From the Dead Letter Office

I remember picking this one up at the Baltimore Show a few years ago - I think it was with a bunch of other stuff, and I don’t think I looked at it closely until I was sorting through things back at my table.

It appears to be American, and from the engraving and overall styling, I’d say it was made some time in the 1830s or at the latest, the early 1840s. When I got my loupe in hand, I fully expected to find it marked Addison, Lownds, or one of the other New York pioneers in the industry. Instead, I found “Smith.”

I’ve only written about one man named Smith over the years: Horace M. Smith, whose namesake firm was documented in “H.M. Smith & Co.”  (April 6, 2018: Volume 5, page 218). 

I don’t think that’s our Smith. As detailed in that last article, what we know about the history of H.M. Smith comes from a detailed report published in The American Stationer on February 20, 1896. The account is a eulogy rather than a retrospective, written on the occasion of the firm’s insolvency, and it says this about the early history of H.M. Smith & Co.:

“[The firm] was founded by Mr. Smith and C.R. Bassett, who began business in 1865 under the name of C.R. Bassett, 256 Broadway, afterward at 309 ½ Broadway.  Mr. Bassett retired and the firm was succeeded by H.M. Smith & Co. (composed of H.M. Smith alone), 96 Duane street, afterward Cortlandt street, corner Broadway, where it remained fifteen years.  About 1888 the firm removed to 83 Nassau Street.  Messrs. Bateman and Frazier were admitted as partners in 1879 and 1885, respectively.”

A pencil marked only “Smith” suggests that if our man Horace made it, it was during a time when he had no partners. This report says he went by H.M. Smith & Co.  after Bassett retired (working backwards, that was in 1873, fifteen years before 1888) – even when he was working alone. Besides, my Smith pencil looks like it is much older.

What about before Smith associated with Bassett in 1865? There’s a few reasons I don’t think that’s right, either. The 1896 account in The American Stationer is really about Horace M. Smith, who was well respected in the industry and whose ultimate insolvency was viewed as being an unfortunate incident . . . an account that begins with Smith going into business with C.R. Bassett under the Bassett name, rather than his own, suggests that is where his career started, as an employee or apprentice.

The 1867 New York Directory supports this. C.R. Bassett is listed at the Broadway address provided in the 1896 account, in “pens.” Horace Smith, on the other hand, is listed without any occupation.

Working backwards, Horace is listed at that same address in 1864, again with no occupation. Bassett is not listed at all. In 1853, still much later than I estimate my Smith pencil was made, Horace is not listed at all.

In short this pencil could only have been made by Horace M. Smith if (1) it is much newer than it appears and the 1896 report is wrong that Smith went by H.M. Smith & Co. even when he was on its own, or (2) Horace was making pencils somewhere, just not in New York.

I think it’s more likely that it was a different Smith who made this pencil, and that’s a real needle in a haystack to figure out. Even in the 1850s, scouring all of the Smiths year by year looking for pencilmakers, pens or even jewelers is a daunting task . . . and while most pen and pencil manufacturing was happening in New York during the time, not all of it was. 

Maybe the Smith I’m looking for wasn’t in New York at all.