The Cobra Strikes Again

This article has been included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 7, now available here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy the article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

I had a bit of fun posting this picture online, with the caption "When the Ripleys are the 'common' ones in this picture, it's a good day":

From left, these are a Parker "Golden Arrow," predating the adoption of the Vacumatic model name, two "Ripley" Vacumatics, one from the early run and the other from the "Class of '39" Parker parts blowout (see Volume 5, page 281); a Parker Vacumatic in "Cobra" or "Egg Shell"; and a pair of Parker prototypes with highly unusual mechanisms (see Volume 3, page 8).  

The Cobra was the reason I took the picture.  Ten years ago, during the release of The Catalogue of American Pencils at the Ohio Show, someone approached me to offer me a Parker "Cobra" at a price that made me gulp.  Someone else didn't gulp as hard, but at least I had the presence of mind to shoot a picture of it before it slipped away.  It made its appearance here in Volume 1, page 149:

While some collectors refer to this pattern as "egg shell," I think such a formidable pencil deserves the alternative, more familiar title of "Cobra."  Perhaps "Cobra eggshell" would do, in the spirit of compromise.  Over at Parkercollector.net, Tony Fischier illustrates Cobra pens in what he calls "pale yellow" -- very similar to the pencil shown above, and red.  "The Egg Shells are probably pre-production trials and are rare," Tony notes. "Especially the red one."

That comment was rattling around in the back of my mind when the red(ish) pencil appeared in an online auction:

The closing price was twelve bucks less than the unimaginable price I was quoted ten years ago -- maybe the market has changed, but more likely it was my perspective that did, because I was determined not to let another one get away.  

The pencil was described as "repaired," but from the pictures it looked like there was a bit of surface crazing rather than any repair that had been done.  Unfortunately, the issues were uncomfortably close to the remaining traces of its Parker Made in USA imprint; fortunately, with a light touch most of it came out:

I would agree that these sit on the early end of the Vacumatic spectrum, but I question his assessment as pre-production -- the nose is too short, more consistent with later Vacumatics than Golden Arrow, Ripley and early production Vacumatics.  Just enough of these have surfaced to suggest a test market effort rather than exclusively in-house experimentation.

The red pen Tony illustrates is more fire engine red than my pencil, which is more of a terra cotta orange.  I asked Tony if his image reflected the true color, but alas -- he attributed the photo to the Parker archives, and he's never laid eyes on it personally.  Likewise, his "pale yellow" may be the parchment-tinted white of the pencil I photographed so many years ago . . . or maybe there are four colors accounted for here -- red, orange, yellow and white -- rather than just two.

But there's more: at least as far as the pens go, a collector who prefers to remain anonymous (we debated whether to call him Bruce Wayne or Batman) has examples of Parker Cobra pens in brown and green, too. 

Maybe I'll lay off the cigars and whisky and get some exercise.  At the rate of one Cobra every ten years, it might forty more before I've seen the full range of colors in Parker's cobra pencils!