At first glance this pen appears to be made of a different material than brass with a dull finish as though it was sandblasted, down the tassies. It reminds me of the Nickel-Silver crosshatch grid. Other than the pattern, it was identical in appearance to the Milleraies prototype which was also found from the same source. Here are close-up pictures, with the 20-micron inscription indicating that this pen was to be goldplated (silverplating would have been 30 microns). This also implies the pen was an early period version when the plating thickness was inscribed.
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Note the seam lines in the above two pictures of the pen cap and barrel, right above the first letter R in "Parker" and at the 20 micron inscription. The fact that the pattern is aligned as it goes over the seams implies that it was placed after the cap and barrel were formed. Had the pattern been placed on flat sheets of metal and then rolled into shape, the registration at the seam would not have this level of alignment.
I had the chance to inspect the cap and barrel more closely with Eric Fonville, a fellow Parker 75 collector, and we noticed that the color of the interior revealed that the base metal was actually brass. In fact, when the section was screwed into the barrel there was a gritty feel as if some powder was on the threads. Indeed that was confirmed as cleaning the section threads removed some powder. We concluded that this pen had some powder coating on brass.
The weight of this pen is very different than the production versions I have:
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Cap |
Barrel |
Total |
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This Grain d'Orge prototype |
7.5 |
7.8 |
15.3 |
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Milleraies prototype of the same material |
7.1 |
7.1 |
14.3 |
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SP version with 30 micron inscription |
5.7 |
5.6 |
11.3 |
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SP version with goldplated trim |
5.1 |
5.0 |
1023 |
These weight differences support the notion that the material of this pen is not brass.
