Friday, January 9, 2015

Spots and Dots

Sheaffer started using a white dot on some of its pens in 1924, to designate those pens which carryied Sheaffer’s "Lifetime" guarantee, and the practice of including a white dot on Sheaffer’s higher-end products has continued in one form or another through the present day. The company registered a trademark for the white dot on pens and pencils, and its use could be described as "one and indivisible" with its manufacturer – "the alpha and the omega of our advertising."

Along comes this pencil, which appears to have been made in the 1930s or 1940s. It has what looks like a pipe tamper on the end, and I suspect it might come apart to reveal other tools inside, but it’s wedged together so tightly that I haven’t yet been able to get it apart. My eyes were instantly drawn to that white dot, but what really grabbed my attention is what this pencil isn’t:


It isn’t a Sheaffer.

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.


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4 comments:

  1. jonroJanuary 9, 2015 at 7:52 AM

    How interesting. I'm not 100% convinced, but it is strong circumstantial evidence that Sheaffer got the idea for the white dot from Dunhill's white spot. I haven't seen enough Sheaffer MPs to speak with authority on this, but I'm not sure that I've ever seen a Sheaffer pencil from that era with a white dot, only the fountain pens.

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  2. Jon VeleyJanuary 9, 2015 at 8:24 AM

    Thanks for reading. I'm still tracking down leads for additional evidence, and I'm hoping this article might draw more information out.

    Sheaffer did not use a white dot on pencils until much later - post-War, in fact.

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  3. MarthaJanuary 9, 2015 at 9:23 AM

    Hm... wouldn't be the first time Shaeffer appropriated someone else's idea!

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  4. UnknownDecember 18, 2015 at 8:10 AM

    Fun Read :-) , Then there is Mentmore's "The SPOT" a big white dot/spot on some of the early Mentmore pens. English.

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