Bicentennial - 1976

Notes

This limited edition was made to commemorate the 200th year of the declaration of US independence. It was made out of pewter, a material commonly used for household items during the colonial years. Furthermore, Parker acquired some wood from timbers certified and authenticated as having been taken from Independence Hall when it was restored in 1897. This wood chip, cut as a circle, is placed on the cap tassie. Also, the odd-shaped clip with the ball at its end, is unlike any other Parker clip and reminiscent of a bell clapper.

It was packaged in two different forms. One was a handsome cherrywood box while the other was a pewter box with two hinged doors/covers which was a replica of a colonial writing stand.  There was also a desk set containing a ballpoint pen and mechanical pencil though it was in the slim Classic version.

 Here are the materials Parker dealers got on these variants.  You may click on either to get full-sized versions of these materials with legible text.  Be patient as they are each about 200 Kbytes in size and may take a while to display.

A few interesting things to note about this limited edition item.

• According to the dealer write-up, the package in the wooden box came with your choice of fountain pen (model #6-579-1), soft tip pen (#6-579-2), or ball pen (#6-579-3).  Whatever the selection,  the suggested price was $100.

• The package in the pewter box contained two pewter writing instruments -- a soft tip and ballpoint pen.  The BP simply used a soft tip section with a plastic shim so that the BP refill can fit properly.  Curiously a fountain pen was not one of the two pens offered considering that the plastic shim could have easily been removed from a BP to make the soft tip pen.

• According to the dealer write-up on the pewter box, "Parker commissioned the famous silversmiths - and among the foremost authorities on pewter in America - Reed & Barton of Taunton, Massachusetts, to hand-produce a small number of replicas of an 18th century writing stand or "standish".  
  
  No wonder these pewter boxes are so scarce!

Update of May 22, 2002

Here are pictures of the raw pewter casting for the cap and barrel.

Update of December 31, 2002

More Parker photos of this pen and package.  You may click each one to get full-sized versions of these pictures with legible text.  Be patient as they are each about 200 Kbytes in size and may take a while to display.

Notice in the above, the serial number and edition size is placed around the cap band area.  In production Parker relocated this information to a line under "Philadelphia - 1776".  Thus this photograph was made using a pre-production pen.

Update of December 14, 2003

Here is another Parker PR photo of the pewter writing stand or standish.

Update of 10-14-2008