This article is about the ballpoint pen, did you mean Notebook?
The Parker Jotter is the Parker Pen Company's first and bestselling retracting refillable ballpoint pen. Later they added a fountain pen, mechanical pencil and rollerball pen that match its design. As with many other ballpoint pens, it can be turned into gel pen if its cartridge is changed. Since 1954, over 750 million have been sold worldwide. Its refill, called T-Ball (T is for tungsten), is the first textured ballpoint and is now a standard in the industry. Also, the external design of the T-Ball is a standard design for many brands of refillable pens.
The Jotter is distinguished by a button and cap made of stainless steel, chrome or another metal, a stylized arrow-shaped clip, a smooth styrene or metal barrel and a metal nozzle. If styrene, the barrel originally came in black, blue, green and red. Over many years of production, the jotter has been produced in numerous colors, some quite rare.
One popular version, scarce in early models, is identified as the laboratory or "flighter" version. These pens have an alloy cap with a matching alloy barrel. The all-alloy bodied pens come with a gold or chrome clip. Another version is the clear barreled "demonstrator," usually sold to dealers to show the inner workings of the pen.
The so-called "girl's" Jotter is a smaller version of the original. It was manufactured in the early sixties and was popular for a time. It came in nine colors (the rarest being brown, yellow and white), as well as a clear "demonstrator." The girl's jotter shares its barrel with the Parker Tiara. Theoretically, both pens came in the same colors. However there is some question whether or not the "girl's" jotter was available in orange, white or yellow. However, such models have been found and were perhaps the result of enterprising Parker employees who took it upon themselves to "create" new colors. This area requires some research and elaboration.
It appears that the employees occasionally experimented with their own combinations of colors. These pens have a marbleized appearance and are the result of cleaning the production machinery. If the production run called for blue, and they had been making gray jotters, the last of the gray plastic would blend into the blue creating what were sometimes called "lunch room" specials. These pens are considered quite collectible, but they are usually not "prototypes" as commonly thought.
Management was always trying to expand the market for this pen and commissioned the design department to explore new designs and materials. Several of these prototypes exist and are also coveted by collectors.
There are many variations of these pens and a large collection can be assembled by the serious collector. The variety is immense if a collector includes the advertising variations. All versions of the pen were used in advertising for an endless list of organizations.
The refill comes in ball pen and gel styles, as well as in three point sizes. The pen also comes in a boxed set with a mechanical pencil which is collectible in itself.
Coincidentally a jotter was introduced with a substantially larger diameter barrel. Most found to date have an unusual moss green barrel. A black version of the jotter with the large diameter barrel has also been found. According to experts, this model was known as the "Industrial Jotter" as opposed to the standard diameter version known as the "Commercial Jotter". Parker's sales staff never liked the original jotter because the grooves made imprints on the barrel impossible and required clip devices if sold for advertising purposes. They were pleased when the smooth barrel was introduced which permitted advertising imprints. Subsequently the marketing department successfully lobbied for a model with a larger diameter barrel which would allow more space for corporate messages. Apparently this version was not popular and was discontinued after a short period of time (est.<than two years)due to relatively weak sales. It is believed that this model was illustrated only in the commercial catalog and not available to retailers. They remain rare and can be recognized by the sharp taper at the end of its barrel. Recent sales of these large diameter jotters have been in the $200 range if and when they are available. It is believed that this version was also available in red. In keeping with the practice in the pen industry of issuing models in red, blue, green and black, there is probably a blue version in existence.
The cap-actuated Parker 51 also came out that year.
In 1958, the company added an arrow to replace the ballclip design. The arrow has remained on all production Jotters since then. Occasionally a jotter slipped through with a clip that had no embossed arrows. These are now collector's items. Recent production (English manufacture) have clips in the shape of an arrow, but no feathers. At some period the interior diameter of the Jotter was reduced and a new refill introduced. There are two primary series, the large diameter version and the smaller diameter. Additionally there are several cap variations resulting from changing the imprints on the cap. The period from 1958 to 1973 has many variations making it difficult for the collector to obtain a representative example of each specimen.
Note: Sterling silver Jotters were available in the U.S. in the Seventies. Threads are silver.
There were several barrel colors issued to celebrate the Jotter's 50th Anniversary. The plain anniversary clips have found themselves attached to later barrels, and earlier and later plungers attached to later caps, creating even more variations.
Recently, a series of 24k gold plated models have been distributed in the USA. Both the cap and the tip are plated. There is another variation from England that has gold clip attached to chrome caps. The barrels of these pens have chrome tips. These are in addition to the black version with the gold clip and tip.
Today's Jotters are similar to the popular, "ruggedized" version that first came out in 1954. Over 700 million Jotters have been produced since 1954 and production continued at Parker's plant in Newhaven, England after being transferred there from Janesville, Wisconsin in 1999. In late 2010, the English plant was closed, and Jotter production was transferred to Nantes, France.