Parker 51

Parker 51, Parker Pen Company
Fernando Martello, CC BY-SA 4.0

The fountain pen with an almost hidden nib, which became the best-selling pen of its time.

The Parker 51 was launched in 1941. The name referred to its having been designed in the company's fifty-first year. The hooded nib did not dry out and could take a new, fast-drying ink.

The pen's streamlining suited the cars and aircraft of the time. It was made in many millions until the 1970s.

Materials: Acrylic plastic (Lucite), metal cap

Manufacture: Factory-made by Parker in the United States.

The nib peeping out under a hood, like a beak.

The smooth, streamlined body.

The metal cap with an arrow-shaped clip.

The nib sits almost entirely inside a hood, so that only the very tip shows and the ink does not dry out. The first pens were filled with the Vacumatic pump mechanism; from 1948 came the Aerometric filler, in which an ink sac is pressed through a metal bar.

A streamlined body, a metal hood with an arrow-shaped clip and the hidden nib.

The year of manufacture is often given as a code on the barrel or on the cap. Pens from the first years and in unusual colours are the most sought after.