Friday, January 9, 2015

Spots and Dots

Sheaffer started using a white dot on some of its pens in 1924, to designate those pens which carryied Sheaffer’s "Lifetime" guarantee, and the practice of including a white dot on Sheaffer’s higher-end products has continued in one form or another through the present day. The company registered a trademark for the white dot on pens and pencils, and its use could be described as "one and indivisible" with its manufacturer – "the alpha and the omega of our advertising."

Along comes this pencil, which appears to have been made in the 1930s or 1940s. It has what looks like a pipe tamper on the end, and I suspect it might come apart to reveal other tools inside, but it’s wedged together so tightly that I haven’t yet been able to get it apart. My eyes were instantly drawn to that white dot, but what really grabbed my attention is what this pencil isn’t:


It isn’t a Sheaffer.

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 3, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.


4 comments:

jonro said...

How interesting. I'm not 100% convinced, but it is strong circumstantial evidence that Sheaffer got the idea for the white dot from Dunhill's white spot. I haven't seen enough Sheaffer MPs to speak with authority on this, but I'm not sure that I've ever seen a Sheaffer pencil from that era with a white dot, only the fountain pens.

Jon Veley said...

Thanks for reading. I'm still tracking down leads for additional evidence, and I'm hoping this article might draw more information out.

Sheaffer did not use a white dot on pencils until much later - post-War, in fact.

Martha said...

Hm... wouldn't be the first time Shaeffer appropriated someone else's idea!

Unknown said...

Fun Read :-) , Then there is Mentmore's "The SPOT" a big white dot/spot on some of the early Mentmore pens. English.