Waterman metal-capped pencils

This is an attempt to get things straight in my head. Comments welcome - I decided it was time to figure all of this out after a miraculous "Bader Box" of stuff I bought at the DC Show included these . . .

After I combined these with the ones in my collection and sifted through available catalogs, here's what I think all of these are and when they were made: 

Hundred Year pencils, cataloged in 1943

Cap detail

Stateleigh, as cataloged in 1947 and 1948 (no examples to show you)

Citation, as cataloged in 1947 and 1948

Crusader, as cataloged in 1947 and 1948

Garland, as cataloged in 1947 and maybe 1948

Conquest, as cataloged in 1947 and maybe 1948; a later page in the 1948 catalog shows matching
pens identified only as "Ladies' Pens"

Crusader, as cataloged in 1947 and 1948

14k pencil from "Presentation Sets" in 1947 and 1948; 
1952 price sheet calls these the "Ultima" when sold with a Taperite pen
or the "Ultra" sold with a standard nib pen.
Gold cap only called the "Tiara" in 1952.

Not cataloged in 1947; pens like these were shown in later pages of the 1948 catalog as 
simply "Ladies' Pens," but with a revised clip.

A page near the end of the 1948 catalog shows the example at top as the match for simply a
"Ladies' Pen." At bottom is the one of the pencils from the preceding image. Note the same 
model numbers on the price sticker; clips were apparently revised in late 1947 or 1948

Detail of 1948 clip at top compared to 1947 clip.

The 1948 catalog shows two pencils identified as the "Crusader." An earlier page shows
the same pencil shown earlier, as cataloged in 1947. A later page shows this redesigned version.
Only the larger pencils are shown in 1948; a brown "New Crusader" is shown in a 1950 but
none are shown in the demi size shown here.

This page near the end of the 1948 catalog shows Stateleigh, Garland and Citation pencils
as cataloged in 1947, but with updated clips. The Corinth, however, has been redesigned.

The Corinth, as redesigned for 1948.

This page from a 1951 brochure shows the "Stateleigh," unchanged from 1948, and the Lady Garland
is renamed the "Lady Stateleigh." The Corinth is redesigned again and offered with gold filled caps
as the "Gold Corinth," or simply the "Corinth" with chrome plated caps. The Crusader is shown with silver caps and gold rings, reversed from 1948. Three new models are introduced: the "Lady Corinth" with diamond-shaped patterning, the "Leader," and the "Skywriter 52" fountain pen, described on the following page as the "Ball Pointer" in ballpoint form.

The following page in the 1951 brochure shows pen and pencil sets, but all of the pencils shown
are cap-actuated repeaters, described as "Metermatic" pencils.

"Gold Corinth" and "Corinth" Metermatic pencils, as shown in the 1950 brochure.

Crusader "Metermatic" pencils are frequently found with labels describing them as
"Selfeed" pencils rather than "Metermatic." I haven't found any with silver caps and gold
rings as shown in the 1951 brochure.

"Leader" pencils with a stylized W near the bottom of the caps.

Detail of the Leader's stylized letter W.

Lady Corinth Metermatic or Selfeed pencils as shown in the 1951 brochure.

The pronounced ribbing on the caps of these pencils suggest they were meant to 
accompany the Skywriter 52 or Ball Pointer pens, c. 1951. The top one is a demi-sized
Metermatic/Selfeed repeater; the bottom one is a twist-action pencil with a crude
ringtop soldered onto the top end.

The earliest reference I could find for the "Sapphire" was in late 1952. They were offered in 
matching ballpoint and pencil sets.

Waterman Sapphire pencils, c. 1952-1957.

In 1957, Waterman offered "convertible" pen and pencil sets, also called the "Sapphire."
The pen had an interchangeable ballpoint/liquid lead refill. The pencil was a simple twist-action
affair, perhaps hedging a bet that the liquid lead refills might not work.

Waterman Sapphire pencils to accompany convertible ballpoint/liquid lead pens,
c. 1957.

The Crusader went through one final, unfortunate redesign sometime between 1951 and 1954, when
this incarnation is shown in a 1954 dealer sheet. A demi version was also offered, with a 1948-era clip.

The Waterman C/F (for "cartridge filler") was the American company's last gasp, designed by
Harley Earl of automobile design fame and introduced in late 1953. These remained in production after the company was sold to BIC and was ultimately absorbed by its French subsidiary.

Waterman C/F pencils. These were ordinary twist-action pencils -- the cartridges
were only in the fountain pens they accompanied.

This does not purport to include pencils made in Canada, France, or in the UK.

Wonderful News!

These days, I don't enter as many writing competitions as I once did. The vast majority of these are vanity, pay-to-play scams, in which entering a book is little more than buying gold stickers to put on the covers of unsold books. 

I've never entered the scam awards programs; I only have entered contests in which my books would be judged solely on their merit. That's why I like the Next Generation Indie Book Awards (sometimes referred to as the Sundance Festival for independent books). I've entered the Next Generation six times, with great success: 

• 2020: A Century of Autopoint took a gold medal for Best Overall Design (Non-fiction) and a silver medal in Writing/Publishing.
• 2021: The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 6 won silver in Writing/Publishing
• 2022: The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 7 also won silver in Writing/Publishing
• 2023: A Field Guide to Sheaffer's Pencils won three medals: gold in General Non-fiction, silver in Coffee Table/Photography and silver in the Specialty/Novelty book category.
• 2024: I didn't publish a book that year.
• 2025: Eversharp: Cornerstone of an Industry won two silver medals, one for Best Overall Design (Non-fiction) and one in General Non-Fiction.

And now, for 2026 . . . 

I'm pleased to report that The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 8 has won two silver medals, one for Best Overall Design (Non-fiction) and another in the Specialty/Novelty Book category.

The link to order the book is here.

Six times I've entered my books in the IBA awards, and all six times they have been honored for a total of eleven medals -- two gold and nine silver. 

After each awards reception, authors are invited to have their picture taken with the awards organizers. For the 2025 ceremony, I decided to take all of my prior medals along and wear all of them. Janet snapped this picture while the official photographers were doing their thing:

Janet said I looked like Mark Spitz without the Speedo. Moments later, she took a candid picture as the organizers were amused:

When I registered to attend this year's awards reception in Chicago, there was from what I recall a new question: how many times have you won an award in the IBA awards? Maybe this stunt planted the seed of an idea . . . I don't know how many independent authors have consistently done this well in the Next Generation Awards, but maybe this year I'll find out.

I've sent the IBA an email to ask if I should bring my previous medals along to the awards reception again this year. It would be fun to have eleven pieces of hardware around my neck. 

I promised to leave the Speedo at home.

Volume 8 is here!

I should have posted this earlier- it is always such a whirlwind when a new book comes out.

Volume 8 of this series is now available and was well received at the Baltimore Show, with a third of the press run selling over the course of the weekend. 

The good folks at Total Printing Solutions were fantastic, moving mountains to have things ready for the planned release and doing a spectacular job. These are the same guys who made the Eversharp book for me, and I was so impressed with the quality of their work that I was excited to work with them again.

The link to order the book is here.

As of right now, the only source for the book is yours truly. Normally, I'll simultaneously release a "second printing" edition through IngramSpark, with the idea that their print-on-demand service can reach a wider audience through Amazon and book retailers. I've never liked the product IngramSpark delivers -- there is only one paper option, so it doesn't look as good. In addition, they are slow, expensive, and the way they package books for shipping (especially bulk orders) doesn't protect the corners from getting dinged up. 

And, this time there has been an additional complication: IngramSpark now has a 2-gigabyte maximum for file uploads, and this one tips in at 3 gigabytes and change. My man-behind-the-scenes, David Braughler at Braughler books, tells me that he can't compress the files any more without compromising the quality of the photographs, and he recommended reaching out to my "customer service representative" to explore other file uploading options.

I put that in quotes because their "service" is nothing but chatbots repeatedly telling me how important my question is while failing to answer  it. I will do an IngramSpark edition if they ever get around to answering me, but it's been a month . . . 

I digress. It's for the best, really. The ones TPS made are so much nicer anyway. 

Details about the book are in the last couple posts and on the website - buyers of previous books retain their number in the Order of the Leadheads, and new members are automatically initiated into the Order and will also receive their custom commemorative stickers to place inside the front cover. And then there's the upcoming pen shows: Atlanta, Chicago, Raleigh, DC, Detroit and Ohio are on my calendar for this year. 

Thanks to everyone who has supported this project. This volume, and all my prior books, are proof positive of my conviction that print books, my first love, will never die - the power doesn't need to be on and Google doesn't need to cooperate to enjoy a great story as long as it is immortalized in print. I've always said if any community will keep the art of print alive, it will be those who celebrate putting marks on a piece of paper! 

On Schedule For Release At the Baltimore Show!

I am pleased to report that The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 8 is in the hands of the printer, who promises that I will have books in hand at the Baltimore Pen Show - March 6-8, 2026. For those who will be attending, the Baltimore Show website is here.

To preorder, visit the Legendary Pencil Company website here.

"It's a beauty!" reports Richard Keith, who as always helped with editing and reviewed the proof - the book has a lot of things you won't find here in Internetland.

For starters, I resolved the camera issues that plagued me as I posted the original versions of the articles. I reshot about half of the images from these articles for the print version, so images like this:

Now look like this:

It was a painful process, but well worth it - after all, print (unlike the Internet) is forever, and I really wanted the pictures to be as spectacular as possible. Here's a page from "The Case for Cases":

In previous volumes in this series, my goal was primarily to preserve these posts - just in case Google gets another wild hair and starts deleting images (that's what happened to the articles in the first three volumes). This time, there was so much new information that came to me after the online articles were published that I included numerous updates not included in the original versions. As an example, check out this great blue Pearltex Carter's set that came in:

After I gave a talk for the Aldus Society a couple years ago about my books, one commenter wryly noted in his review that I do things backwards, posting articles online as the rough drafts to crowdsource added information for the print version. That process served me well, and several articles were substantially rewritten based on comments from the loyal peanut gallery. The best example of this was the "Striped" or "Wartime" Duofold article, which barely resembles the original version.

I've added something else to make Volume 8 easier to navigate than previous volumes: a Table of Contents.

As in  previous volumes, this includes a cumulative index for Volumes 1 through 8:

Finally, I included a "Stop Press" page at the end. A couple last-minute finds turned up after layout was complete, and I would have been remiss had I not included them.