Name the Date

by Paul Erano

While watching a movie, it’s a sure bet we’ll check to see if the fountain pen the character is using is appropriate for the time period in which the movie takes place. We’d love to find the big faux pas.  “Look!” we’d say to the person sitting next to us, “that soldier’s writing home with a Sheaffer’s Snorkel!” We’d lean to our side and whisper the important question, “Don’t they know that pen came out after World War II ended?”

Knowing when a vintage fountain pen was made is important to most collectors. For vintage pen collectors who are interested in a particular model or brand, small details that are evident only in certain model years can have a huge impact on desirability and the price collectors will pay. Many collectors link fountain pens to important historical events and focus on pens made during a particular period, such as the Great Depression or World War II. Those who write may want to draft a short story or write in their journal with the same model pen their favorite author may have written with. Or perhaps they just want to know if the fountain pen they write with is what their grandparents might have used. Pens contain “clues” that advanced collectors use to determine their date of manufacture very accurately. But even new collectors can get quite accurate with a bit of knowledge and a little detective work.

Fountain pens were always evolving. Landmark changes, such as the switch from hard rubber to celluloid, the streamlining of pens, and the use of a particular filling mechanism, allow us to place a pen into a specific time period. New models, style changes, improved feeds and streamlined manufacturing techniques—even what is written on the pen—make it easy to determine when a pen was manufactured to within a few years. Usually, it is possible to “bracket in” a pen’s date of manufacture by noting multiple features (just be careful not to include non-original replacement parts in the dating process).

Here’s how it might work: our Parker Big Red Senior Duofold has a flat top and bottom and a single-ring cap band. What year was it made? The first Parker Duofolds were made from hard rubber, and models from 1925 on were made from celluloid that Parker called Permanite. Double-banded cap bands did not appear until around1928, and the Duofold was made more streamlined in 1929. Therefore, our pen was manufactured as early as 1925 or perhaps as late as 1928. (Clues on the nib and barrel can give us a more accurate estimate, and it is interesting that cap band changes occurred even with contemporary Parker Duofolds.)