A Victorian Hoard (Part Two)

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I had high hopes for a few items in this lot, but without the benefit of any written description, I had to bid  without knowing for certain whether anything in there would be worth adding to my collection:

My hopes were greatly exceeded . . . this bunch contributed seven solid additions to my collection:

I wasn’t expecting much out of that top pencil.  Hard rubber utilitarian pieces like that are fairly common, and I don’t keep them around unless they are marked.  Most are attributed to Cross or Eagle, but this one had more definitive branding: A.T. Cross:

The second one down I couldn’t wait to see and handle.  Many of these are unmarked, but more often they have at least Albert G. Bagley’s January 1, 1850 patent date on the middle section.  Sometimes, you get really lucky and find a solid imprint on the top end, and I have examples from Mabie Todd, Rauch, Kurtz & Moneghan and others . . . such as . . . 

“Fairchilds Manfr,” for Leroy W. Fairchild.  At first, a flash of disappointment – I have a Fairchild like this, also in sterling.  But when I compared the two, I was in for a pleasant surprise.  The new one is so much smaller:

Finding one of these at all is a longshot - but having two in my collection, in different sizes?   Priceless . . .

The new one, just like my other one, has a correct Fairchild nib - the OCD collector in me didn’t even flinch that I skipped a size in between, although I’ll admit that I’ll be keeping a sharp eye out for a number 3 now – and wondering if sizes 5 and up exist!

That third one down was my primary motivation for chasing the whole bunch.  I could see that it had a perpetual calendar at the top end, and from what I could tell it appeared to be an Addison: one of America’s earliest manufacturers, and one of my favorites.  When I got it in hand, it certainly fit in well with the other Addisons I’ve been able to find:

I knew that even if the seller had a loupe and took the time to identify what was in this lot, without some experience he or she likely wouldn’t find an Addison mark – they are so tiny that unless you know where to look and what you are looking for, they are easy to miss.  Loupe in hand, I scoured the barrel hoping to find that microscopic mark in the usual place, tucked in one of the flutes near the top:

To no avail.  I had almost resigned myself to saying “probably an Addison” when I took a closer look at the calendar, just to admire the artistry.  

Ah.  The last week of every week is Addison & Co., plain as day.  

Next up are two black hard rubber combination dip pen/pencils.  The larger of the two is marked Fairchild on the extender:

I didn’t have one in that material - the other two in my collection are all gold-filled:

The smaller of the black hard rubber combos from this lot has a well known name on it, but packs a curve ball:

Imprinted on the hard rubber is a simple imprint: Edward Todd & Co.

Ordinarily I would expect an Edward Todd imprint to be accompanied by a patent date of December 19, 1871; this one doesn’t, and with good reason.  This one doesn’t appear to have the 1871 patent works inside: note that the pencil is extended with the extender fully pulled out.  Patent 1871 Edward Todds only advance the pencil when the extender is pulled back, rotated and pushed nearly all the way back into the barrel:

While this new Edward Todd combo is a very typical configuration, it is definitely an atypical arrangement on an Edward Todd.

Second from the bottom in that opening shot is a pencil I really hoped would have some markings, since it strongly resembles the profile of a Waterman “checkbook pen” with its nail-shaped profile.  The barrel texture is close to an July 11, 1899 patent Eagle pencil (see Volume 2, page 127 for a discussion of Frank McEntyre’s design patent for that diamond pattern):

Alas, it is completely unmarked, except for “Sterling.”  I suppose the shape of that nozzle could be Eagle, but then again, it could be Cross.  Or Edward Todd.  There just isn’t enough there to know for sure:

I might have done a catch and release with this one, but it has an interesting feature that wasn’t apparent from the auction pictures and enamored me a bit:

Last - and the opposite of least - is that gold filled magic pencil at the bottom of the picture.  

It has a better imprint that most of the ones along these lines:

“Hicks Pat March 21, ‘71.”  Most of the time pencils bearing that patent date have only the date and lack the Hicks name; the reference is to patent 112,917 which was issued to William S. Hicks himself.  I showed off three Hicks 1871 patent pencils here in 2017 (Volume 5, page 101), and an updated group shot of all the ones in my collection shows something about this new one:

That plain gold filled barrel may be the least intricate one I have found – but it is the largest.

Wow, what a haul, I thought to myself as I finished unpacking everything.  Wow - seven new pencils, plus a couple toothpick/earspoons added in one fell swoop, I thought.  And then I did something that might seem ridiculous.  The next morning I was back online, browsing through the auctions again . . . like I needed more stuff. 

Huh.  That same seller had listed another lot of pens and pencils . . . 

Reaching Waaaay Back

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The earliest design for a mechanical pencil was patented in England in 1822 by Sampson Mordan and John Isaac Hawkins:

In the United States, the first patents for mechanical pencils were issued in 1829 - one in April to Joseph Saxton of Philadelphia, and another in July to William Jackson, also from Philly. Unfortunately, the 1836 patent office fire destroyed these documents, so all we know about these today comes from an index compiled from the charred remains of the office. Also destroyed was John Hague’s 1833 patent, Henry Withers’ 1834 patent for a pen/pencil combo, and Elwood Meeds’ 1835 patent.

Miraculously, John Bogardus’ 1833 patent was one of the few which survived the fire; in fact, it’s the earliest American patent for any writing instrument to have survived:

Next is Jacob Lownds in 1836, and then we have Thomas Addison of New York, whose patent number 736 was issued on May 10, 1838:

That eighth guy is as far back as I’ve been able to reach:

It practically takes a microscope to find the imprints on diminutive Victorian pencils like these:

This one has a lapis-like stone set in the crown:

Since then, I’ve managed to find two other Addisons, the most recent one coming from the Philadelphia show – the bottom one in this picture:

Unlike the "Addison’s Patent" example, these are marked simply "Addison":

I’m not inclined to think that these were made after the Addison patent expired in 1852 - that seems too late for these. Maybe they predate the patent - that would be exciting, but there’s no way to prove it.

It would be great to find marked examples of pencils made by each of these early manufacturers. Maybe they were unmarked, but maybe there are surviving examples out there - I’ve seen one example of a Lownds (number 7), but no trace of any of the others predating the Addisons.

Well, almost no trace . . .

This trade token, dated 1837, turned up at the DC show. It’s well documented among coin collectors, but I’d never seen one before. On the reverse are the words "S. Maycock & Co. / 35 City Hall Place N.Y. / Everpointed Pencil Case Manufacturers Saml. Maycock John Hague."

Hague was awarded two patents, the latter of which was issued after this token was minted, in 1839. The former, issued in 1833, was the third pencil patent issued in the U.S., and I think it would be odd if they were unmarked – since Maycock & Co. was minting tokens to advertise them!