I don’t have an exact date for these pencils but there are some clues. The packaging and design share some features with this box, which I believe dates back to the ’20s. This announcement, dated 1921 from Eberhard Faber, mentions their Sales Book pencils:
Since these pencils are polished gray, then they were likely made prior to 1921 (NB – I wonder what a “steno shading pencil” is).
This is the first gray-polished pencil I’ve seen, at least from this time period. Looking closely you can see two different shades—I wonder if this had something to do with the switch to yellow polish.
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You really captured the shiney ferrules! This pencil is gorgeous! I too would like to see more grey finishes. The art pencils I used in high school in the mid-90s were different shades of grey for their grades (after I ran out of my Venuses!). Takes me back… 🙂
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Agreed! And perhaps we can make a distinction between the two shades—one being grey, and the other, gray. 😉 (An as of yet undiscovered sub-sub-sub-sub heading in the Tractatus.)
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“Wovon man nicht mit Bleistift schreiben, darüber muss man schweigen.” 😉
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Sean, thank you for this post. I was curious about Dixon Order Book pencils, which I think are in the same category as these “Sales Book” pencils, and the blurb on the box here gives me an idea how they write 🙂
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