Last But Not Least

Two days ago, I started what I thought would be a quick introduction to a group of new old stock pencils in their boxes, which I had received from Gabriel Galecia Goldsmith.

The first pencil in that group told a longer story than I expected, so I adjourned to a second installment to run through the others; however, when I started writing about that last one, there was so much more than initially meets the eye . . .

The Christmas box is one I haven’t seen before, and there’s quite a wad of papers in here that we will delve into in a minute. But first, the pencil: it is a “Signature-style” Eversharp; as I discussed in Chapter Eight of Eversharp: Cornerstone of an Industry, in which I spent a few pages explain why “Signature-style” is a better collective name for them than “Tempoint” or “Tempoint-style,” as I referred to them in The Catalogue.

Strictly speaking, these were the “New $3.50 EVERSHARPS That Match the New $5.00 WAHL PENS” (see the Eversharp book at page 177). Wahl flirted with naming the pens the “Fivespot,” but it didn’t stick (page 179) – and Wahl never referred to the matching pencil as a “Threeandahalfspot.”

At least, that’s what they were called when the line was introduced in 1927, with the old-style Eversharp mechanism in use since 1924. Black and pearl was not part of the original lineup of colors, and was introduced after the 1928 Wahl catalog was printed. It is first shown in the summer 1928 edition of Eversales, Wahl’s internal magazine at the time (see page 177 in the book). The military clip version of the pencil was given model designation K4004SC.

But wait a tick . . .  these are not the pencils we have here . . . at least, not quite. That gold-filled tip and longer top are a giveaway that Gabriel’s new example is a later example, fitted with the same mechanism used on the Equi-Poise series introduced in 1929. At top in this next image is the original Model K4004SC (for short with clip), our new addition, and examples with Equi-Poise mechanisms in military clip and ringtop configurations.

Examples with the Equi-Poise mechanism are more difficult to find, and they may have been manufactured primarily to use up leftover celluloid stock. Wahl’s 1929 catalog includes the new streamlined Equi-Poise line and the flattop Signature-style line, identical to what was introduced in 1928 but with the model designation changed to 4004SC (dropping the K prefix).

The mechanism used on the new Equi-Poise pencils was apparently incorporated into the flattop line after the 1929 catalog was printed. It would make sense to conclude these were discontinued in 1931 with the introduction of the new Doric, since there is no mention of these in Wahl’s 1931 catalog. However, a commemorative imprint on a coral example shown on page 188 of the book indicates it was made in 1934 (the 25th anniversary of the class of 1909 - see the bottom example in this image from page 188 in the book).

Full sized examples usually have a seal above the clip, while ringtops with the Equi-Poise mechanism have a seal on the side. The military clip version has the seal on the top of the pencil, as shown on page 189:

Note that these rounder tops are thicker than what is seen on the new addition:

That is because Gabriel’s pencil does not have a seal: instead, it has a special-order top piece advertising “Hoffman 77 Valves,” a water vent valve for heating radiators which remains in production today. 

That might explain the unusual model designation on the price sticker on the back, and maybe not:

Model 4004ESC. I say maybe, maybe not because I don’t have any documentation to say what a “normal” Signature-style pencil with an Equi-Poise mechanism was called. With an old-style mechanism, this was Model 4004SC in the 1929 catalog; maybe all pencils later fitted with Equi-Poise mechanism had an ESC suffix – say, for “Equi-Poise,” and maybe the E was added to indicate it was “especially” made for a custom order.

Does the paperwork help? Not on that point, but it provides plenty of other information there to discuss. First, this one includes a warranty certificate:

"Gold Seal” pens and pencils was the name adopted by Wahl with the introduction of what collectors have nicknamed “Deco Band” models, with their elaborate greek-key center bands. When the Equi-Poise mechanism was adopted, the double-check gold seals were broadly applied to most models, so I’ll accept that this is the correct paperwork for this non-Deco Band model. 

Then there’s the instructions:

The Equi-Poise line shared the same pencil mechanism with the Doric, so it does not surprise me to see a Doric pencil illustrated in the paperwork. However, patent information printed in the lower corners might help to narrow down when these instructions were printed. On one side, the Doric’s design patents are noted:

Both of these design patents were issued on August 5, 1930 to Robert Back.

That is not particularly helpful, since we already knew flattop models were still in production in 1930. But wait . . . there’s more. On the back side, there’s some discussion about Wahl’s new patented “Kleen-Fill” ink bottles, along with some additional patent information:

The latter of these, patent 1,800,330, was applied for by John C. Wahl and Albert H. Stenerson on October 24, 1925, and it was granted on April 14, 1931.

Well crap.  All that patent information, and nothing conclusively establishes that Signature-Style pencils with Equi-Poise mechanisms were in production any later than what I already knew. One additional clue helps just a tiny bit more: the cap band on the Doric pencil that is illustrated:

“First year” Dorics have a split band, with part of the band on the upper barrel; according to Wahl’s advertising, production was simplified in late 1931 or early 1932 by incorporating the entire band into the lower barrel. This was discussed on page 216 of the book:

That pushes the probable date of production back to late 1931, given the Christmas box in which it resides . . . again, that doesn’t shatter anything I believed, since that coral example discussed earlier dates to 1934. Coral, though, might be a different story than black and pearl: bizarre variants abound in coral material, including some flattops that were made during the 1939 “garage sale” in which Wahl cobbled things together in preparation of the company’s reorganization as Eversharp, Inc. See “The Weirdness of Coral” (April 23, 2021: Volume 7, page 57) and page 190 in the Eversharp book.

All of the foregoing is ultimately a house of cards . . . or cardstock, I suppose. Yes, all of this - box, new old stock pencil, and paperwork appear consistent. Yes, when these artifacts are considered together, they all appear to prove that the Equi-Poise fitted Gold Seal pens and pencils were in regular production during the 1931 Christmas season, after the Doric was introduced and after they were omitted entirely from Wahl’s 1931 catalog. Yes, I am confident that this package came to me exactly as it came to Gabriel.

I am, however, assuming that this pencil was wrapped in these papers and placed in this box back in 1931. Colonel Mustard may be in the right room, but he’s still holding something behind his back.