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This joins a similar pencil in black which I wrote about three years ago (see “More Weird Stuff” at https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2015/02/more-weird-stuff.html):
In that previous article, I had commented on how the black example combines elements of several late 1930s repeating pencil designs offered by Eversharp:
“From the top and most common is the Air-Lite, a low-buddget line which came in grey, greenish gray and black. Next is a “white star” pencil with an anodized aluminum barrel, exhibiting the mark Eversharp briefly used to replace it’s double-check mark in around 1940. The maroon pencil isn’t to my knowledge a cataloged model, and I’ve never heard a definitive name for it: part Doric, part Skyline, and with a clip not used on any other model – these also come in a demi size and in black, with and without gold seals, and I’ve got two examples that appear to be a very, very deep navy blue. That one at the bottom is an oddball I group with my Coronets.
None of these are exactly on the beaten path.”
(Incidentally, the maroon pencil was later identified as a cataloged model - the “Victory.” See https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/09/better-than-hybrid-repeater-eversharp.html).
Today’s new addition combines new elements in slightly different ways. Starting with the color, this new one has the look and consistency of the same plastic you’ll find on a Waterman Hundred-Year pencil. Also, the mechanism doesn’t look swapped over from something else, and I’m suspecting this is how the black one originally looked before someone found some spare parts from a Skyline or something to make it work.
Note also that the brown one lacks the “Genuine Eversharp Patented” imprint, and one other detail at the top end: the black example has two equally sized bands, while the brown one has one band which is noticably wider than the other.
But that’s not the most interesting part. Compare the gold seals:
Instead of the typical double-check, the brown example has a star medallion. Could this be the direct evolutionary step towards the “white star” pencils?
Before they settled on making them white?
That’s particularly fascinating in light of the fact that at nearly the same time as Parker added stars to the clips on some of its Vacumatic pens, in 1938, to denote a lifetime warranty. Parker quickly switched to the blue diamond, while Eversharp apparently switched to the white star. Perhaps they conflicted with each other over the use of the same mark; perhaps they both received warnings from Eberhard Faber, which had trademarked the star within a diamond as early as 1906.
To my knowledge, neither of these pencils were ever cataloged by Eversharp – however, they have been documented before. A few years ago I had the opportunity to pick up several years’ worth of issues of Pen Fancier magazines, as edited by the legendary Cliff Lawrence. Included in this stash was a copy of The 1992 Official P.F.C. Pen Guide, an early attempt to categorize and offer a rough idea as to values of pens and pencils that he had observed at the time:
There, on page 129, I found this:
Note the two different sized trim bands at the top, and the distinct seal with a star rather than the double-checkmark. The caption below indicates that the example Cliff documented had a black barrel:
Another one to hunt for!
I have one of the "brown" pencils with the star medallion and it does have behind the clip and under the rings, the following: Genuine Eversharp Patented US America
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