Oh Crap! Oh . . . Wait . . .

This article has been included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 7, now available here.

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

I couldn’t wait for this one to arrive in the mail:

It’s a Rex-made Webster, bearing the McNary 1924 patent date:

Finding Rex-made pencils with faceted barrels is a rarity - doubly so in the smaller sizes, and I knew this would fit perfectly into my group of Websters:

Webster was originally a Rex house brand (see one of my favorite articles, “Help With the Cheese” in Volume 3, page 108).  Later, Rex must have sold the rights to the name to Sears, Roebuck & Co. and continued to supply Sears with Rex-made pencils for some time, likely until the company’s patent dispute with Parker in 1929 (after which, no surprise, Parker started suppling Parker-made Websters to Sears).

This grouping shows the ringtop models, starting with pre-1924 metal pencils, 1924 McNary patent models, and “Four Horsemen” patent ringtops from 1925-1929.

Full-sized pencils were also offered, in a wide range of colors and in both hard rubber and celluloid:

Only that top example is faceted, but all have the same neat Webster imprints on the clips:

Pencil in hand, I went down to the museum to triumphantly place my new find in its proper place, only to find:

Oh crap.  Dammit . . . this is why I take all these pictures and write all of these articles, so I don’t make mistakes like this and spend good money for things I already have!

Dejected, I was, but determined to find some little reason . . . any little reason . . . to justify having two of these laying around.  I took my loupe in hand to scour the imprint for even the slightest difference.  Fortunately, it didn’t take long:

The other one isn’t a Webster: it’s marked “Y & H.”  I’d forgotten all about this one, and I’d never even photographed it after I couldn’t figure out what those letters meant.  

Whew.  The Y & H is now refiled in between Webster and “Ye Wm. Penn” where it belongs, and the Webster has now taken its rightful place.  Now the next challenge begins: figuring out what Y & H stands for – maybe “Yee and Haw?”