It
appears as if the first use of the name 'Patrician' relates
to the Patrician Pen Company of Janesville, Wisconsin, whose
brochure for eyedropper pens is reproduced as Figure 1. The
patent date on the pens displayed in the catalogue is January
3, 1905. which corresponds with the patent issued to George
Parker for the spearhead ink feed. This leads me to believe
that Mr. Parker was the owner of the Patrician Pen Co. 
The next
occurrence of the name is in 1921 when the U.S. parker Duofole
advertisements tout the Parker Duofold as the 'Patrician'
of them all (Figure 2). The advertisement reproduced in the
WES Journal No.58 appears to be of the same vintage (bandless
Duofold).
Finally
I possess a Parker internal memorandum from 1927 which explains
Parker's offering of the Patrician as a cheap line of pens
from inferior parts.
"The
Directors of the Company have decided to put out a new line
of pens known as the Patrician Fountain Pens, to be made from
seconds- that is, pens now thrown out for minor defaults"
(Then follows a list of the catalog numbers and descriptions
of 41 pens.) "In this connection, the holder of the pen
and the gold nib will not have the Parker stamp. The gold
nib will be stamped 14K and will be made of less weight of
gold and cheap iridium. The holder of the pen will be stamped
PATRICIAN. The clip will be blank and will be made of very
thin plate stock."
Whether
Parker Pen Company offered the Patricians to disparage the
Waterman Patrician remains unknown, although a great deal
of animosity existed between George Parker and Louis Waterman
dating back to the dispute over a slip cap on eyedropper fountain
pens. However, Parker Pen Company never advertised the Patrician
line.
Over the
years I have collected several Parker Patrician pens sold
in both the United States and the U.K. The examples I have
from the U.K. appear to be of higher quality with slightly
different clips, and have blind caps and inner cap of different
color from those distributed in the U.S.
This article
originally appeared in the Journal of the Writing Equipment
Society (WES), No 59 Autumn 2000. A further article on this
pen appeared in the previous issue No 58.
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