Hicks Family Oddities III

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Hicks family pencils - including W.S. Hicks and Edward Todd - tend towards the conservative side, with a timeless sort of design that remained in use for decades.  That’s why I found yesterday’s four-color pencil so interesting: it just seems a little lowbrow for both the manufacturer Hicks as well as its customer, Cartier. 

But a four-color pencil isn’t all that Hicks and Eddward Todd were up to.  Check this one out:

That’s a telephone dialer on the top and yes, it’s marked with Edward Todd's hallmark:

This next one is a little beat up, but I had to add it to my collection anyway:

I had never seen a double-ended Hicks family pencil.  This one I call “Hicks family” because it isn’t hallmarked, other than to indicate gold filled, and the clip probably isn’t a Hicks clip:

And then there’s this chubby fellow:

Other than the girth, this one looks like any other, classic-styled Hicks . . . until you remove the cap:

Who knew the company made a lighter pencil?  And more interesting still, when you pull out the lighter, is the odd bedfellow who assisted in the operation:

The imprint is very, very faint (maybe that was on purpose):  it reads “Redilite / Pat. 1820131 Made in USA / B.& B. St. Paul Minn.”   That’s right – W.S. Hicks collaborated with Brown and ;Bigelow, makers of Redipoint pencils (and the companion Redilite lighters) to make this one.  The patent was issued to veteran Brown and Bigelow inventor Howard Fischler on August 25, 1931: