Danish Made Parker Duofolds from the 40s and 50s
As stated elsewhere, The Penol Company not only produced pens of own design under the Penol brand, it also distributed Parker Pens and produced Parker Pens under license. The last is the case with the Duofold lines of the 40s, 50s and 60s. Pens of similar design were also produced in England and in France (Shepherd and Zazove), but you find some differences in terms of colour and imprint. The pens shown here belong to the Danish production.
First generation - double tassie pens
I think it makes sense to distinguish between 3 different generations or versions of the Danish Parker Duofold. It is often referred to as the New Parker Duofold, but only few of the pens carry that imprint, so it seems more reasonable to refer to them simply as Danish Made Duofolds.
The first generation of the redesigned Duofold has a tassie in the cap as well as in the blind cap, twin tassies. Both tassies are in the colour of the pen. They also carry a special arrow clip reading 'Parker' vertically along the clip. They are standard button fillers as earlier generations of the Duofold. Parkerpens.net claim that there are four colours in this first version of the 'New Duofold' ("The Danish Duofold NS were manufactured in Black, Burgundy and Olive Green and possibly in Chocolate Brown" (see "The European Duofolds"). Nevertheless there are at least 5 colours, and as you can tell from the pics below the chocolate brown definitely exists. In my collection I have the following colours with double tassies, split clip reading 'Parker' and sack button filling: black, olive green, burgundy, chocolate brown and petrol blue/dark grey.
The English New Style Duofold was introduced in 1946, and my guess is that the Danish was introduced more or less simultaneously or perhaps a year later. The first generation of the Danish Duofold came in only one size, a standard senior size. See pics of the first generation pens below.
To the left, the five colours of the early redesigned Duofolds. Chocolate brown, black,
dark petrol or grey (it's very difficult to tell the colours apart in this photo, see another shot to the right),
olive green and burgundy.
The photo of the two caps to the right is messy, caps are not cleaned well, but the photo lets you see the difference between petrol/grey and black.
Nib design. This is the most common of the nib designs seen in the Danish Duofolds. Pens of other sizes, especially oversized pens, carry nibs that simply read "Parker". Second gen pens often show the letter "D", probably indicating "Denmark" as opposed to the English "N" for Newhaven.
Generally the nibs are fantastic if you want to write with your pens. Many are fine to extra fine and they often have a slight flex making them very enjoyable and useful.
Petrol or Grey
Burgundy
Olive green
Chocolate
brown
Black
Below, a pic of a third generation nib and section. Note the "D" and also compare the necks of the sections. The third generation neck is rounded whereas the first and second generation neck is cut off directly.
Imprint from a first generation pen. All the first double tassie pens carry the Penol anchor. Some, not all, of the olive and burgundy pens have a different imprint. See below.
Below, imprint from a 1946 olive green Standard Senior. This style of imprint is reminiscent of the imprints found in some of the Flattop Duofolds from the 30s.
Close-up of the cap band design. The chevron-like design - inherited from a Vacumatic cap band - was used throughout the life-span of the Danish Made Duofold. While the stripe pattern stayed the same, the width of the band changed. In the first generation you only see one wide cap band width, slightly protruding from the cap, but in second and third generation pens you see both wide and more narrow cap bands, some of which are completely flush to the cap.
To the right, two turquoise or baby-blue caps from standard senior sized pens. The pens are completely identical in size, but obviously the cap bands differ in width. You also see Maxima sized pens with narrow cap bands (note that the designation "Maxima" is not used on Danish pens, although the longer, slightly slender pen does exist. See further below.
Cap tassies in the colour of the pen. The bigger cap is from a second generation New Duofold
Second Generation Danish Duofolds - Single tassie Aluminium Filler
If the Danish design changes follow those seen in England, the redesigned New Duofold with rounded blind cap and under the blind cap an aluminium rod instead of a button was introduced in 1948 and discontinued . It could also maybe a year later. With the design changes also came the new oversized pen, the Senior. (I'm pretty convinced, that the first generation pens came in only one size, the Standard Senior).
I'm unsure about the colours; in my collection I have examples of black, burgundy and chocolate, but not grey or green or blue. Parkerpens.net is somewhat unclear about colours in the Danish Made Duofolds, so it seems that there is no authoritative source for the colour-scheme of the Aluminium Filler pens produced from probably 1948 until 1953. To the right and below a few pics of the AF pens.
Below, the new Senior size in the Aluminium Filler range. The size of the pen is not reproduced in the imprint, and sometimes you have to directly compare a Standard Senior size to the new Senior to make sure what size of pen you are dealing with. The pen shown is with the new clip design, but especially in AF Senior pens you often find the old clip style with the Parker name in vertical writing.
Above, a burgundy AF pen. Note the darkening of the blind cap. It is extremely uncommon to find burgundy and chocolate pens where the blind cap is not a bit darkened. Black pens show no signs of colour-changes.
Below, the chocolate AF Duofold. It is a senior pen. You see a better picture of this lovely pen in the introduction page to the section about the Danish Duofolds.
Third generation Danish duofolds - Aerometric fillers
These pens were probably introduced to the market i 1953 and the production went on well into the 60s, according to Shepherd/Zazove. At a fast glance one can easily mistake the Aluminium Filler and the Aerometric Model, but at a closer inspection you will notice that the Aerometric Model does not have a blind cap. Instead the body unscrews from the section and the pen is filled with af 51-like system.
With the Aerometric Model came a number of differently sized pens. The Standard Senior continues and apparently the fat Senior from AF ranges disappears and is substituted by the Maxima. I haven't seen a Danish pen with the Maxima imprint, but Maxima-sized pens with either no imprint or, very confusingly, with the imprint "Parker Senior Duofold". Smaller sizes were also produced; you find a slender junior pen, but it is not called a Junior but a "Student" (and also "Victory"), and you find a "Slimfold" and a ladies pen. As you will see in some of the pics, accompanying pencils were offered.
Imprints changed with the introduction of the Aerometric Model. The Olsen/Penol trademark, the anchor, disappears and instead you find "Parker Duofold" or "New Parker Duofold" and under these imprints "- M.I.D. -" meaning "Made In Denmark". And 'D' on the nib probably also indicates "Denmark". Sometimes you find a number as part of the imprint, and I guess it refers to the year of production in the 50s.
In my collection the following colours are represented:
black, green, turquoise/light blue, dark blue, red and burgundy (I only have one pen of that colour, a "Parker Victory - M.I.D. It could be discoloured, but if that is the case the discolouring is a 100% even, so it seems unlikely).
Lastly the nibs. The imprint of the nibs changes ever so slightly as the letter "D" is introduced as part of the imprint. I have found one of the Standard Senior pens with a nib numbered 35, but that could be a replacement nib from Newhaven England.
Imprints from third generation pens:
Red and blue "Slimfold"
Below, pen sets in red, dark blue, turquoise, black and green. The black and turquoise pens are Maxima-sized. I apologise for the reproduction of the colour in the green set,; it looks blue or turquoise. Neither of my cameras were able to catch the green colour. I will work on it and try to catch a better shot.
Below, some pics of the five colours I have in my collection of the 1953 Aerometric Model.
To the right imprint from the Maxima sized black pen below
Black Maxima-sized pen.
Green Senior Standard pen. Colour rendition is far from perfect.
Dark blue Senior Standard pen.
Red Senior Standard pen.
Turquoise Maxima sized pen.