Herding Eagles

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I’ve picked up a few other things from the Eagle Pencil Company lately – nothing that merits an article all of its own, but there’s enough of them together to warrant rounding up all the pictures I’ve got sitting in the “to be written about” folder.  

We’ll start with the Eagle Prestige, which I wrote about near the end of Volume 6 (page 227).  Shortly after the article ran, an online auction brought me two other examples:

Each has that same great imprint.  I didn’t highlight it on the new additions as a hat tip to those who rankle a bit when I do that:

Next up is the Eagle Number 873 “Extra,” a version of Eagle’s Number 872 “Supply,” but with an eraser concealed under the top.  A red model made its way into the blog here some time ago (Volume 4, page 11), but another auction yielded some surprises:

Blue and green additions were welcome indeed!

Then there is this odd duck – I don’t remember how or when this one came my way:

This is the Eagle Number 345 “Bicycle”:

The wheel at the top has a tantalizing “Patent Applied for” imprint, but I haven’t been able to figure out whether one was issued.

After some time playing around with this one for a bit, I did learn that it is a mechanical pencil - rotating that wheel advances and retracts the lead inside what looks like an ordinary wood pencil.  Looks like this was a wood pencil that had a lead that could be retracted inside to protect the point:

When it comes to Eagle, I’m an omnivore.  Pens, pencils, compasses, you name it - if it has Eagle on it, it’s probably weird and therefore probably right up my alley, like this thing:

It sports an Eagle imprint on one side:

The nose pulls off and reverses, and the rear telescopes out to form a desk pen.  I have no idea why anyone would want a traveling desk pen.

Last for now, and by way of introducing tomorrow’s subject, is this miniature baseball bat:

The imprint is what had me biting on this online auction:

The Eagle “Home Run King” must have been made in 1927, when Babe Ruth was crowned with that title with a record-setting 60 home runs that season, a record that would stand until Roger Maris eclipsed Ruth’s benchmark in 1961.  I think I was just searching for “Eagle Pencil” when I found this one – I don’t think it was identified as a writing instrument, which made it easier for me to scoop up.  It is, in fact, a dip pen: I found a period correct Eagle nib to show you: