or Ring Top for hanging around one's neck. The Ring Top would also appear on Parker's Vest Pocket models, for being attached to a watch fob. Matching pencils would come with either clip or ring, depending on the pen selected. The pen was available only in black and red hard rubber until 1926, when Parker introduced the “unbreakable Permanite” Duofold (Permanite was Parker’s trade name for a plastic manufactured by DuPont). The first new hue was the now traditional red, followed by Jade green (made to compete with Sheaffer's revolutionary Jade Radite Lifetime pens) which was not originally referred to as a Duofold, but rather the Black Tipped Jade (changed shortly thereafter). This was followed by Lapis Lazuli blue and Mandarin Yellow. In 1928, Moderne black and pearl (black lined pearl) was introduced as a Deluxe model and Parker signified this by the addition of a third cap ring to the cap band instead of the usual two found at the time. In 1930 the Duofold line was streamlined with tapered ends replacing the familiar “flat-top” style. Additional varieties were introduced: burgundy (red and black pearl); Moderne green and pearl (green lined pearl); and finally, green and black pearl (black lined green pearl).
But by the early 1930s the Duofold’s design was viewed by the manufacturer as rather outmoded. Parker launched its replacement, the Vacumatic, in 1933, and the Duofold line was moved to second tier, even though it followed closely the Vacumatic's design with slimmer profile, streamlined look and vacumatic filling mechanism. Duofolds remained popular in Europe, being produced well into the 1960s in varying sizes and shades, and were revived in the 1980s as Parker's flagship offering once more. In 1988 (to celebrate the company's centennial), Parker launched the Duofold Centennial series of Pens (Fountain Pens, Rollerballs and Pencils). Later, they introduced the Duofold International line with models that also evoked the classic Duofold design, though smaller than the Centennial. There are also differences in the ink feeding systems, changing from their Button Filling mechanism to a cartridge/converter system.
A ballpoint pen, also known as a biro, ball pen, or dot pen (Nepali) is a pen that dispenses ink over a metal ball at its point, i.e. over a "ball point". The metal commonly used is steel, brass, or tungsten carbide. The design was conceived and developed as a cleaner and more reliable alternative to dip pens and fountain pens, and it is now the world's most-used writing instrument; millions are manufactured and sold daily. It has influenced art and graphic design and spawned an artwork genre.
A fountain pen is a writing instrument which uses a metal nib to apply a water-based ink to paper. It is distinguished from earlier dip pens by using an internal reservoir to hold ink, eliminating the need to repeatedly dip the pen in an inkwell during use. The pen draws ink from the reservoir through a feed to the nib and deposits the ink on paper via a combination of gravity and capillary action. Filling the reservoir with ink may be achieved manually, via the use of an eyedropper or syringe, or via an internal filling mechanism which creates suction or a vacuum to transfer ink directly through the nib into the reservoir. Some pens employ removable reservoirs in the form of pre-filled ink cartridges.
The Parker Pen Company is an American manufacturer of luxury writing pens, founded in 1888 by George Safford Parker in Janesville, Wisconsin, United States. In 2011 the Parker factory at Newhaven, East Sussex, England, was closed, and its production transferred to Nantes, France.
The Parker 51 is a fountain pen first introduced in 1941. Parker marketed it as “The World’s Most Wanted Pen,” a slogan alluding to restrictions on production of consumer goods for civilian markets in the United States during World War II. Parker's continual advertising during the war created demand that took several years to fulfil after the end of the conflict.
The Waterman Pen Company is a major manufacturing company of luxury fountain pens and inks, based in Paris, France. The firm was established in 1884 in New York City by Lewis Waterman, being one of the few remaining first-generation fountain pen companies, as "Waterman S.A."
A mechanical pencil, also clutch pencil, is a pencil with a replaceable and mechanically extendable solid pigment core called a "lead". The lead, often made of graphite, is not bonded to the outer casing, and can be mechanically extended as its point is worn away as it is being used.
Waterman Philéas is a series of writing instruments including fountain pens, rollerballs, ballpoints and pencils produced by the Waterman pen company. It is well-known because of its good price-quality ratio and is therefore often recommended for novice fountain pen users and collectors. This series is now discontinued, but is currently still available from numerous vendors.
The Parker Vacumatic fountain pen was launched in 1932, and would come to out-sell the Parker Duofold, the then top seller. The pen was originally marketed under the name of Golden Arrow, a reference to the new arrow clip but was again changed to Vacuum Filler in reference to its ink reservoir filling action.
Staedtler Mars GmbH & Co. KG is a German multinational stationery manufacturing company based in Nuremberg. The firm was founded by J.S. Staedtler in 1835 and produces a large variety of stationery products, such as writing implements, art materials, and office supplies.
Rotring is a former German manufacturing company of technical drawing tools and writing implements. Established in 1928 as a fountain pen manufacturer, Rotring is currently a brand owned by Newell Brands after its acquisition in 1998. The name "Rotring" directly translates to "red ring" which is still placed around the barrel of their pens today. The company's name was changed to Rotring in the early 1970s to match the trademark.
The Parker Jotter is the Parker Pen Company's second and best-selling retracting refillable ballpoint pen. The first was the Hopalong Cassidy ballpoint.. Since 1954, over 750 million have been sold worldwide. It is priced between $6 for lower end models, and $20 for higher end models, such as special editions. Its refill has a ballpoint tip originally called the T-Ball, with a unique textured surface that greatly reduces slipping and failure to transfer ink onto slick paper, known as "skipping." The technology is now commonly used in the pen industry. The pens are also a popular advertising medium. The external design of the Parker T-Ball refill is a configuration copied by many other brands of refillable pens.
Lamy is a German pen manufacturing company. Josef Lamy, who was a sales representative for Parker Pen in Germany, founded the business in 1930 by purchasing the Orthos pen manufacturer. Lamy was a pioneer in the use of moulded synthetic plastics to make their products.
Demonstrator pens are pens which are partially or mostly transparent.
Pilot Corporation is a Japanese pen manufacturer based in Tokyo, Japan. It produces writing instruments, stationery and jewelry, but is best known for its pens.
The BIC Cristal is an inexpensive, disposable ballpoint pen mass-produced and sold by Société Bic of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France. It was introduced in December 1950 and is the best-selling pen in the world, with the 100 billionth sold in September 2006. It has become the archetypal ballpoint pen and is considered ubiquitous, to the extent that the Museum of Modern Art has made it a permanent part of its collection. Its hexagonal form and design mimics a standard pencil and it is sold in six types of point and 18 colours around the world.
Zebra Co., Ltd. is a Japanese manufacturer of writing instruments, established in 1914 by Tokumatsu Ishikawa.
Conway Stewart & Company Ltd is a British former manufacturing company of writing implements, founded in 1905 by Frank Jarvis and Thomas Garner in London. The company became notable for its fountain pens, although it also produced ballpoint pens. Conway Stewart was placed in receivership in 2014, with its stocks and assets acquired by Bespoke British Pens Ltd., which owns the rights to the brand since then.
Onoto is a British brand of luxury fountain pens and accessories. Originally manufactured by De La Rue from 1905 until 1958, the brand was relaunched by "The Onoto Pen Company Limited", based in Colney Hall, Norwich in 2005. Onoto pens have been used by numerous notable people from history such as Field Marshal Douglas Haig and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Other famous names include Florence Nightingale, Edgar Wallace and Natsume Soseki, the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji Era.
Graf von Faber-Castell is a line of fine writing instruments from the German stationery manufacturer Faber-Castell. It includes a line of pencils, mechanical pencils, fountain pens, and rollerball pens. Currently, Graf von Faber-Castell makes high end writing instruments made with luxury materials such as ebony, resin, and ivory.
Sheaffer Pen Corporation is an American manufacturing company of writing instruments, particularly luxury fountain pens. The company was founded by Walter A. Sheaffer in Fort Madison, Iowa, and incorporated in 1913 to exploit his invention of a lever-filling fountain pen. The brand was sold by French company Bic to A. T. Cross Company in August, 2014.
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parker Duofold . |