One Spectacular Fell Swoop

Note: this second installment in a three-article series was published in the Summer 2024 issue of The PENnant, Journal of the Pen Collectors of America. The first installment is here. 

In the first installment of this series, I presented the meteoric rise and fall of the Salz ’Salrite pencil, from its origins as the metal “Sta-Sharp” pencil manufactured by the Pencil Products Corporation beginning in 1919, into its commanding hard rubber incarnation beginning in late 1921, through the adverse ruling before the United States Patent Office in 1923 that made Salz the likely target of the Federal Trade Commission, and ending with the brief handoff of ’Salrite production to a mysterious “Chase Pencil Corporation” in 1924.

This history is fairly complete. However, two loose ends in this story continued to bug me.

The first was an offhand remark from a 1924 closeout advertisement that the ’Salrite was available in three sizes, and I only knew of two: a short “ring-top” (in quotes because sometimes Salz mounted the ring on the top, and sometimes it was affixed to the side, on a metal band), and the full-sized models with the Salz “Shur Hold” clip—the name for which was likely the strongest evidence that the company was deliberately trading on the “Shur-Rite” name (fig. 1). What was this third size? A thin model, perhaps a continuation of the metal pencil line? An extra-long baseball bat of a pencil? Or a pipsqueak? Hmmm...

Figure 1. The state of my knowledge before a chance online discovery: two sizes, a ring-top with the ring either on top or mounted on the side affixed to a band, and a full-sized model. What was that third size mentioned in closeout advertisements?

The second unanswered question arose from the patent commissioner’s remarks in his decision to deny registration of the “Salz Rite” name: “Advertisements of applicant of record in the case show that generally the ‘z’ of the mark is inconspicuous, sometimes appears as a double hyphen and at least in once instance is omitted entirely,” wrote Assistant Patent Commissioner Fenning. 

I had found variations of ’Salrite imprints with a tiny “z” snuck in the middle, and variations with no “z” or apostrophe (fig. 2). But a “double hyphen”? I had resigned myself to the belief that since the commissioner referred only to Salz advertisements, perhaps this comment was the result of artistic license in illustrations at the time.

Figure 2. The Patent Office mentioned that Salz either omitted the “z” in “Salz Rite,” shrank it down so that it was inconspicuous, or used a double hyphen in its place. Here are examples of no Z and little Z...does a double-hyphen imprint exist?

Tantalizing evidence suggested that (1) there were three sizes while I only knew of two, and (2) another variation of the ’Salrite imprint may or may not exist. To those who don’t suffer from CDO (that’s OCD with the letters in the right order), these might seem like trifles. Nevertheless, I never stopped searching for answers, and both of these questions were answered—resoundingly—all at once, in one online auction a couple years ago (fig. 3). 

Figure 3. These three examples of the ’Salrite surfaced in an online auction in 2021, resolving any lingering doubts I had regarding what three sizes were offered, and whether a “double-hyphen” imprint existed.

Question one answered: yes, there were three sizes of hard rubber ’Salrites...and that third size was a pipsqueak (fig. 4).

Figure 4. The elusive third “pipsqueak” size, shown beside an ordinary ring-top ’Salrite.

All three of these are ring-tops—even the side-clip example has a ring mounted at the top. Better still, all three of these also resoundingly answered my second question about the existence of “double hyphen” imprints (figs. 5 and 6).

Figure 5. The side-clip example in this trio clearly shows the double-hyphen ’Sal=Rite imprint.

Figure 6. The pipsqueak example has both a double hyphen imprint on the cap and an unusual decorative band.

These are the finest examples of the ’Salrite I have ever encountered. In fact, in my opinion they are among the finest examples of any American mechanical pencil ever made, manufactured sometime between the hard rubber ’Salrite’s introduction in late 1921 and the Patent Commissioner’s adverse ruling in early 1923.  The mottled example, in addition to the double hyphen imprint, is shop marked “225" filled in with gold (fig. 7). These are either part of a salesman’s sample kit or shop models, made to show off what the company was capable of producing. 

Figure 7. The mottled example shares the double-hyphen imprint on the cap, and it also bears a shop-marked “225” filled in with gold. The significance of this mark is unknown; maybe it designated a model number or a date (perhaps February 25, 1922 or 1923?). Less likely is that it designated the price—$2.25 seems low for this quality of construction.

The overlay on the side clip model appears to be gold filled, but the tooling expenses to produce it must have been exorbitant (figs. 8 and 9). Salz may not have done the metalwork itself, but may have bought the parts.

Figure 8. The side-clip model sports the same pressed-in clip found on earlier ’Salrite metal pencils. Attaching Salz’s wraparound “Shur Hold” clip to an overlay would have been unsightly, if not impossible.

Figure 9. The overlay on the side-clip model appears to be gold filled, and the tooling costs for what appears to be a one-off must have been exorbitant.

The crown jewel of this trio, however, is the mottled example. The overlay is hand-engraved, and it is exquisitely preserved with no trace of wear.  The overlay is unmarked as to metal content, but the top, as with the other two examples, is marked 1/10 – 18k, meaning gold filled (fig. 10).

Figure 10. The mottled hard rubber example has an overlay that may not be solid gold, but which is nevertheless exquisitely preserved and may be new old stock. It appears to be hand -engraved.

For weeks after these three examples surfaced, I kept an eye on the online seller’s listings in the hopes that they might be part of a larger set the seller was liquidating. I even searched completed auctions to see if I had missed anything else. Nothing ever surfaced, so these appear to be all that remains of a salesman’s kit from the zenith of the ’Salrite’s short but spectacular run.

In the previous installment of this series, I teased out the notion that the ’Salrite did briefly reemerge for “one last, fascinating reprise.” These three examples arrived on my doorstep in the nick of time for me to bring them to the September 2021 Chicago Pen Show, just for show and tell ... and by coincidence, it was at that very show that I learned all about that reprise. That story is coming up, in the last installment of this series.