The red pencil (painted over brass) came from Frank Hoban, whose table was just a few doors down from mine at the show. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to buy it – I was expecting a second one to arrive within just a couple hours, and I wanted to photograph the two together. Later that day, Sue Hershey arrived at my table, and sure enough she had the green one in tow. Sue had sent me a picture of it some months earlier, and she said she was bringing along a bag of goodies to the DC show for me to look at. I had hoped (a) this would be one of them and (b) I’d get to bring it home with me. Yes to both!
Neither of these is a particularly expensive pencil, but what had me fired up about Sue’s pencil – and had my radar in tune by the time I found the one on Frank’s table – was the name on the clips:
To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 2, 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.
On balance, I think it must have been a case of simple opportunism in an era when trademark protection was quite narrowly restricted to a single class of product (for example, "Duofold" could be registered by Parker for pens and pencils, even though it had long been in use for underwear).
ReplyDeleteIf there had been a direct Pierce-Arrow connection, I'd also think that by now the car collectors would have discovered it -- and would have bid up the prices on these pencils to great heights!