For What It's . . . Worth

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

A few months ago, I posted an article concerning a large flattop pencil marked with a W in a square superimposed over a feather, the hallmark for the Worth Featherweight Pen Company (

http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-one-pennant-rejected.html).  It was only because I had just written that article that this one grabbed my attention online:

The clip is marked “Worth,” with a W circled by a wreath above the name:

I’m not prepared to say that this is the same Worth, but I do think this one also has it’s origins in New York.  Unlike the one shown in my earlier Worth article, I don’t believe Conklin had anything at all to do with this one.  If this one bears similarity to anything, it’s to some pencils marked Morrison and Eclipse.

And also to these

These two, marked “Premo” and “Deluxe,” were introduced here five years ago (see http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2012/08/keeping-it-light.html) and, with the exception of a slightly different clip, they are the same as this “Worth,” pattern and all.

I’m noticing a pattern of names associated with value here . . . worth, premo, deluxe.  

Thoughts Regarding a Few Connections

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

I’ve had this one laying around for a long time, trying to make some sense out of it:

The celluloid has some great depth, and the clip is marked “Deluxe” in a nice, Old-English style script:

It is clearly from the same product lines as the Gold Bond.  Here it is alongside two examples, one in almost the same (but not quite as “deluxe”) color, and another sporting that same clip.  Note that the Deluxe has an extra trim band at the top, and all three have that black top piece with some nice detailing traditionally attributed to C.E. Barrett and National Pen Products:

However, the evidence I pieced together suggests that if these weren’t made by Rex, who clearly made earlier models of the Gold Bond, they might have been made by Sheaffer, which appears to have very quietly turned out Gold Bonds before later models were introduced which were clearly rebadged Eversharps and Watermans:

(For the whole scoop on that story, start with http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/08/maybe-big-three-out-of-four.html . . . from there, you can hop back to the first part of that series).

Now let’s turn the conversation up a notch:

Note that same black end with detailing at the top end?  These are essentially thinner versions of the Gold Bond, with different clips.  Two of these pencils – the longer ones – are ones you are probably familiar with.   They are imprinted “The Monogram Pen / Unbreakable / Sold Only at the Rexall Store.”  But that shorter one – like the Deluxe, with an extra trim ring at the top, says something entirely different:

The Joseph Lipic Pen Company of St. Louis.

I don’t know what all of this means.  Lipic clearly made some pens and pencils, but the company may also have acquired product for a short time from Sheaffer, Rex or whomever was turning out Monogram Pens.  As for Rexall, the United Drug Co. acquired product from DeWitt-LaFrance (remember the Signet?) as well as from Moore and Eagle, so it’s entirely possible to throw Rex or Sheaffer into the mix.

Chalk this article up as throwing out one piece to a giant puzzle and hoping someday I figure out at least which puzzle it’s supposed to fit in.

Keeping It Light

Between work in the office and the yard, it’s been difficult finding the time to put up posts lately, so for the next few days I’ll just introduce a few that, beyond "here they are," I don’t have much to say about.

For today, here’s a pair of cheaper metal pencils that look identical at first . . .

NOTE:  This article is now included in the print version of The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, available anywhere you buy books, or also from The Legendary Lead Company.

To order, here's the link:  Volume 1 at Legendary Lead Company