A Tale of Two Empires . . . Maybe

At page 53 of The Catalogue, you'll find an example of the "Empire," along with my suggestion that this was either an Eclipse subbrand or the clip was licensed.

A few weeks after the book came out, I got one of those "Nuh uh!" emails that run the gambit from helpful to heckling.  This one was from my friend Michael "Ferengi" Little, who does his fair share of "na na boo boo" dances but who has in the short time I've known him provided me with a lot of good information . . .not to mention a lot of good pencils.

Before we get to Mike's happy dance, here's a photo showing the similarities between the Empire and the Eclipse . . .

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Auto-Confusing, More Like . . .

At the Ohio Show last November, a fellow that was liquidating his collection had a nice selection of metal pencils, including this one.    Joe Nemecek, Michael Little and I spent quite a bit of time staring at the clip under a loupe, trying to figure out what it said.   It was like looking up at the clouds and saying "I think I see a doggie..."

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The "Moderne"

Here's a neat piece, snagged off of ebay in the last few weeks.  The color is the same as the "Brazilian Green" found on Wahl pens and pencils during the 1920s, but also found on the Parker "Thrift Time" series, as well.  Here's a close up shot of the clip . . .

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They Are Really Bonding Now

At page 90 of The Catalogue, you'll find a picture of the Wahl-Eversharp made pencils marked "Gold Bond," which was Montgomery Ward's store brand of pens and pencils.  Since the book was published, a couple other examples have found their way to me . . .

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No Price Sticker, But Something Even Better

There's two very distinct types of joy antique dealers experience when they make a sale at a show:  the joy of making a buck, and the joy of helping another collector find something that makes them happy.   Other than a few people who set up at a show just to dispose of a dead relative's collection, everyone you find sitting behind a table at a show is doing what we do for both kinds of joy, getting a little ying in with the yang, so to speak.

Rick Fernandez is a pen (and pencil) dealer who never loses sight of this -- he loves the charge he gets out of helping you find the things you like.  At the 2010 Ohio show, he and Mike Bloom split up a set and sold me the Eclipse red hard rubber pencil which appears second from left on the cover of my book.  At the DC show a few months later, he sold me the Dunn multicolor pencil which is also on the cover of my book, right next to the Eclipse.

At the Ohio Show this year, he had something special to show me.  He waited until the very end of the show to finally part with it.  I'm not sure if he wanted that last rush at the end of the show or wanted to be sure he had gas money!

By the end of the show, I had the pencil and Rick had a fair amount of my money and the knowledge that he had simply made my day.  I told him about my plans to launch this blog, and he told me he was really looking forward to reading about his pencil. 

A couple weeks ago I was talking to him, and he mentioned he hadn't seen a blog entry on his pencil yet.  Sheepishly, I told him that hadn't gotten to it, and he sounded . . . disappointed.  So, without further ado, with all due credit to Rick for the find and with due apologies for the delay, here's today's subject . . .

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I Say Finepointer, You Say Finerpointe, Let's Call the Whole thing Off...

Error alert!  Error alert! 

My subject today concerns the Hutcheon, which is covered at pages 90 and 91 of The Catalogue.  When I opened up my copy to prepare writing this article, I noticed that the book discusses two "Finepointers" and a third example, a GE advertising pencil. 

Only problem is, the picture that accompanies the text only shows two pencils.  For those who bought the photo supplement, the correct picture is in the supplement, but that picture never made it into the printed copy of the book.  Here's the picture that should have run . . .

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Just One Point on these, but It's a Good One

Since I got onto the subject of the Pen-N-Pencil Co. yesterday, this is a good time to explore another one of the manufacturer's interesting offerings:  here's a pair of magnifier pencils made by the company, shown with yesterday's "Smokers Companion" pencil . . .

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My Forehead's a Little Bit Flatter After This One

In The Catalogue, there's a listing for the "Pen-N-Pencil Co." of New York.  Here's the picture, from page 119 . . .

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Take a Memo: Pencils Are Everywhere!

A couple weeks ago, I had a bit of cabin fever.  Even though the winter's been pretty mild by Ohio standards this year, I just needed to get out and I wasn't in the mood to browse around in an antique store.  So I called up my buddy Jim, who I ride motorcycles with during warmer times, and we decided to head over to the Ohio State Fairgrounds to visit the RV and Boat Show they have every year.

Janet's instructions were crystal clear as I left:  "Don't buy a boat."

We arrived right when the show opened, or rather, when the ad said the show was supposed to open.  Turned out that while the ads said the show opened at 11 a.m. on Sunday, it actually didn't start until noon.  So there we were, faced with a quandry.  It costs five bucks to park a the fairgrounds, with no in and out privileges.  Off in the distance, we could see the soft glow of golden arches, but neither one of us felt like making the long, brisk walk for food we didn't really want to eat. 

I suggested that we see what was going on in the other buildings, because it is really rare that there is only one event at the entire fairgrounds.  Just on the other side of 17th Avenue, it looked like there were a lot of cars clustered around one of the buildings, so we decided to head over and see what was going on.

There we encountered the Columbus, Ohio Paper, Postcard and Book Show, which is held but twice a year.  With an hour to kill, we decided to pay the admission price and poke around a bit.  The show was really interesting -- if it's printed on paper, it's probably there somewhere.  My friend Jim, a former Marine, found plenty of military items to keep him interested, and we both found quite a few vintage postcards of Newark and the surrounding areas. 

And of course, where there's paper, there's bound to be . . .

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Sheaffer Week Draws to A Close. Golf, Anyone?

When I shot the picture of my Sheaffer golf pencils that appears on page 137 of The Catalogue, it was like trying to organize a can of worms.   The unusual shape of these little guys, combined with my determination to shoot them on the wood background, had them rolling all over the place everytime I backed up to take the shot.   Although I'd like to say I posed them artfully for that picture, the truth is that was the only position they would all hold still and look reasonably symetrical with the imprints facing up. 

Since The Catalogue went to press, I was able to find the other two reasonably available colors -- black and jade -- and frankly, I was dreading trying to choreograph five of these guys instead of just three.   So I chickened out and used the soft black background for this shot.  And yes -- I did pose them artfully this time!

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Ending "Sheaffer Week" Will Leave a Vacuum . . . Fil

As we start wrapping up Sheaffer week, here's a shot of the black Vacuum-Fil pencil shown on page 143, frame 21b, third from left in The Catalogue, next to the marine green and black marble example that I knew was out there, but hadn't yet been able to track down . . .

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A Flock of Birdseyes

The specific name for the pattern remains, as of the writing of this article, lost to history.  Whether your preference is to call it "Birdseye," "Screaming souls in Purgatory" or "Howling Souls," there's one thing you can't call it: boring.  A few weeks ago I posted this shot of the examples I'd put together , , ,

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I Need a New Drawer

In my printer's cabinet, Sheaffers live in harmony.  Every species has its place.  But then I found a pair of troublemakers, from different sources . . .

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A Sentinel I Was Watching Out For

At page 141 of The Catalogue, I list Sheaffer "Crest" pencils (with all gold filled caps) as well as Sheaffer "Sentinel" pencils (with two tone caps).  I show Crest pencils both with pre-1948 striped celluloid lower barrels and 1948 and later injection molded plastic lower barrels.  However, I only show the Sentinel in the 1948 and later injected molded plastic. 

Was this because Sheaffer didn't make them?  No.  It was only because I didn't have one to show. 

At the Scott Antique Market in November, I circled around the table this set was on several times . . .

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Sheaffers to beat the band - jeweler's band, that is

I still think I was correct, at page 139 of The Catalogue, in stating that the Sheaffer Balance rigid radius clip pencils with wide "jeweler's bands" are most often found in brown striated celluloid.  At the time the book went to press, I had happened upon three examples, all in brown. 

As my Sheaffer collecting became less accidental and more purposeful, I did run across some other colors.  Currently, the flock looks more like this . . .

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Time To Admit: I Have a Problem

Well, there I go again.

I wrote a couple weeks ago how my Sheaffer collection started with pencils that found their way to me, instead of me going out of my way to find them.   By the time I wrote The Catalogue, I had a pretty good display just from the happy accidents that landed them in my lap.   Actually, the Sheaffer section is the second largest section in the book (after Wahl Eversharp), from pages 135 to 148.

But that doesn't mean the display is comprehensive.   I never thought it was, but a dangerous thing has happened over the last couple months:  I've begun to notice it.

My first photo shows a pair of the oversized Sheaffer Balances with the "round ball" clip, circa 1929-1933.  This pair, as was the case with the Sheaffers I'd acquired, came to me in a lot of several pencils and they were not the real target of my affection -- however, my real target in acquiring this bunch was actually another Sheaffer.   The oversized Sheaffers are easy to pick out, even in the fuzziest of ebay pictures, because the band placement is noticably farther away from the middle joint . . .

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Autopoint...check[ing]!

I may have been a bit hasty a week ago when I wrote that Autopoints after the Realite merger were universally equipped with the removable nose mechanism.  As I wrote that, I forgot that I had this one lurking in the "to be talked about" pile . . .

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The Rex Fraternity Initiates a New Pledge

The Rex Manufacturing Company family of pencils arises out of a series of four patents from 1925 and 1926, all of which were assigned to a company called the "Rex Manufacturing Company."  Who actually made these pencils is still unknown, but on page 125 of The Catalogue I do illustrate what's left of a pencil in this family that is actually marked "Rex," which suggests the company made at least some of the pencils on its own account. . . .

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Good Thing I Kept My Mouth Shut

I wish I knew what I know now about the Eversharp Skyline Sstainless when I wrote The Catalogue.   I didn't have one or have the chance to handle one at the time I wrote the book.  I knew they were out there, but seems like all I was seeing were the pens at the occasional online auction.  

All I knew at that point was that they existed and they were very, very expensive when they turn up.  In fact, until the price of gold went through the roof starting a couple years ago, these were more expensive than even a Presentation 14k or a Command Performance.

But I had also harbored a concern about the Skyline Stainless pencils that I didn't express at time: the possibility that they could be faked.  While the pen caps are slightly tapered and the metal overlays are therefore specially made, the pencil barrels are perfectly straight.  Therefore, I reasoned, all it would take to "make" a Skyline Stainless is an ordinary presentation pencil and a bit of stainless steel tube of the correct diameter from a hobby store.  Well ok, that and the patience and skill needed to remove and replace a derby-- no small task, but the stakes are high enough to make it worthwhile to give it a try.

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The Eversharp Skyline Press Clip II . . . and a half

Eversharp Skylines can be a confusing subject, because the trim and color variations appear to be virtually limitless.   When I set up the Mechanical Pencil Museum in 2009, the first page I posted was my Eversharp page, and that's where I first published a system for categorizing and identifying Eversharp Skylines. 

The categories I set up were:

1.  Skyline Standard I (striped upper barrel, thin center band)
2.  Skyline Standard II (striped upper barrel, thick center band)
3.  Skyline Presentation (gold filled ribbed upper barrel)
4.  Skyline Presentation Vertical (gold filled upper barrel with lengthwise lines);
5.  Skyline Presentation Dart (gold filled upper barrel engine turned with the same "Dart" pattern used on early Wahl pencils)
6.  Skyline Presentation 14K (solid 14K upper barrel)
7.  Skyline Presentation Stainless (stainless upper barrel and trim)
8.  Skyline Solid I (barrel all one color/material, no center band)
        Note:  under this system, moires or "modern stripe" pencils are Solid Is.
9.  Skyline "Command Performance" (all 14k; actually a 14k Solid I)
10.  Skyline Solid II (barrel all one color/material, thin center band)
11.  Skyline Solid III (barrel all one color/material, thick center band)
12.  Skyline "Streamliner" (has the Streamline clip with no upper buttress - no center band)
13.  Skyline Press Clip I (clip is stapled into a one piece barrel with no separate derby, no center band)
14.  Skyline Press Clip II (stapled clip, thin center band)
15.  Skyline Twist models (twist pencils styled after the Skyline)
16.  Eversharp-Moore Skyline Press Clip (an interesting diversion - Eversharp licensed a unique design from the Moore Pen Co. to make Skyline-style pencils).

I dedicated pages 72 to 76 in The Catalogue to illustrating each of these categories.  Outside of a few minor variants illustrated on page 76, these categories neatly divide the world of Skylines into an orderly system.  It is satisfying, whenever I pick up a pencil at a show, to think to myself, for example, "OK, this is a Skyline Standard II with a gold derby."  For the last couple of years, nearly every Skyline I've handled fit neatly into one of these categories.  I felt like I had brought order to one little corner of the universe.

But then along comes Matt McColm with the giant square peg for my round-holed pegboard . . .

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No...It's Not "File Transfer Protocol"

This one is in the running for "most helpful price tag of the year."  I don't have many leadholders, but at the Ohio Show I did pick up a pair because I liked the clips . . .

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This One's Got Something for Everyone

One of the questions Paul Erano asked me during my recent interview for the Pennant magazine was about how pencil collectors are different from pen collectors.  My response was that they are no more different than a Sheaffer collector is from a Parker collector; while a Sheaffer collector understands and appreciates a Parker collector's passion, Parkers just aren't a Sheaffer collector's cup of tea.

Among pencil collectors, there are a few cups of tea that rarely get shared.  I'm primarily a mechanical pencil guy -- I get a kick out of the goofy and complex varieties of machines designed to push lead out of a tube.  

I distinguish mechanical pencils from "leadholders," which in my mind are cases which grip a piece of lead but have no means other than gravity or the push of a finger to propel the lead.   Leadholders tend to attract the scientific and technical drafting types.  Check out http://www.leadholder.com/ for more information.

A third group of pencil fans are the wood pencil collectors.  At wood pencil shows, I'm told you can see displays of things built out of the pencils, like Lincoln Logs.  I've never been to one of these shows but I'm going to have to.

There's just not much overlap in the interests of mechanical pencils collectors, leadholder-philes, and wood pencil guys.  Any given pencil will usually appeal to only one out of the three groups. 

Except, perhaps, for this one . . .

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Mother of Pearl.. or The Mother of All Pearls?

When I chase after a Victorian pencil, I'm normally like a dog chasing after a car:  I wouldn't know what to do with it if I caught it.  Such was the case with my acquisition of an example of the "Pearl":

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It Is What It Is

I am as much a stickler for a correct pencil as there is.  If I've got a pencil that's missing a part, I'm not going to replace it unless I am absolutely sure what the correct part for the piece would have been.  When it came to writing The Catalogue, I say with pride that not one of the thousands of pencils pictured has been cobbled together from parts that weren't meant to go together.

Except, maybe, for this one. . .

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An Autopoint to Scratch Your Head About

A few weeks ago I had to make another "fuzzy ebay" crapshoot bid, because I saw something I just wasn't able to figure out from the picture.  Here it is, on the right, next to the Autopoint with a Realite clip pictured on page 22 of The Catalogue, right in the middle of frame 3 . . .

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Another Bloody Disaster

When I was in college training to become a journalist, a wise professor of mine once told me that a good journalist doesn't tell you what to think, but what to think about.   Therefore, I was pleased that the article I wrote on the military clip Sheaffer pencil a few weeks ago generated so much discussion about military clip Sheaffers in the online community.

The discussion turned up a small piece of information that leads me back to the subject. 

To recap, Sheaffer offered five models of pens with the military clip: the Skyboy, Valiant, Vigilant, Defender and Commandant.  The Skyboy was accompanied by a pencil also marked "Skyboy" on the clip, and the Commandant pen, the lowest-priced model in the lineup, was accompanied by a pencil marked "Sheaffer's" on the clip.  As for the Valiant, Vigilant and Defender, the same pencil appears to have accompanied all three.

In the course of researching that article, I learned that while Sheaffer military clips were catalogued by the company in black, red and brown; during the discussion of the article that followed, I learned that green examples such as my Valiant/Vigilant/Defender pencil pictured in The Catalogue, while uncatalogued, also turn up from time to time.   That led me to wonder whether the Skyboy and Commandant pencils could also be found in green. 

Historically, I've been an accidental Sheaffer collector.  Most of the examples I've acquired over the years have come to me in a group or boxful of items, and almost always it was some other item that induced me to make the purchase.   However, since I have always appreciated the quality in a Sheaffer pencil, the Sheaffers that have come into my possession generally "check in, but they don't check out."  Unless I've had another example that was identical to a new one arriving by box or by lot, I'd keep it rather than trading it away. 

This was the first time, I actually went out and searched for a Sheaffer pencil, and within just a couple days, I'd tracked down my green Commandant . . .

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A Triply Informative Tri-Point

After I found the Nichols "Monopoints" at the Scott Antique Market, I started keeping an eye out for other Nichols pencils.  This one crossed my radar, and since I'm a sucker for anything that has the paperwork with it, I had to splurge a little . . .

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Long Lived, the Nardi!

On any day other than the one I found an Eisenstadt pencil, today's subject would have been the headline, rather than the "other" pencil. . .

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The Blind Squirrel Finds a Second Nut

About seven years or so ago, I was pretty new to the hobby and was just starting to exhibit at pen shows.  The stuff I was putting on my table those first few shows wasn't much to write home about - ok, it was stuff that a beginning collector wasn't all that interested in.  But everybody has to start somewhere, and I had a lot of fun doing it. 

I also had a lot of fun, as I still do today, buying box lots and sorting through them.   Today's story begins with one of those box lots, although it's been so long ago I don't remember which one.  What I do remember is that in some box of junk I'd bought there was a large, black flattop pen with a lever that looked like it was in backwards (the part that lifted up faced the nib rather than the end of the barrel).  It had a great imprint on it - "Eisenstadt."  I don't remember whether or not it had the clip, but from what I remember I don't think it did.

My next show was the DC show that year.  I didn't know enough about my find to just put it out on the table and take a guess at how much I should ask for it, so I kept it behind the table and showed it to a couple of people I trusted to ask them what they thought.

Word got around that more quickly than I ever would have thought.  High-end dealers who had dismissed me as not just a pencil collector, but as even worse -- a beginner pencil collector -- were coming up to me and asking in hushed and reverent voices, "may I please see the Eisenstadt?"

From what I recall, those who were inquired were equally split between those who wanted me to name my price and those who just wanted to see one because they never had.  It was the first time I had that rush of finding something really speciall and important that others appreciated. 

Or, as Janet likes to say, "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while."

I did end up selling the Eisenstadt that day, although I don't remember to whom it went.  I do remember feeling that I was getting a fair price, and that it was going to a collector rather than someone who was just going to fix it up and make a buck on if.  I haven't seen it or another one like it since.

In the pen, that is...

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The Sheffield

Since most people probably have the day off for New Year's Day, I thought I'd relax a bit and introduce another "no-name" that I recently ran across:

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A NOS for NYD

For New Years' Day, I thought I'd dig out an interesting piece that was as new as these old pencils can be.  The one I picked out was my "Mem-O-Riter."

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