House of Hutcheon

As we left things yesterday, I had narrowed down the likely manufacturer of the Mabie Magazine Pencil, including the versions marked for Salz Brothers, Hutcheon Brothers, Hallmark (United Jewelers), and the Carey Pen Company, to one of two manufacturers: Mabie, Todd & Co. or Hutcheon Brothers.

There’s good reason I can’t narrow it down more than that.

I laid out the history of Hutcheon Brothers in “The Hutcheon Brothers Sidebar” (July 12, 2017: Volume 5, page 41). The firm was originally named O’Neill & Company, and Alfred G. Hutcheon purchased the company in 1913. Hutcheon had for several years been associated with – you guessed it – Mabie, Todd & Co. The American Stationer reported Hutcheon’s departure from Mabie Todd on August 23, 1913, and Hutcheon left on good terms. “[N]aturally he leaves the old house with some regrets,” the announcement states:

In that previous article, I also included an early advertisement for Hutcheon, published in The American Stationer on October 27, 1917. It shows . . . you guessed it . . . a Hutcheon Magazine Pencil. “We also manufacture various styles of pens, pencils, pen mounts, etc.” the announcement reads; that’s terribly ambiguous. It neither states that Hutcheon made these pencils, nor understandably does it fail to emphasize, if they were supplied by Mabie Todd, that Hutcheon didn’t make these.

Alfred Hutcheon’s good relationship with his former associates at Mabie Todd means tells me that short of finding concrete documentation, we will never know whether it was Mabie Todd, or Hutcheon, or a partnership between the two firms that was responsible for making all of these Magazine pencils. The cooperation between the two firms was further illustrated here in “The Mabie Todd - Hutcheon Connection” (July 13, 2017: Volume 5, page 44), in which I noted how similar the patterns on some Hutcheon “Hutch Clutch Pencils” are to those already in use over at Mabie, Todd & Co.

The Hutch Clutch Pencil was Alfred Hutcheon’s first order of business after he acquired O’Neill & Co. This announcement for the model’s introduction was published in The American Stationer on November 15, 1913 – just three months after Alfred acquired the firm. Note that the firm was still known as O’Neill & Company, but the new pencils were named after the firm’s new owner.

Gabriel Goldsmith has been able some context to the Hutcheon story:

The top two examples of the Hutch Clutch Pencil were in his first care package, and the demonstrator at bottom was in the batch that just arrived last week. The clutch pencils are unusual in that the gold-filled barrels are completely unadorned.

But what is even more unusual is that these are not marked with the typical diamond-shaped hallmark Hutcheon was using by 1917, when that announcement in American Stationer was published. Instead, both of these have an H inside what looks like a house – for the “House of Hutcheon,” perhaps?

My working theory is that these Hutch Clutch pencils were the earliest ones made - shortly after August 1913, before Alfred Hutcheon brought with him his metalworking experience honed over at Mabie Todd and before he had settled on a new logo for the business he had just purchased.

And now for a closer look at that demonstrator pencil, which by all outward appearances is a Finepointer or Finer Pointe Hutcheon pencil:

Several cutouts show the internal workings of the pencil, but it’s going to take a lot of work to get all the rust removed and get it working again. Challenge . . . accepted – but not right now. That’s a good snowy day project for this winter. Although I’m certain the pencil was made by Hutcheon, the only marking on the barrel is “Nickle Silver/Made in USA”

Now to back up a bit . . . as mentioned earlier, Hutcheon pencils along these lines are found marked either “Finepointer” or “Finerpointe,” a distinction that I discussed in an early article here at the blog - see “I Say Finepointer, You Say Finerpointe, Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off (January 26, 2012: Volume 1, page 92). In that article, written before I knew a lot of things I know now, I theorized that “Finepointer” sounded so much like Mabie Todd’s “Fyne Poynt” line that Mabie Todd objected to the use of the name and forced Hutcheon to change it.

I was sooooo close . . . now that I know how close the relationship was between the two firms, I don’t think it was as adversarial as I had suggested. In the end, Hutcheon was granted trademark registration number 166,978 for a mark including the word “Finerpointe,” as included in American Writing Instrument Trademarks 1870-1953:

There’s a lot of information to digest in this registration certificate. First is that the Hutcheon Brothers numbered four: Alfred, Robert, William, and Forbes. Then there’s something of an open question as to what exactly is being registered - the name “Finerpointe,” the diamond-shaped hallmark, or the combination of those two things along with a dog (a pointer, of course). 

That exact mark – including name, diamond mark, and dog – is found etched on the Hutcheon display case that houses all of my Hutcheon pencils at the museum (see “A Box, A Display, and a Clue” (July 31, 2021: Volume 7, page 304)).

According to the trademark registration, Hutcheon Brothers first used “the mark” – whatever that means – on February 1, 1922, and since the application was filed on February 25, that’s a fairly reliable date. However, that does not adequately explain this one, at least to me:

Ringtops in this configuration are much harder to find than the full-length versions; this example is nice and clean, and while many collectors turn up a nostril or two at owners’ inscriptions, historians generally don’t have aversions to them as long as they are tastefully done – and when those inscriptions add a bit of context, they help rather than hurt. This example bears a 1922 presentation inscription.

If the trademark registration is accurate, I would expect this one to be marked “Finerpointe,” but it isn’t.

“Finepointer” it is, along with the diamond-shaped hallmark. I still lack definitive evidence that Hutcheon called these the Finepointer until February 1, 1922, then flipped a few switches to call them the Finerpointe, and the transition may have been gradual; after all, 1922 is when my ringtop was engraved for its new owner, not necessarily when it was made. 

During my discussion about the Magazine pencils yesterday, I had mentioned that Hutcheon Brothers was almost exclusively a manufacturing firm which did not buy rebadged products to sell – with the possible  exception of Mabie Todd. What would add credence to the argument that Hutcheon actually made all of these Magazine pencils would be evidence that Hutcheon supplied other manufacturers with its products.

We have that evidence.

First, there was the “ERCO” pencils made for the Eagle Regalia Company – see “The Other Eagle” (August 4, 2021: Volume 7, page 316), shown here alongside a Hutcheon Finepointer:

And then there are these . . . 

Both of these are clearly Hutcheon-made Finerpointe pencils, even though one has a little different finish on the clip.

Both are rebadged for the Edison Pen Company, one with the Edison name and the other marked “Ever Ready.”

I discussed the relationship between the Ever Ready brand in “A Pesky Brand” (June 7, 2021: Volume 7, page 173). Edison pens were sold alongside Ever Ready pencils, we know, in 1922 and perhaps a little earlier; that Edison script logo was first used in 1920. The Ever Ready brand name was passed around to other manufacturers later, after the Finerpointe and likely Hutcheon itself went the way of the dodo.

And then there is this Hutcheon-made pencil, which fits in so nicely with everything I’ve been discussing for the last couple days . . .

The cap is a bit bent up, but all I cared about was the imprint on the barrel:

Hallmark. Apparently the United Jewelers relationship ran strong with Hutcheon Brothers.

So there you have it: Hutcheon made rebadged Finerpointe pencils and supplied them to others, but there is no evidence that Hutcheon sold rebadged products which were supplied to it with the Hutcheon name . . . with the possible exception, of course, of Alfred’s old friends at Mabie, Todd & Co.