Hogey Goodness

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One school of thought, when you encounter wadded-up paperwork that’s more than 100 years old, is that it should be left alone.  “Do no harm” is a common sentiment when it comes to messing with things that might be lost forever if disturbed.

I interpret “do no harm” from a different perspective.  If a piece of paper is disintegrating from age anyway, I feel the only benefit to leaving it alone is to enjoy a fading glimpse of how a box’s contents looked a century ago.  Fading, and inevitably nearing its end.

That, in my opinion, is its own sort of harm.  Given a choice, I think there is more value in preserving the information a piece of paper can pass on than in the paper itself.  Document, document, document is my mantra – if a piece of paper is falling apart anyway, I think it is best that it disintegrate while giving its last full measure to pass on whatever message it contains.

With the contents of this Hoge box, this was going to be a challenge.  As I mentioned yesterday, no amount of care during previewing could prevent more bits of the paperwork from breaking off like snow.  It had at best one last unfolding to see what it said. Here is the paperwork as it appeared in the catalog:

I keep letter-sized, PVC-free document holders on hand for just this purpose, but wrangling old pages into them to flatten them out is always difficult, particularly when they are deteriorated this badly.  I hold the open end of the plastic frame open, then starting from the bottom of the paper, I slide it in as far as possible, working little folds out as I go.  This paper was nearly torn in half and much of the top was already gone, but after ten or so tense minutes (taking nary a breath), I was finally able to exhale, as it flattened out enough to reveal its contents:

The paperwork, like the box, had nothing to do with the Pearce pencil around which it was wrapped . . . but fortunately, it had everything to do with the box.  “Modern” in this context had nothing whatsoever to do with A.A. Waterman, which at one point adopted the name “Modern Pen Company” (the full story on that clarification appeared here in Volume 3, page 169).

As illustrated in that previous article, Hoge’s “No. 500 Modern” propelling pencils were introduced by the company in Geyer’s Stationer on July 15, 1920:

The announcement indicated that as of that writing, Hoge was already “making deliveries” of the No. 500 in silver finish, but that “Their full line of pencils, consisting of different finishes and styles, will be ready not later than September 1st.”

I’ve never seen a Hoge No. 500 Modern in anything other than a plain, nickel plated barrel, nor in different sizes or configurations from what is shown.

As for the paperwork - now that it is in its protective case, it’s possible to remove it but I am doubtful I could do it in one piece.  It has now served its purpose - communicating a little information, now to be preserved electronically as well as in books.  It now has legs and will still convey its message long after I’m gone, for much longer than it would had I left in that box to decay into oblivion.

With respect to the box, I have now installed a No. 500 Modern inside it . . . 

And it now rests comfortably in the “M” section on the wall o’ pencils, a carryover from the days when I wasn’t sure where to put the “Modern” other than alphabetized by the name on it:

Maybe I should move it to the “H” section for Hoge, or at least down to the “P” section alongside its better known Hoge product, the “Pal” line of pencils.

Hmmm... that reminds me that there’s something else I need to show you ...

A Fascinating Suggestion

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.

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When this one popped up online, I questioned whether I know too much about this stuff or nothing at all:

The pencil itself is easy to identify – it’s identical to the “Modern,” made by the Hoge Manufacturing Company, makers of the ubiquitous “Pal” line of pencils (not to be confused with A.A. Waterman’s “Modern Pen Company” – for that full story, see Volume 2, page 159-161).

What’s curious is the price band: Redipoint Ingersoll, model 210E.

The band is easy to date with some precision, given the history of the Redipoint brand.  In 1922, Brown and Bigelow associated with William H. Ingersoll, recently
out of a job after the failure of the Ingersoll Watch Company.  Shortly after, The Ingersoll Redipoint Company was organized, and Redipoints were offered under this label until January, 1926, when Herbert Bigelow reacquired the brand after his release from federal prison (for more on that story, see Volume 4, page 335). 

Redipoint price bands aren’t adhered to the barrel, so I suppose a random Ingersoll Redipoint band could have been swapped over to a Hoge “Modern” if some unscrupulous seller wanted to enhance the value of an otherwise ordinary pencil – but I don’t think that’s what happened.  First, I gently moved the band down a bit and noted decades of grime built up around it - if this band was added to an unrelated pencil, it was added a good long while ago.

Then there’s a curious detail concerning the pencil itself.  While every other example of the Modern I’ve seen has this same imprint:

My Redipoint-banded example lacks any markings whatsoever:

Finally, while I have several Redipoints with price bands, none are identified as model 210E.

Something clicked in my head.  The accommodation clips found on the Hoge Modern are just like what you’ll find on early Redipoint pencils . . . and I’ve never been able to pinpoint who made those early examples (although I’ve always doubted a calendar and advertising specialty company would have done so on its own – at least, at first). 

Does this example suggest that the Hoge Manufacturing Company made those first Redipoints for Brown and Bigelow, and after the Redipoint became a hit, Ingersoll Redipoint acquired its former supplier and sold remaining Hoge stock under the Redipoint name? 

It’s thin, but I’ve seen thinner. 

Enough with the Musing

A year and a half ago, I posted an article here about the "Modern" (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2013/06/modern.html):

The pencil itself was conclusively traced back to the Hoge Manufacturing Company by the patent date imprinted on the cap, as well as the cap’s distinctive look which was protected by a separate Hoge design patent. But the use of the name "Modern" had me a little confused and left me wondering whether Hoge might have made pencils for A.A. Waterman & Co., which traded under the name "Modern Pen Company" (emphatically so, after the courts ordered A.A. Waterman to add "not connected with the L.E. Waterman Company" after its name).

The time this would have been made – right around 1920 – was a fascinating time in A.A. Waterman’s history. The company was reorganized as the Chicago Safety Pen Company in 1921, and the companion pencils the new company offered were marketed as the EVRDA (that’s a play on "everyday"):

The name is different, the outward appearance is different (no Hoge design-patented cap here), and thanks to that skeleton view in the catalog, we can compare the guts of an EVRDA to a Modern:

Notice that instead of a coiled wire for the screw drive, the EVRDA has a drive tube which has a spiral cut into it – the little stuff like that is the difference between infringement and innovation. These are two different pencils. Does that rule out the possibility that Hoge also made a different pencil for A.A. Waterman? No, I don’t have any idea who made the EVRDA – in fact, I don’t have any reason to think that the Chicago Safety Pen Company didn’t make their own pencils yet.

But I DO know now that Hoge’s "Modern" had nothing to do with A.A. Waterman.


To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 3, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.

"Modern"

Since my article yesterday concerned A.A. Waterman & Co., this seems like the perfect time to bring up something else I’ve never been quite sure about. I’ve found two of these over the years:

At the top of each of these is imprinted "Modern / Pat. Jan. 20, 1920":

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 2, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.