Who Knew?

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Nathaniel Cerf had a minute at the Chicago show to ask if I wanted to buy a little plastic container full of pencils.   Since this one was in there, why yes I said . . . yes I do:

Know what it is?  OK, I’ll give you a hint:

Here it is, shown alongside its full-sized counterpart:

The clip gives this one away:

That’s right, this is an Autopoint pencil - the tough-to-find companion to the company’s “tab filler” pens of the early 1930s (see “While Most Pen Companies Dabbled in Pencils,” at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2012/07/while-most-pen-companies-dabbled-in.html).  Who knew they made a ringtop?

Ordinarily, ringtop pens and pencils are worth something less than the side clip version - call it sexism or whatever, but there’s generally more demand for the big manly versions.  I don’t think that holds true for this one, though.