An interesting 1940's Parker Duofold

I'm hard at work on the next website sales update, a modest thing, probably 40 vintage pens. Figured I'd post this pen from that pending update, as it is relatively uncommon- particularly with good barrel clarity- and indeed is a variant unknown to many collectors of its series, that being Parker's 1940's "striped" Duofolds. This is one of the best images of this variant I've done or seen (ahhh, I love the smell of hubris in the morning).

The pen formally is a 1940 black Duofold Junior, the larger of the two pens that mark the entry level to vac-fill Duofolds from this era (cheaper Duofolds can be found as button fillers, and more expensive vac-fill pens also were made, albeit not in black in the latter case).

Black vac-fill Duofolds were made 1940 through perhaps mid 1942. That end point will need to be better defined by observation of more pens. Those made from 1941 and later have typical distinct longitudinal stripes of barrel clarity. But, the 1940 pens have "Shadow Wave" transparency as shown above, a pattern explicitly catalogued only for Vacumatic, not Duofold.

Most black Shadow Wave Duofolds are rough things as most Junior Duofolds have poor preservation of cap-band gold-filled metal (a mm of brassing on a big cap band equals "edge brassing", while a mm of brassing on thin double bands equals "total brassing"). As barrel clarity on most celluloid Parkers suffers ambering, most pens of this sort tend to have an unimpressive appearance. To find clean trim and good clarity on a black Duofold Junior (or smaller Sub-Deb) is a grand thing indeed.

This one is in the top five I've handled in ten years. Keep in mind it is not a "brown" Shadow Wave. Those stripes you see are not brown/black variegation, but mark a black pen with transparency showing up as golden color. Probably I should check to see if it is better than the one already in my own collection, though I vaguely recall having a pretty sharp example already sitting about :)