The Parker Duofold is a range of fountain pen

Fountain pen

A fountain pen is a nib pen that, unlike its predecessor the dip pen, contains an internal reservoir of water-based liquid ink. The pen draws ink from the reservoir through a feed to the nib and deposits it on paper via a combination of gravity and capillary action...

s produced by the Parker Pen Company

Parker Pen Company

The Parker Pen Company is a manufacturer of pens, founded in 1888 by George Safford Parker in Janesville, Wisconsin, United States. It is currently owned by Newell Rubbermaid, and headquartered in Newhaven, East Sussex, England.-History:...

The first model was produced in 1921 and was a large pen, 5.5 inches long when capped, and made of a showy bright red hard rubber and expensively priced at $7.00, equivalent to about $83 in 2009.

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

Rubber

Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...

 until 1926, when Parker introduced the “unbreakable Permanite” Duofold (Permanite was Parker’s trade name for a plastic manufactured by DuPont

DuPont

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...

). The first new color was the traditional red, followed by Jade green color (made to compete with Sheaffer's revolutionary Jade Radite Lifetime pens) and 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 colors 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 had grown dated. Parker launched its replacement, the Parker Vacumatic

Parker Vacumatic

The Parker Vacumatic fountain pen was launched in 1933, displacing the Duofold as Parker's top-of-the-line product. The pen was originally named the Golden Arrow, a reference to the new arrow clip which would go on to become a Parker trademark, appearing in some form on almost all of Parker’s...

 in 1933, and the Duofold line was moved to second tier, even though it followed closely in the Vacumatic's design with slimmer profile, streamlined look and vacumatic filling mechanism. Duofolds remained popular in Europe being produced well into the 60s in varying sizes and colors when it was revived in the 80s once again as Parker's flagship model. In 1988 (to celebrate the 100th anniversary), Parker launched the Duofold Centennial series of Pens (Fountain Pens, Rollerballs and Pencils). Later, they introduced the Duofold International line with models that also successfully 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 more modern Cartridge/Converter system. The modern Duofold is a key part of Parker’s product portfolio, and the original “Big Red” is the cornerstone of a vintage pen collection.

External links

• Parker Duofold on ParkerPen official Website
• About fountain pens at FountainPenInfo.com
• The Parker Duofold at the Penpedia
• Pen Lovers: Parker Duofold Collection
• The Parker Duofold is mentioned in Episode 3 of the BBC series Sherlock ('The Great Game')