Parker La Plume
1950s
About This Model
Parker’s history outside of the US is too deep and layered to adequately describe here, but its foothold in France started in the late 1920s when Parker opened licensing and selling operations soon after acquiring the German Osmia fountain pen company. Parker could not sell in France after the 1940 annexation by Nazi Germany, but sold pen parts to a French agent that were assembled in France as Plexors. After WWII, Parker returned with a uniquely French pen, La Plume, in 1947. La Plume was first issued as a Vacumatic filler, then a button filler, and finally with an Aerometric filler. The later Sonnets were given French names but were not French pens.
About This Pen
This pen is a La Plume, the first true French Parker I know of from after WWII. Its short (11.5cm) overall length with full (1cm) girth clearly identifies it as a French pen. Aside from the French size, this La Plume looks like a black Vac on top, is a button filler like the Engish Duofold NS, and has a French steel nib. It is in very good condition, a user pen that cleaned up very nicely. The gold trim is probably plate, not gold-filled; there is no hallmark and the French were/are very strict about that. The nib writes a wet flexible line, a good writer.
Note: I am asked at times about the interaction of my collection and the pens I sell. The answer is that the interactions are complex, the final decision often appearing to being left to the pens. This La Plume has almost gotten absorbed into my collection three times, but the other Parkers, both domestic and European, protest, so it’s being listed for sale to settle the dispute. If not sold soon, it will probably join the collection for good.
This pen is not for sale.