Friday, June 7, 2013

Dating a Vacumatic pencil

While some pens and pencils can be dated precisely by date codes or hallmarks, most can only be dated approximately. Nonetheless, some items can be dated much more closely than others, which unfortunately isn't usually explicitly noted in our catalog listings. The pencil above, for example, we listed as circa 1933. It is strongly imprinted, but lacks the date code that Parker started using in 1934. The same basic pencil was test-marketed in 1932 as a Golden Arrow, but since this pencil bears a standard generic Parker imprint, the odds are overwhelming that it was produced in 1933 -- a good thing, since its purchaser was looking for an item produced in just that year!


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