Parker 75 Cisele

The pen that started my collection

Park 75 Cisele - the founding pen of my pen collection

A Vintage Pen I still Enjoy

When asked, when did you start to be impacted by the fountain pen affliction, I have to say in the late 70s when I was living in Edmonton, Alberta. I was working at the Hudson's Bay Company. In those does, the department stores all had pen departments. Although I was working in the Human Resources Department, the store has a practice that during Bay day and other major sales, the support staff would be assigned to work in one of the selling departments to help customers. Yes, I was assigned to work in the pen department.

I was attracted to the Parker in the cross hatch, Cisele, or Cicelé pattern. I acquired the pen in sterling silver and then later, as one is never enough, in the Vermeil, which is gold plate over sterling silver. The pens were first produced in 1964. The Parker 75 was designed by Kenneth Parker, the son of Parker founder, George Parker, and Don Doman.

I like this pen in Vermeil which is gold over a sterling silver body.

I had many year of writing from this pen, and I bought it in many versions. I was issued in finished that included gold plate and also in lacquer. You can rotate the nib which increases the flow of ink.

I have had many years of writing with this pen. It was also one of my dad's favourite fountain pens.

Now, where pens are gigantic is size when compared to the Parker 75, the pen just feels too small. But there are days where ink up then pen and use it. A good writing experience.

In the background of the top photo is one of my last bottles of Penman Ink. It was a loved and hated ink by some user, but my experiences were always good. The line of ink were introduced around 1993. The black ink colour included pigment as well a dye, and I believe for some users the pigments caused clogging. Flash forward with now inks having colour particles added for colour effect and I am not sure what the issue was back in the 90s.

The ink bottle, designed by Geoff Hollington was very distinctive at the time. It included a plastic reservoir. You turned the bottle over, the plastic reservoir filled and then you filled your pen. Common place now with a number of ink brands. A number of years one of the members of the design team in England wrote me to say hi. That email has been lost in computer hard drive failures, but it has made be appreciate the bottle design even more.

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