A Couple Autopoint Footnotes

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As I was shooting photographs for yesterday’s article, there were two pictures that I really wanted to use, but as so often happens, in the course of writing the story, the story evolved into something into which they just didn’t quite fit. 

Since the story turned into a study of the different variations of bolted-on clips Autopoint used, this picture didn’t add anything to the discussion:

As far as clips go, this is the same, boring ol’ ball clip Autopoint had used on all of its large sized pencils from 1927 on.   But that barrel?  No, a clear barrel is something to make any die-hard Autopoint fan stand up and take notice.  This one came from Rob Bader at the Chicago show last May, and it’s a good match for the slim model my father, Roger Veley, showed to me at the 2012 Ohio Show:

I posted an article about his example some time ago (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2013/03/clear-as-they-come.html), but I wasn’t able to say much more than “ain’t she pretty.”   When it comes to rarity, I think dad’s example would be harder to find (slim models with that round upper ferrule are nearly impossible to find in any color).

The other footnote I wanted to add concerns the elusive Model S-76, Autopoint’s oversized pencils with a straight upper ferrule and exposed eraser:

The plastic nose sections were added to the Autopoint line as early as March, 1931 – at least, that’s the earliest advertisement that shows them and describes them as “new.”  Before that (an maybe concurrently for awhile, as old parts were used up rather than thrown away), these had Autopoint’s usual metal nose:

As I go on about rarity, sure we can talk about rare colors of known models we’ve seen out there, or about this or that odd doohickey that differentiates an example within a class to the handful of us on the planet who pay attention to such things.  This, however, is a different story.  This is the only pre-1931 model S-76 I have ever seen.

But who knows.  Maybe I need to get out more.