Who Else . . . Part Two

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On May 18, I published an article musing about whether a jade golf pencil I had found might have been made by Sheaffer.  A major consideration weighing in favor of that possibility was Sheaffer’s design patent covering golf pencils in that distinctive teardrop shape (design patent 80,362), coupled with Sheaffer’s notorious reputation for stamping out any infringement, through threats and litigation.  

As mentioned earlier, William Cuthbert and Earl Sodeberg applied for the golf pencil design patent on August 30, 1929 – long after applying for the patents for the pencil, pen and combination pen and pencil, seemingly as an afterthought.  The fact that Sheaffer sued Eagle for violations of those other three patents, but apparently gave Eagle a pass on the “Jot Jr.” golf pencils, suggests that perhaps Sheaffer thought twice about trying to enforce its golf pencil design patent; maybe because it was unenforceable, and maybe because it was invalidated.

I still believe its possible Sheaffer made that unmarked pencil from my earlier article.  However, I might have leaned too much on Sheaffer’s design patent, after this one turned up:

The color is generally referred to as “Brazilian green,” because that is what it was called by the company that made the greatest use of it: Wahl-Eversharp.  Celluloids were sourced from other companies, most notably DuPont, and other examples of writing instruments made from this plastic have turned up on pencils made by other companies (offhand, Waterman and the “Ford’s Deluxe” come to mind).

However, the strong association of Brazilian green with Eversharp had me opening my drawer of Equipoised-era pencils:

The top example is clearly marked, and while collectors refer to these as “Eversharp golf pencils,” it is made up of parts from an Eversharp convertible set: the front end doubled as the pencil portion of a combination pen and pencil, and the set included both that short cap for pocket use as well as a desk taper.  In the early days, I captured a poor photograph of Cliff Harrington’s set when he displayed it at the Chicago Show in 2012 (see Volume 1, page 217):

As for those other two golf pencils . . . the tapered flattop one is unmarked, but it was sold to me as an Eversharp by a member of our community who knows his stuff - I won’t say who, because I’m not entirely sure about that now, and I’m not suggesting I was misled.   

Then there’s the Sheafferesque example, with a shape that should have triggered a patent dispute . . . IF someone other than Sheaffer made it, IF it was made after Sheaffer’s patent was filed, and IF Sheaffer’s patent was enforceable.  Attributing this one to Eversharp is equally thin:

IF this is from Eversharp’s stash of Brazilian green, IF Eversharp made both marked and unmarked golf pencils, IF Eversharp added gold bands to some of them, IF Eversharp used triangular loops on their ringtops, and IF Eversharp dared to openly defy Sheaffer’s patents.

OK, maybe a little less thin because that last IF isn’t just an if, because Eversharp DID . . . 

This model is illustrated in Eversharp’s 1929 catalog, and after Sheaffer promptly cried foul it was quickly withdrawn.  There’s a progression here: note the difference between the two ringtop examples shown:

There were two versions of the ringtop, the one with a flattened area at the top like the known Eversharp golf pencil was made after Sheaffer complained, to replace the ones that were streamlined all the way to the top, just like a Sheaffer Balance.

The parts are not interchangeable between my imprinted Eversharp golf pencil and either of the other two.  Can I say conclusively that my Sheaffer-shaped golf pencil in Brazilian Green was made by Eversharp?  No.  But I’m more likely to attribute it to Eversharp than to Sheaffer.