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Pattern |
Completely smooth without any pattern. |
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Material |
Titanium |
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Price |
$ |
The cap end has a dimpled tassie like other 75s, but the barrel end has a red plastic jewel reminiscent of the Parker T1.
There is quite a bit of controversy about this model. While a soft-tip Parker 75 was commercially sold, as seen in Parker advertisement like the one found in the December 1972 issue of National Geographic, there is some debate whether or not this fountain pen was sold. Some people say that this FP is really a home-brew model that was concocted by using the soft-tip cap and barrel and replacing it with the FP section. Others say that it does exist as an officially-released FP model.
Even among Parker salespeople during this time period that this author has had the pleasure to inquire give conflicting information. One states it definitely exists, while another has never sold it and is uncertain. The latter also raises the possibility that, if sold, this titanium FP may have been directed at the international marketplace.
Well folks, let me state that this is definitely a Parker 75 titanium FP and not a T-1 RB with the section replaced. Examination of the interior of the cap on this pen reveals that it has the cap clutch spring that is suitable for FP sections. It has 4 protruding fingers instead of the inner cylindrical sleeve of the RB. Thus, if you try to put the cap onto a plastic section for the felt-tip or rollerball, the cap does not seat properly.
Even more convincing, look at the clip and cap tassie. These are 75 clip and tassies. The same items on a T-1 are different in two important areas.
T-1 clip feathers are finer
T-1 cap tassie lacks the concentric, stacked rings of the 75.
For a comparison between the T-1 and Titanium 75 FPs, click here.
As further proof of the existence of a titanium 75, we know that in 1972 Parker made a few very special versions were made that had barrel-mounted panels containing moon dust brought back by the Apollo 15 astronauts.
Here are several prototypes, numbers 15, 29, 38, and 39 of this model showing several differences from the production version. Most notably, these had the early clip with the smaller arrowhead and flat tassies, even on the barrel. In one case the tassie has 3 stacked rings instead of the normal four.
One Titanium 75 FP was placed on auction at the Chicago Pen Show 2001. The final hammer price was $1600 which quickly balloons to $1730 when you throw in the buyers premium of 10% for the first $1000 plus 5% for the remaining amount beyond that. If that absentee buyer was using PenBid services, throw another 10% on top of that to bring the total to a little over $1900 before shipping, handling, insurance, bank transfer fees.
The titanium 75 pictured in the National Geographic advertisement of December 1972 caused quite a bit of discussion between contributors Eric Fonville, Saul Davis, and myself. If you look closely at the hi-res image and carefully examine the clip and tassie of the titanium felt-tip pen, you will notice that these two are not the clip and tassie belonging to the 75. Instead these are from the failed Parker T-1 which Parker stopped selling in 1971.
Our theory is that Parker would simply renamed this T-1 soft-tip as a 75 pen, perhaps to improve the chances of selling them by associating them with the more successful family. In this way they could recoup the investment in titanium pen parts inventory.
Furthermore, chances are good that they ran out of the titanium soft-tip section pictured above and then used the familiar 75 soft-tip section. But in order to do this Parker needed to replace the inner cap so that the pen could be closed. The titanium section had gripping prongs as you can see in the picture, something that was missing from the plastic 75 soft-tip section.
Based on the timing of this ad which appeared after the demise of the T-1, we now believe that Parker never sold a soft-tip T-1 with the plastic 75 section. This belief runs counter to the sketch by Fred Plewa on titanium pens that appeared in a Pen World issue. Such a soft-tip would clearly be labeled as a titanium 75 soft-tip.
Here are pictures of an actual titanium 75 felt-tip pen with its packaging.
What is really interesting about this are the papers that accompany the package. These papers refer that this item is both a 75 and T-1. It is likely that Parker found it expedient to include both, but the significance of this is that it shows the transition that the pen made from the discontinued T-1 to the popular 75 family.
The date of the paper referring this pen as a 75 felt-tip is June 1972, so we get an approximate idea of when Parker made this transition. This is consistent with the fact that the T-1 was discontinued in late 1971 or maybe even early 1972. The T-1 brochure accompanying this pen has a print date of August 1971 so it was printed rather late in the life cycle. My guess is that Parker hadn't decided to kill the product at the time of printing this brochure.