Parker's First "Aluminum Cap Pen”

The "51" may have been Parker's most famous metal cap and plastic barrel pen, but the Duo-Tone was the first.

- BY TIM LAROS

In the early 20th century, nearly all fountain pen caps and bodies were made of the same material. Hard rubber pens had hard rubber caps, celluloid pens had celluloid caps, metal pens had metal caps, etc.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, pen design changed drastically. Flat-top pens became streamlined largely due to the introduction of the Sheaffer Balance. In the late 1930s, Sheaffer added to the Balance collection with a new style of pen consisting of a metal cap and plastic body, ultimately named the "Crest."

In Sheaffer's 1937 catalog introducing the Crest, the company claimed: "For the first time the richness of natural gold or sterling silver is combined with the right writing 'feel' in a fountain pen... [F]or the first time in fountain pens and matching pencils, there is a flush fitting of the cap and barrel." In Sheaffer sales speak, the Crest was the first fountain pen to match a metal cap to a plastic barrel.

Not to be outdone, in 1940 Parker introduced the Vacumatic Imperial with a gold or gold-filled cap and a celluloid barrel. The cap was almost flush fitting. Toward the end of 1940, Parker introduced the "51" with a metal cap and plastic barrel. The "51" was produced with various metal caps and plastic barrels for nearly 40 years, including the current, reissued Parker 51.