Sunday, May 6, 2018

Just a Name or a Clue?

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

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This Presto came up recently in an online auction, and since it was reasonable and I’m always looking for more information on the brand, I went ahead and brought it home:


When I brought it home, I found that it was a dead ringer for the most important Presto in my collection: Samuel Kanner’s personal demonstrator:




I dug these old pictures out from The Catalogue, where they appear on pages 122 and 123, mostly because I wanted to know whether I had lost the cap on Kanner’s demonstrator or whether I never had it.

While my Kanner demonstrator is marked “Patented,” this new find is marked patent applied for:


But unlike Kanner’s demonstrator, this one has a different personalization:


“Jack Sprat.”  Note how much more detailed the lettering is, on this example that matches a pencil owned by the company’s owner.  Is this just a name, wrought with a little more care than one might normally see by a jeweler or salesperson? 

Is it a flippant reference to the nursery rhyme?

Or is it a clue?

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