Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Parker Vacumatic Pencil 1947


I have said it before... but George S. Parker... "You complete me and you had me at Vacumatic." (OK, I am done with the Jerry McGuire quotes.) If we were being invaded and I had to grab some of my belongings and head into the hills for a few years to live off of twigs and berries, I would make sure I had this pencil with me.



62 years ago a person (or a machine) put a date stamp on this pencil and I am positive that they had no idea that some dude would be sitting up at 11:40 on a Tuesday night posting to his blog about his love for this particular pencil, but for proof... here's how the interview would go:

Questioner: "Sir, did you have any idea that in 2009 some dude would be sitting up at 11:40 on a Tuesday night posting to his blog on his computer about his love for this particular pencil?"

Parker Employee: "Uhhh, computer?"

Questioner: "Exactly."

Well there you are folks.

My pencil really wants to have a matching Vacumatic fountain twin, but this is as close as I can come to making it happy. These two are a few years apart but they hang out every now and then. There is a difference between getting better with time and staying consistently strong over time and this definitely falls into that strong category.

Good pencil.
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3 comments:

Carmen said...

Your post is a tribute to a job done with excellence by someone 60 something yrs ago. There is a lot to be said about that.

Anonymous said...

I have that exact same pencil (provided it is silver pearl and not golden pearl). I love it, too.

By the way, I have the matching pen, but it's missing its clip. Perhaps it could be repaired?

I'm not using the pen and have no plans to use it. If you want it, send me an e-mail (rsvman@cox.net).

Konstantinos said...

I remember my late father using a Parker vacumatic pencil in ca 1960; it was far more convenient than anything similar.
I used this pencil in 1972 to make diagrams in my work for graduation...then I lost it. But I still have my father's Parker roller pen, apparently its companion.
A Parker pen or pencil was a piece of craft at that time, having "personality". It was not (or at least did not seem to be) a soulless product of a process line. But the price was too high. Probably it was for lifetime, and worthy from this point of view.

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