Miller's Guaranteed Pencils

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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The Miller appears on page 99 of The Catalogue:

Each is imprinted with “Miller’s Guaranteed Pencil” on the upper barrel, and in the absence of any distinctive features, I wasn’t able to say much more than “here they are.”

I still haven’t been able to figure out much about the producers of the Miller; however, an example that turned up online recently offers some intriguing possibilities concerning who might have made it – and something else . . .

That floral clip is reminiscent of writing instruments assembled by C.E. Barrett (note: not National Pen Products, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Montgomery Ward in which Barrett was involved).  The twin bands, one on either side of the middle joint, together with that distinctive celluloid, immediately called to mind something else in my collection:

That’s a John Holland pencil, one I showed off here a while back with several other Holland sets (see Volume 3, page 209).  The gold trim makes it look darker, but up close you can see the color is the same, and you can see something else . . .

Long dashes on either side of the shorter line.   Little details like that are like fingerprints - taken together, I conclude that this Miller and this John Holland were made by the same manfacturer.