I Take It All Back

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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I haven’t said very nice things about the successors to the Camel Pen Company: the Newark Pen Company, Secretary Pen Company and Union Pen Company all produced cheesy metal advertising pencils with “floaty” sections in the middle -- which, don’t get me wrong, I love just as much – but which just lack the . . . dignity of an early Camel piece.

Even Marc Shiman, a devotee of all these related brands, commented unfavorably on Camel’s devolution into oblivion, once commenting that “Newark Pen Company made awful injection molded fountain pens which they branded Secretary.”

However, there is an earlier chapter in the Camel history . . . Secretary Pen Company was not only the successor to Camel, it also preceded it, with the company’s owner, Joseph V. Wustman (sometimes spelled Wuestman), founding the concern around 1925.  Shiman suggests that Wustman merged Newark and Camel.

This piece would date to before that merger:

This Eversharp-looking pencil caught my eye a while ago.  That rib up near the cap always has me looking closer to see if there are clues to tie them in to similar pencils marked Ever-Rite, Bonnwear and Keene (see, respectively, http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-evidence-continues-to-build.html, http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2014/10/wear-it-well.html and http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-couple-keene-bits-of-new-information.html).

On closer examination, this one has a really, really nice imprint:

This pencil is more like the Keene, lacking the Sheafferesque pull-out eraser.   At least now I won’t shudder when I hear “Newark Pen Company” and “metal pencil” in the same sentence.

The Secretary Pen Company

The Secretary Pen Company of Newark, New Jersey was left out of The Catalogue. I don’t know why, really, because I had a few examples, but for whatever reason, I forgot to include it. The company has an interesting pedigree: Joseph V. Wustman founded the Camel Pen Company in 1935, but Camel quickly succumbed during the depression, closing its doors in 1938.

Ever the optimist, Wustman acquired the equipment and tooling from Camel and started a new business called the Newark Pen Company. Newark Pen made some nice pens called the "Secretary," but within a few years the company apparently renamed itself "Secretary Pen Company" and started to turn out advertising pieces that were, well, kitchy.

That bunch I picked up at Springfield included several of the typical examples made by the Secretary Pen Co. . .

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.

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