PA3796 Parker Duofold Junior Fountain Pen And Ballpoint Set, boxed (Soft Medium).

PA3796 Parker Duofold Junior Fountain Pen And Ballpoint Set, boxed (Soft Medium).

Date: c1958

Size: Capped - 136mm; posted - 160mm.

This lovely glossy India Black Duofold set is in excellent condition.  Both pieces are free from cracks, chips and splits.  They have a beautiful glossy sheen, and there are not even any noticeable surface scratches.  This is an example of the earlier style of Duofold Junior with the Parker arrow pocket clips and the rolled gold "Deco" engraved cap lip bands.  The caps have a black top "jewel".  All the trim is bright and shiny.  

Fountain Pen

The barrel imprint is nice and bold and easily read.  The 14-carat yellow gold Parker No. 10 nib is undamaged and in a medium point.  It has a large blob of iridium at the tip and will last for donkey's years.  Near the base is imprinted the date code for 1958.  The aerometric filler is accessed by unscrewing the barrel.  It is also undamaged with the original pliglass ink sac which shows hardly any of the usual internal ink staining, and retains most of its original transparency.  This leads me to think that the pen has hardly been used.  The sac guard is chrome plated.  It is nice and shiny and shows none of the usual discolouration.

Ballpoint

It is quite unusual to find the ballpoint pen in a set, but here it is.  It retains a good, clear imprint to the barrel and is an earlier example with the metal barrel threads.  Like the pen, it is in excellent condition with just a couple of pinprick-sized spots of discolouration on the rolled gold point. It is still fitted with its original T-Ball refill, and as this is no longer writing, please remind me when ordering the set, and I will include a modern refill to get you started.  This is a retractable ballpoint pen that works by pressing down on the cap.  

Box

This is the L.3 "fur" patterned box. It is in decent condition, though it does have some edge and corner wear to the outer and some brown age spotting to the satin pad.  Otherwise, it is in good sturdy condition with no split corners or other structural damage.  

I have fully serviced this set.  The fountain pen writes very smoothly and produces a wet and consistent medium width line.  It is a soft nib and will provide some understated line width variation as you write from a fine-medium to a medium-broad.  The ballpoint works perfectly.