Monday, October 22, 2012

Chiltonpalooza

I’ve been thinking about this article since the Chicago show last May, tucking away little pieces of information until I felt I had enough to write something about Chilton. Chilton is another of those "cult" brands that has a hardcore, dedicated group of devotees who have forgotten more than I will probably ever know on the subject, so I can almost hear the corrections filling my email box as I’m writing this.

First, a quick history. From what I’ve put together, Chilton was formed in late 1923 when Seth Crocker sold assets from the Crocker Pen Company to a partnership in which he was one partner, and at least one of the other partners was the DeWitt-LaFrance Co. Chilton began producing pens in 1924 in Boston, Massachusetts. After the stock market crash, Chilton moved its operations to Long Island City, New York between 1929 and 1931. In 1937, the company moved one more time, to Summit, New Jersey.

My recent Chilton odyssey began in Chicago, where Rick Propas was staffing a table stocked with a lovely spread of Chiltons. They weren’t for sale – not yet, anyway. Rick had just taken a position in the Fine & Vintage Writing Instruments division of Swann Galleries, a New York auction house, and he was at the Chicago show to generate interest in an upcoming auction of pens and pencils, in which most of the lots were the Chilton collection of William Baisden. Although I couldn’t take any of them home with me, Rick did allow me to take some pictures of some of the pencils . . .

NOTE:  This article is now included in the print version of The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, available anywhere you buy books, or also from The Legendary Lead Company.

To order, here's the link:  Volume 1 at Legendary Lead Company




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2 comments:

  1. Michael LittleOctober 22, 2012 at 10:39 AM

    Jon,
    About the Chilton leads...you said only needed one – ok, I didn’t need any of them – but in this case I thought it made sense to buy every one the guy had"

    Not so. You left four there and told me about them. I went over and bought the last four.

    So while I can say "only needed one – ok, I didn’t need any of them – but in this case I thought it made sense to buy every one the guy had" you cannot say that ...sorry Pal ;)

    Made a tidy profit on them on the "Bay"

    ML

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 6, 2013 at 9:22 AM

    Jon,

    Nice Wingflow pencil in the steel quartz color. The Wingflow came in four major colors: black, burgundy, cherry red, and midnight blue (almost indistinguishable from black and very rare. However, there was a lower line of Wingflows that did not have the inlay work. These came in the steel quartz, marine green, peacock, carnelian and black/pearl colors. All are somewhat difficult to find, with the black and pearl being the rarest.

    Hirsch

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