At the Philadelphia Show a few years ago, Paul Erano had this Carter’s pencil on his table. He wanted a fair price (rather than the unfair price I was looking for), and when I hesitated, Paul did what Paul does best.
“Jon,” was all he said.
“But I think I already have that one,” I replied.
“Jaaahn, come on. In the box and with the papers?”
That was as much of a twist as my arm required. Yeah, I did have that one - a couple actually - but it looks like there were two different shades of that lapis blue “Coralite,” as Carter called it.
But the real star in this show was the papers that came with it, starting with the box – complete with a model number, but not for this pencil. Model 4117 was a fountain pen designation, specifying a red mottled (4), large diameter (1), long (1) and something sevenish, probably the nib size. “Medium” refers to a nib, not a pencil lead.
No worries about that, though. The box has ably contained and preserved the paperwork inside, and it is more than just a one-page instruction sheet. It’s an entire booklet, copyrighted 1926, titled “Be Kind to your Pen.” Sometimes my commentary is helpful, but this time I’d just be getting in the way - here it is, reproduced in its entirety.
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