Alexanders . . . Not the Great, But Still Pretty Good.

The last time we encountered the Alexander was with this stocked store display that I got from Joe Nemecek a couple years ago (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2012/08/sylish.html):

This display indicates that the "Alexander the Great" pencils were from the Alexander Products Corporation of Bloomington, Illinois, and the design of these was so unique that I don’t have any reason to doubt that Alexander Products made these. However, the "Model 100" pencils shown in that previous article were the only Alexanders I’m aware of which were intended solely as writing instruments rather than as advertising novelties.

There’s three possibilities for what happened . . .

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.

The Company I Misjudged

I don’t have any regrets about The Catalogue of American Mechanical Pencils. Of course I’ve learned a lot since the books was published that I wish was in there. Of course some of the things I thought at the time I wrote it have since proven not to be true. However, it was everything I knew in 2011.

One thing I thought I knew was that the Kemper Thomas Company of Cincinnati produced the Selfeed line of metal pencils. I had good reason to think that: the example I had with box and papers sure looked as if that was the case:

I did hedge my bet a little on this one – although I listed the Selfeed under Kemper Thomas at page 92, I indicated that "Kemper Thomas seems an unlikely source for an original pencil design." Why? Because Kemper Thomas was in the calendar and advertising business, not the pencil business.

With help from half a dozen or so people, I finally did learn that the "Selfeed Pencil Company" was a separate concern established to make pencils for the Wall-Stieh Company, and that Kemper Thomas had specially packaged pencils supplied to it for resale (the article was posted here a couple years ago at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2012/11/one-wild-goose-chase.html).

Even though the Selfeed wasn’t a Kemper Thomas original, it does distinguish the calendar company as one of the earliest of the general advertising companies to offer pencils under its own name  . .

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.

A Sin Pencil Update

Note:  this article updates one I posted a few weeks ago at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2014/11/living-in-sin.html.

Figures . . . all I had to do was say I’d never seen one of these, and they come out of the woodwork. I recently posted about "sin pencils" that include dice, compass, stanhope, put/take game, cigar cutter and reversible pencil/dip pen:

And here they come . . .

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.

Something to be Thankful For

A couple of years ago, while I was reporting on Parker’s weird "Writefine" pencils with the adjustable erasers (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2012/06/parker-writefine-tipectomy-was-canceled.html), I noticed that a cap I had found and planned to transplant parts from was actually from a demonstrator:

No, I haven’t found a lower barrel for this. But fortunately, Joe Nemecek did and he allowed me to photograph his in order to complete this story . . .

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.

The Suns also Rise

You won’t see three of these in one place again anytime soon:

I posted about that full sized example of the "Sun Pocket Pencil" a couple years ago (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2012/03/walpuskis-ordinary-form-of-pencil.html), and just last month the Walpuski story got a boost in the course of writing about Melville’s Solid Ink Pencil (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2014/10/one-whale-of-pencil.html).

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.

Probably Unless It Isn't

Jerry Kemp is exclusively a Laughlin collector these days, but a few weeks ago he sent me an email recently to ask me if would be interested in photographing an unusual Parker Vacumatic he’s had for a while. After Jerry described it I was eager to do so, but since he’s Texas we both knew it would be some time before we would be able to meet up. So Jerry volunteered to send it to me for photographing, and I stood by my mailbox for a couple days, camera in hand, waiting to shoot this one:

It does take a minute to see what’s not quite right about this one, since it’s so well executed. You might notice that’s an interesting business end . . .

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.

A Carload Full of Clowns

When Joe Nemecek and I get together, we talk in advance to decide what we both need to bring along for a photo shoot. Since I’d finally managed to scare up a side-clip Chilton in the company’s distinctive "Clown" pattern (to my knowledge, that’s a collector nickname and not an official Chilton name for it), getting my examples and Joe’s together for a family picture was at the top of my list: Joe didn’t think it was worth doing, since it looked like we each had the same pencils. But I’m glad I insisted:

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.

Ready Ritepoint? Or Riterpoint?

One of the more unusual pencils found in the salesman’s sample wallet of Vernon pencils I received from Michael Little is the one on the far left in this picture:

Here’s the top up close:

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.

Beyond a Doubt, Indeed

You can’t please everyone. I still remember the irate email I received shortly after The Catalogue was first published, in which one of the buyers of the book complained bitterly that I didn’t include enough advertising pencils. The guy might not have been alone:  the most-read article here at Leadhead's since I started the blog is "Shaw Barton Gets Its Due."

So when I decided last week that I was going to start posting about advertising-specific pencil companies on weekends, it didn’t surprise me much that a few emails arrived to chime in about their favorite brands. One of them came from Harry Shubin, who sent me pictures of this "Vernon," which he described as "beyond a doubt Ritepoint."

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.

I Couldn't Have Picked a Better One

Note:  this is the fourth in a series of related articles this week.   If you're feeling like you're coming into the middle of the story, the first article is http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2014/11/before-lone-horseman.html.

In totally unrelated news, which turned out to be related news, Jerry Adair approached me at the Ohio Show, while I was in the afterglow of photographing Carol Strain’s Webster set made by Rex, with a question. He had this set:

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.

Help with the Cheese

Note: this is the third article in a series, which began at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2014/11/before-lone-horseman.html.

Carol Strain only comes to two shows each year – Chicago and Ohio. Until a few years ago, most of us knew her as the purple lady, since she is ever dressed in her favorite color.   A couple years ago, that reputation was eclipsed by one of Carol’s other passions: she’s become for many of us "the cheese lady."

A few shows ago, Carol brought a couple chunks of quality cheese to one our late night scotch-and-cigar sociables.  I believe that first time she did so, the collective amount of liquid appetizers the group had consumed made us a voracious bunch, and we quickly gobbled down everything she brought.   Ever since, her contributions have steadily increased, and these days she comes fully prepared with cutting boards, knives, crackers and yes . . . lots of cheese.

This year, as a bunch of us hung around and talked at the hotel bar Saturday night at the Ohio Show, Carol’s presence in our midst made it inevitable that the conversation was destined to turn to . . . cheese.  At long last (none of us were trying to look to anxious about it), Carol announced it was time.   Given the rate at which Carol’s portable buffet has grown, I calculated that it would be physically impossible for Carol to bring everything down in one trip (unless she had added a wagon and a few mules to the production since last May).  So I offered to help her bring the cheese down from her room, an offer which she was glad to accept.

At her room, while Carol fished bag after bag of cheese from the refrigerator, I noticed a boxed pen set sitting on the desk, and I momentarily forgot the mission at hand.   Like a moth to the flame and with a "oooo, what’s that," I paused to open the box to see what was inside. I then had to see what was inside what was inside. And once I did, I had an answer I’ve been trying to find. For years.

I asked Carol if the set was hers, and she said she was thinking about buying it. I said (1) she had to and (2) she had to let me photograph it. She did both.

Here’s Carol’s set, on the right, shown next to the Blue Ribbon set I had found just a day earlier (see yesterday’s article):

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.

Out of the Shadows

Note:  this is the second part in a series of articles which began with http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2014/11/before-lone-horseman.html.

Thursday trading at the Ohio Pen Show this year was insane. There was a lot going on in that room, so much so that I don’t remember who sold me this great set:

This is a "Blue Ribbon" set, with the clip on the pencil so marked, but the pen has a floral design on the clip . . .

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.

Before the Lone Horseman

What on earth, you might legitimately inquire, would interest me in this tired looking Gold Medal pencil?

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.

Feeling Blue

I will always have a spot for the humble Blue Jay. A ringtop example was featured here the very first week of the blog (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2011/11/one-i-didnt-think-i-really-wanted.html):

Blue Jay pencils were produced by the Blackwell-Wielandy Book and Stationery Company of St. Louis, which offered several products under that trademark. Produced, mind you, not manufactured . . . I never thought that the company got a wild hair to set up the machinery and equipment to start making metal pencils out of the "blue," if you’ll forgive the pun.

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.

Shedding Another Mystery

After World War II, the mechanical industry underwent a transition. Before the war, there wasn’t much of a distinction between companies making pencils as writing instruments and those which manufactured pencils intended as promotional giveaways. In general, companies just turned out pencils, some better than others, and if a customer wanted pencils made with an advertising slogan on them, the companies would gladly oblige.

Postwar, there was a much brighter line. Companies tended to specialize more, with some turning out mechanical pencils intended to be sold as quality writing instruments, while others were devoted almost entirely to making advertising pencils. Usually, the mechanisms inside these pencils were cheap nose-drive screw mechanisms, and since they were cheaply made, they haven’t yet attracted broad collector interest. Values of advertising pencils are usually driven by what is advertised on them rather than what who made the pencil itself.

Although there was a proliferation of advertising specialty companies proliferated beginning in the late 1940s, very few of the dozens of new trade names under which advertisers were sold actually made the pencils themselves. An established company, such as Brown & Bigelow or Ritepoint, would supply generic pencils to an advertising specialty company, which would then screen print the customer’s advertising on to customers.

Not much has been written about these connections to date. Since interest in these is starting to take off and I’ve got piles of these pencils evidencing these connections, I’m going to start throwing out there what I’ve been able to figure out about these so far.  For starters, take these:

"Shedd-Brown" pencils turn up every so often, and on most of them, there’s no outward indication that there was no Shedd-Brown Company that actually made pencils . . .

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.

Poke Poke Poke

Sometimes I buy dumb things because I think they’re funny. Take this one:

Mike Kirk brought this tired thing to the Michigan Pen Show, not this year and it may not have been last year. The clip is marked "Eclipse"  . . .

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.

RIght Under My Nose

I’ve been on a Victorian kick lately. In the wake of writing American Writing Instrument Patents 1799-1910, I’ve been on the hunt for examples of the earliest American mechanical pencil designs. On my checklist was one Albert G. Bagley of New York, who acquired four of the earliest patents. From the earliest, he was awarded patent number 4,557 on June 6, 1846, for a penholder:

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.

The Doomed Craftsman

Mike Little emailed me a few months ago to ask whether I had ever heard of a "Craftsman" from Chicago. My first thought was that Sears must have offered mechanical pencils marked branded after the store’s line of tools, but when this one arrived and I got a closer look at it, I thought this was probably something quite different:

The name is imprinted into the barrel, but as you can see, some of the material appears to be delaminating. This is an older picture- in the year or so since this was taken, even more of the lettering has been obliterated:

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.

Living in Sin

"Hey Jon, you like weird [stuff], right?" said Keith Prosser last Thursday when I first saw him at the Ohio Pen Show. It was in the hotel bar, and I was taking a break after my first few hours of hunting for weird [stuff] at that exact moment – actually, I suppose that’s what I was doing from the moment I arrived until the show ended on Sunday.

Keith presented me with the weirdest [stuff] I’ve seen in a long time. It is so weird, in fact, that I broke two rules to buy it from him: it’s not American, and it’s not marked. I had a blast all weekend showing this thing off:

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.

If Dog Rabbit

These days, most correspondence is done by email, and most of those who use email think it’s something new.

It isn’t. Well, at least the mechanics of it isn’t.

Back during World War II, the government was faced with something of a dilemma. Letters from home were an important part of maintaining morale for the troops – but the more letters were coming from home, the more resources were needed to get the mail over there. Moving bales and bales of morale from the States to Europe and Asia quickly became a logistical problem.

The solution was what became known as V-mail, short for "victory mail."

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.

A Good Grip On My Attention

I’m pretty sure this one came my way in a box of junk:

The clip is what really got my attention, especially with that great imprint:

"Pat / Good Grip / 5-24-09" Or should I say "5?-24?-09"? The date’s not very easy to read. It’s a bit more legible viewed from the side, as is how it’s put together . . .

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.

For Obvious Reasons

I get a kick out of experimental models, because it almost feels like you are there in the R&D room playing around with new ideas right along with the inventors. Sometimes the experiments are successful, and the end result may have only minor differences from the finished product. But then sometimes you’ll find something like this:

It looks pretty much like a standard-issue Parker Duofold, but that color . . .

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.