Early Parker Luckycurve Eyedropper fountain pen

Early Parker Luckycurve Eyedropper fountain pen

The story has been told many times, how the telegraphy teacher George Safford Parker bought tools to help his students with repairs of their poor quality fountain pens. Which he incidently also had sold to them, since he was moonlighting as a sales agent for the John Holland Gold pen company. And when he realised that he already had most of the tools to make pens of his own he eventually ended up starting his own production with the help of a local jeweller.

I have always love the Parker lucky curve eye dropper especially those with nice filigree design. truly elegant. Early fountain pens had no levers, buttons, or other filling mechanisms. To fill one of these pens, one will need to screw it apart, usually at a nearly invisible joint between the gripping section and the barrel, and fill it with an eyedropper. When you reassemble it, you cap it with a cap that slips over the tapered section and is held in place, if you’re lucky, by friction. Pens of this type were notorious for uncapping themselves and leaking, and it was this fault that led to the invention of “safety” pens such as Parker Jack-Knife.

There are many variations of the eyedroppers and my Antique Parker Eyedropper collection so far:

1. Parker #2
2. Parker #14
3. Parker #15 Corrugated & Straight MOP
4. Parker #16
5. Parker # 33
6. Parker #42 1/5
7. Parker #47 Pregnant