For Art's Sake

The Artcraft Pen Company recently came up in connection with the Rex Manufacturing Company, which supplied Artcraft with pencils made pursuant to McNary’s 1924 patent and at least one other example during the “Four Horsemen” patent era between 1926 and 1930. See “The Proud Rexist” on September 29, 2025. 

What was outside the scope of that previous article was finds such as this one. This image is a few years old, so I don’t remember where these came from:

Both of these share a simple Artcraft logo, with the name spelled out on an artist’s palette.

Here is where American Writing Instrument Trademarks 1870-1953 comes in handy: that logo was the subject of trademark registration 141,118, applied for by Ford D. Cromer of the Edison-Cromer Pen Company on May 14, 1920. In the application, Cromer claimed the mark was first used on March 1, 1920.

These were definitely not made by the Rex Manufacturing Company; in fact, that grey example looks like Parker Parkette celluloid, but shared celluloid is typically insufficient to make such attributions since few pen companies (Parker included) procured stock celluloid from suppliers rather than making it in-house. What is inside says a lot more about who supplied them:

When an Artcraft pencil along these lines is shown alongside a disassembled Sheaffer Balance, it is obvious that at least what was inside came from Sheaffer. That ties in well with my recent discussion of the Diamond Medal brand in “Diamonds . . . But Not in the Rough” (October 9, 2025).

So we have an earlier series of Artcraft pencils made by Rex in the 1920s, and this series made (at least on the inside) by Sheaffer in the 1930s. Now, consider the following:

This was the weird monster from Gabriel’s recent care package, and I had no idea what it was until it arrived and I could inspect it more closely.

I was trying to photograph the imprint in detail without highlighting it, but I finally gave up and broke out the china marker. It’s easier to photograph that way and besides, I enjoy these things more when I’m not craning my neck over a loupe to see what’s going on.

Now wait a minute, I thought as I was writing this. Here’s an Artcraft desk pencil, made using a repurposed fountain pen section with a pencil mechanism shoved into it. Here’s another Artcraft pencil, with a plastic that looks just like that grey marbled celluloid Parker used on the Parkette series. Where have I seen those before . . . 

Ah. It was right here, back on August 7, 2025 (“An Answer Courtesy of Dex”).

This pencil also featured in one of the very first articles here at the blog - “What the Heck Is This?” (December 15, 2011: Volume 1, page 47). It is unmarked, but I have always attributed it to the Pick Pen Company of Cincinnati, Ohio due to the flat, wafer-shaped protrusion on top of the cap. Note, however, the Parker-style dimples around the nose.\

The answer I have come up with is not the most satisfying, but it is the best theory I can pose. We know that Rex-made pencils were supplied to C.E. Barrett & Co. in Chicago, and Barrett only engaged in limited manufacturing: mostly what Barrett did is assemble pens and pencils from parts. When I see Parker-style noses, Sheaffer mechanisms, and Parkette-ish celluloids, the best I can conclude is that C.E. Barrett supplied Artcraft with its pencils – at first, when they were being supplied by Rex. Later, parts from various sources were married together, the Artcraft name was slapped on the side, and out the door they went.

And what of that long-short pencil I have attributed to Pick for all of these years? It is unmarked, so it may have been cobbled together at Barrett’s offices after Pick folded using a leftover Pick fountain pen barrel, a nondescript fountain pen barrel that conveniently nested inside, with a Parker nose-drive mechanism wedged into the section. 

I thought I had that settled back in 2011. Now I’m not so sure.