"Everrounded," Perhaps

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When I saw the first of these two – I don’t know which one it was – my first thought was that they might be Conklin pencils, with those rounded caps.

However, the finish isn’t quite what you’d expect of Conklin, and those green bands around the top tell a different story.  Different companies filed trademarks for different colored bands, and a green band denotes the American Lead Pencil Company.  In American Writing Instrument Trademarks 1870-1953, I list three different trademarks registered by American with respect to the green band.  The earliest, number 66,976, was applied for by Byron Goldsmith on May 31, 1907, claiming that the mark had been used by the company since September 20, 1906. 

The registration certificate isn’t much to look at  – it was issued during a time when registration certificates referred to attached drawings which, of course, haven’t been preserved.  I did, however, fish the illustration out of the issue of the Official Gazette in which the drawing was published for objection, and I included it in the book:

The imprints are also a trademark of the American Lead Pencil Company – Venus:

There’s eight different trademarks for “Venus” in American Writing Instrument Trademarks; the earliest, number 40,090, was applied for on March 9, 1903, in which the date of first use claimed was January 10, 1903:

What is really interesting about these two pencils is their shape, with those round, distinctive caps.  I hadn’t seen them before – normally metal Venus pencils are along these lines:

These were the Venus “Everpointed” pencils:

No, there’s no trademark I’ve found for “Everpointed,” and I wouldn’t expect to.  As I mentioned recently when discussing an 1840s tube of “Everpoint Leads” from Henry Cohen & Co., the word “Everpoint” was coined by S. Mordan & Co. at the dawn of the mechanical pencil industry but quickly became a generic term.  By the time these pencils were made, the word had been in such common use in connection with mechanical pencils that the mark would have lacked any specific proprietary meaning.

Incidentally, the full-sized, boxed example came with some great paperwork I’ve had photographed for awhile, so since I’m on the subject . . .