Saturday, January 9, 2016

Suppose These Came In Other Colors?

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 4; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

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I thought this must be a misprint in an online auction a few months ago:


The “Blue Scorer,” the title of the listing said, and that’s exactly what it was:


This is along the lines of the “Spear” and “Leopard” lines of pencils, with an enamel over metal barrel and a simple nose drive installed in one end.  Those pencils are all numbered in the 800 series, though (the most common, the black “Spear,” being numbered 831).  This one, however, is denominated number 538:


For those who are keeping “score.”  Did they come in other colors?  Why yes they did, as this advertisement from the April 17, 1915 issue of The American Stationer illustrates:


The Scorer series, like the later Eversharp checking pencils, were a line of pencils in which the color of the pencil matched the color of the lead.  The 537 “Black Scorer” contained black lead, the No. 538 “Blue Scorer” contained blue lead and the No. 539 “Red Scorer” contained . . . well, you get the point.


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