Revealed At Last

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 4; 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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One of my self-imposed and frequently ignored rules in collecting mechanical pencils is that it has to be marked, unless it is either (1) directly attributable to a manufacturer, or (2) freakishly awesome.  When I picked this one up, no question it fit in the freakishly awesome department:

I bought this pencil for the one and only reason you would buy this pencil.

The rest of the pencil is pretty awful, but that clip is special in two ways: first, how fun is it that a pencil has a quill pen for a clip?  And second . . . well, just look at it!

And so, for several years, this one has enjoyed a comfortable retirement in the freakishly awesome but unmarked pencil section at the museum, until I picked up a copy of Alfonso Mur’s outstanding book, The Conklin Legacy.  There, on pages 236, was all the information I needed to move this one over to the Conklin section.

Well, not directly the Conklin section . . .

Thanks to Alfonso for allowing me to use this picture.  The pencil with a quill pen for a clip was made by Conklin for The Spencerian Pen Company in New York, a company better known for its steel dip pen nibs.  According to this 1935 brochure, the company offered three product lines, with this clip distinguishing Spencerian’s 200 series of “Easy Quill Action” pens . . . and apparently, its pencils, too.

And there are two other clip styles shown in this brochure (and lots of pictures of the pens that used them).  More on the other two tomorrow . . .