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.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

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?