The Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Review

The Parker Duofold fountain pen was first manufactured in 1921. It preceded a range of Duofold pens from the Parker pen company which included the Duofold Junior, the Duofold Special and the Lady Duofold.

George Parker was a school teacher who patented his own pen design in 1889 having got fed up with having to repair his students pens.He formed the Parker pen company in 1892 and the Parker Duofold was allegedly used by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write the Sherlock Holmes adventure series.

“Duo” was a word which was common in marketing circles of the time and the modern equivalent would be “mega”. It sought to connote the excellence of the Duofold over it’s market competitors and was a big pen in many ways(price wise and size wise at 5.5 inches for the original Senior Duofold)

The Duofold was made from a shiny hard rubber which was followed in 1926 when Parker introduced the Duofold made with an “unbreakable Permanite” which was a type of plastic made by DuPont for Parker.

This allowed Parker to offer a lifetime warrany with Duofold pens and produce the pen in a range of colors including Mandarin Yellow, Lapis Blue and Jade Green.

In the 1930s Parker changed the design of the Duofold slightly by replacing the by now familiar flat top style with tapered ends and Duofolds remained in production until the 1960s.

In 1988 Parker made the Duofold Centennial series of pens and the Duofold International thereafter.

The Duofold fountain pen catapulted Parker into market leadership and most of this success was attributable to the bold two tone color scheme that Parker offered it’s Duofold buyers as up to this point most fountain pens were offered in fairly staid colors such as black. The Duofold had a large button ink filling mechanism which started off in the early days being finished with hard red rubber and black rubber ends.

Until the introduction of the Permanite referred to above the pen was only available in red and black but the use of the Permanite allowed Parker to broaden the range of colors and some of these later became much sought after; colors such as the Lapis Lazuli Blue and Mandarin Yellow. (Parker did introduce a jade green pen prior to this but called them “Jade pens” and had none of the characteristic features of the Duofold.

Black lined pearl was introduced in 1928 and in 1929 Parker pushed the envelope and introduced the more streamlined pens with tapered ends and offered them in an extended range of colors such as green and pearl, green and black and burgundy.

Duofolds were succeeded by the Vacumatic. Duofolds are reliable, workmanlike pens and the models particularly sought after are the duofolds with flexible, italic or broad spearhead feeds and duofold imprinted nibs.

General MacArthur signed the document ending the war in the Pacific in World War 2 with his favorite pen, the Parker Duofold fountain pen.

And further showing Parker pens in the pantheon of history, Dwight Eisenhower signed the Armistice ending the war in Europe with his Parker 51 fountain pen.

The Duofold centennial as pointed out above was marketed for the first time around 1987/88 and the Parker Duofold fountain pen has not changed all that much since it first hit the market all those years ago.

The Duofold is truly a timeless, classic collectible fountain pen. It is a beautiful pen with which to write and it’s design has stood the test of time spawning many imitators.