Car Boot Sale Purchase

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3,205
Location
West Norfolk. UK
Greetings Pen Friends

Sorry for the bad header! Yesterday I went to a car boot sale in the forlorn hope that I might find a couple of five quid Darwins or something similar, sadly there must have been a 'run' on them and they had sold out. I did however purchase this Parker 51 Pen and Pencil set for the price of one pound.

Now I know next to nothing about pens but I did a couple of hours research last night and I think I might have got a quids worth. I never realised there were so many variations of this pen so many it would seem that some sad person has written a book on just the Parker 51, that must be similar to writing a book on Gillette Techs! In short I ended up very confused.

I believe that the pens are Parker 51 Mk. 1's made in 1954? I can find many photos of like examples but my box has a different font on it but the pens seem the same.

At the top end off the barrel on both the pen and the pencil is engraved Made in England 4 and around the base of the caps on both items is inscribed 1/0 12ct. R. Gold. As you will see sadly both items are personalised with the original owners name. The ink bladder is not made from rubber it is, from what I have read, a type of PVC and on the bladder cover is written PARKER "51" to fill press ribbed bar firmly 4 times holding pen point down. Wipe point with soft tissue.

The lines on the caps are in groups of five converging at the top, on the top of both pen and pencil is a grey coloured fake pearl.

I have washed out the pen with water and done nothing to the pencil, the pencil has clearly had a lot less use than the pen. As to value I am not particularly concerned as I will either use them or give them to my son or daughter but I would be interested if my research was correct and if anything of interest can be added.

Regards
Dick.

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Wow! What a lovely set! I'm reluctant to get into the pen side of things - I did have a brief flirtation with nib pens, but passed that lot along and stuck with my trusty Parker Vector. I'd love something vintage. Great score, Dick! Great score! Lovely :D
 
Greetings

Thanks for that info, I never thought to check out the completed listings on e bay , there's a couple of sets exactly the same on there and one is dated at just a year older than this one so that makes me think I have understood the dating correctly, I did find it rather confusing. I was a five year old when this pen was made, it's a shame about the personalisation, there again perhaps C.Mee was a famous person, a playwright, a fifties Shakespeare perhaps who wrote all his works with this pen!! :D

I shall get a bottle of ink tomorrow and give it a try, the only shop that sells ink in my market town is shut today being a bank holiday.

Regards
Dick.
 
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