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These add to the minty NOS part of my Selfeed collection:
It’s been far too long since I’ve talked specifically about the Selfeed, because the articles I’ve done more recently have focused on similarities between the Selfeed, the Dunn and the early Esterbrook PS repeating pencils.
Selfeed metal pencils were introduced first, in the first half of the 1920s - at least, 1925 was the earliest advertisement I could find for these “new” propelling pencils:
Although these price tags just slide on, I don’t have any reason to think these are not as they were intended – after all, finding a Selfeed in any condition is a challenge, so it isn’t likely someone would just happen to find a Selfeed price band and also happen to have an unrelated Selfeed pencil handy to accessorize:
Model 10M on the short example in base metal; Model 200A on a longer sterling model with a straight lined pattern.
There’s a couple interesting nuances concerning the metal Selfeed pencils worth mentioning. First, there are two distinct types of caps:
The shorter, stubbier caps are sometimes marked “Classic Selfeed” rather than just “Selfeed” in plain block text, as shown here. I theorize that the “Classic” preface was added to the metal pencil line after the larger hard rubber and plastic models were introduced. And then there’s the clips:
Screws added to clips for additional support appear only on the stubbier caps, but not all the time. Note that the stubbier caps are imprinted “Pats” (plural) applied for, while longer, earlier caps indicate only one patent had been applied for.
There were also ringtop models, sporting a ring that’s a dead . . . “ringer” for the rings found on Dunn pencils:
One of the ones I have sports commemorative 1925 engraving, consistent with the loose timeline I’ve been able to put together:
Then along came larger pencils in attractive colors (as stated above, I think metal Selfeed pencils marked “Classic” were to distinguish them from the later-introduced plastic models).
These earlier ones had lots of problems, as you can tell from this selection, and it’s difficult to find examples of these that are completely intact and working. Of this small sampling, only the top two are all there and doing their things. The third appears to have a barrel made of casein, which must have gotten wet at some point. The red hard rubber one has a crack in a barrel that was made far too thin for this construction, and the black one at bottom – well, just goes to show that the clips were fragile and the metal tips frequently go missing. Over the years I’ve hoarded Selfeed parts and, at least until these are all back up to 100%, I’ll continue to do so.
Note that these earlier examples have a cap much like the metal pencils, that fits over the top. This next grouping of oversized pencils, which includes today’s new find, has a redesigned cap that works slightly better and slides down inside the barrel top rather than over it:
I don't know what to make of the weird clip on that one second from top. The new red hard rubber example was designated Model 3000 and carried a $3.00 price tag:
In addition to the fact that these work better than the group in the preceding picture, another reason I suspect these are later is that the imprints have been supplemented with “Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.,” a reference to the registration of the Selfeed trademark:
However, the trademark itself doesn’t fit within this timeline, since it indicates that it was registered in 1924 – earlier even than the metal ringtop with the commemorative date shown above. I still think it’s correct, though, to say that these are a later incarnation of the Selfeed.
The trademark registration application was signed by John Wall of the Wall-Stieh Company. For those of you who haven’t been reading this blog for several years, I’ve already clarified something I said about the Selfeed in The Catalogue. On page 134, under Selfeed I indicate only “see Kemper Thomas.” I had mistakenly thought Kemper Thomas might be the sole proprietor of the Selfeed on the basis of this instruction sheet, which accompanied that boxed metal example:
I didn’t get it wrong in the Catalogue - on page 92 I mention that Kemper Thomas seemed unlikely, since it was a calendar manufacturer like Osborne rather than a writing instrument company. However, I probably should have kept all the Selfeed stuff listed under Selfeed and just made a note under Kemper Thomas that they sold some of them, too. Grist for the second edition . . . if there ever is one . . .
The Wall-Stieh connection turned up in the first year of the blog here (the article has been archived, but it’s in The Leadhead’s Pencil Blog (Vol. 1) at page 401. It took a lot of collaboration among collectors to connect Wall-Steih, an obscure fountain pen manufacturer, with the Selfeed. According to what surfaced, Wall-Steih eventually set up a Selfeed Pencil Company to manufacture the pencils in around 1927.
The title of the article was “One Wild Goose Chase,” and it all would have been avoided if I had the lead container from that first picture in hand when I wrote The Catalogue:
There it is – Wall-Steih, plain as day.
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