Thursday, July 9, 2015

Keep a Close Eye on the Atlanta Contingent!

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 3; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

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I don’t write much about Scriptos here.   It’s not that I have something against the brand – I grew up using the translucent ones all the way through school.  I guess I’ve still got a lingering perception that they aren’t all that old, because I was using them . . . and I need to stop myself right there, because that was pushing forty years ago when I started using them.  Huh.

I do have a stash of them, and sometimes I’ll go out of my way to pick one up when it looks interesting.  Take this one, for example


I like the looks of them, with that clip with the early script (pun intended) logo, and that cool anodized aluminum cap:


I asked Mike Little what these were, and he identified them as the “Model M800”; the neat pencil probably could have done with a little flashierl name  (I always liked the “Wordmaster” line, for example).  This example, however, says of itself that it is a “No. MS-1":


I’ve got a few others of these . . . somewhere . . . and I’ll have to pull them out and start comparing imprints.  In the meantime, this one caught my eye in a recent online auction:


There were a whole bunch of reasons I had to chase this one.  First, it’s a boxed set of a pencil I already liked – how cool is that?  It just oozes with “A Christmas Story” holiday spirit with that  box.  But, closer to home, is what’s painted on the barrel:


I’ve been an Elk for about ten years now, and even though I don’t go down there much any more (it’s more of a gambling parlor than a social club these days), I have a lot of friends down there.  Besides, my father-in-law had been an Elk for some 55 years when he passed, so I suppose for the rest of my life, Janet and I will send in a check once a year so we can take family in there when they come to town for the holidays.  To top it off, I pass through Frederick, Maryland every year on my way to the DC show – a great road trip every year.

All of the above reasons were plenty enough for me to bite on this, but there’s one last detail here that makes this one special, regardless of whether you’re an Elk or know beans about Frederick:


This one isn’t marked Scripto.  “Rite Ezee” . . . now that’s a cool name!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think the differences between the MS-1 and the M800 are years of production and the clip. The MS-1 has the full ball clip and the M800 has a newer style clip. I will send Jon a picture of a cool M800 sales sample if he wants to tack it on here. I don't see any way to add a picture to the comments here.

Michael Little
Phoenix, AZ
eBay ID: Halfhyde