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The gold filled example was in an online auction, in which the seller indicated that the pencil had what looked like an “H” on it - I thought perhaps he was describing a Heath hallmark, which would have been very unusual. Heath didn’t typically mark the company’s gold filled stuff, and the pattern on this one is interesting, but not something you’d expect to find on a Heath:
On closer examination, though, the mark isn’t Heath’s. Note the W above the crossbar and the S below it, which indicates the mark is for W.S. Hicks:
The other pencil, is in sterling, with a really cool, funky pattern of alternating convex and concave panels:
It came in a collection of things I purchased a year or so ago. At first, I was disappointed to find no hallmark, although it still would have held a place in my “unmarked but worthy” department:
But look more closely, and you’ll see something as good as a hallmark. Do you see what looks like a serial number scratched into the surface of the cartouche?
There’s only one maker I know of which did that. Here’s a pencil Hicks made for the jewelry firm Black, Starr and Frost (see “Welcome to the Family” at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2015/02/welcome-to-family.html):
And another example, from “The Part I Don’t Love” (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-part-i-don’t-love.html):
Hallmark or no, I’m comfortable attributing this one to Hicks.
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