1939 Parker Streamlined Lady Duofold Button Fill

The Pen and Its History

This is a Parker Streamline Lady Duofold button-fill fountain pen dating to 1939. At approximately 113 mm, or about 4½ inches capped, it is one of the smaller members of the Duofold family.

Fortunately, Parker made dating this particular pen unusually easy. The barrel carries a “9” date code accompanied by two dots. Parker's dot dating system began each year with three dots and removed one as each quarter passed, placing this pen's production in the second quarter of 1939.

The Duofold name was already nearly two decades old by then. Parker introduced the original Duofold in 1921, and smaller Junior and Lady versions soon followed. The line became one of Parker's defining products and helped establish the company as one of the major American fountain pen manufacturers.

This pen uses Parker's wonderfully simple button-filling system. Beneath the blind cap at the end of the barrel is a small button connected to a pressure bar running alongside the ink sac. Pressing the button bends the pressure bar against the sac. Releasing it allows the sac to expand again and draw ink through the nib and feed.

There isn't much to it, and that's part of the appeal. Nearly ninety years later, the same handful of mechanical parts can still do exactly what Parker designed them to do.

The Restoration

The pen was complete, and most importantly, its original three-piece hanging pressure bar was still present and in very good condition.

That was a nice surprise. Pressure bars are often among the parts that become badly corroded, broken, or simply disappear over the decades. Rather than replace this one, I removed it, cleaned it thoroughly, polished away the surface oxidation, and put it back into service.

The cap, barrel, section, blind cap, nib, and feed were all carefully cleaned, and the exterior was polished to bring back the finish without trying to erase every sign of the pen's age.

With the original pressure bar ready to go back in, I fitted the pen with a new #17½ necked ink sac and secured it to the section with shellac. Once the shellac had fully cured, the original pressure bar was reinstalled and the button-filling mechanism could finally be tested as a complete system.

And it worked.

Press the button, the pressure bar compresses the sac. Release it, the sac expands and draws in ink — the same basic motion the pen was designed to perform in 1939.

After reassembly, I tested the filling system and the nib to make sure the pen was once again functioning reliably.

There was no need to turn this pen into something it never was. It didn't need new hardware or a collection of replacement parts. The original mechanism had survived. It simply needed to be cleaned, serviced, and given a new consumable ink sac.

That's probably my favorite part of this restoration. Almost the entire mechanism that filled this pen in 1939 is still doing the job today.