I love pencils, and pencil boxes, but I am not a pencil connoisseur--so I did not know, in finding this box (in southern Maine this week), how early (sometime between 1855-77) and how notable it is among pencil aficionados!
Faber polygrade pencils, launched in 1837, were important in offering pencils according to a system of standard grades, and established the Faber name globally. They were also the first by Faber to use the Conté/Hardmuth process of blending graphite with clay, an improvement over the use of raw graphite. (Information drawn from the Pencil Talk blog) Though much faded, the embossed gold foil on black exterior of this box mentions prizes awarded in London, New York and Paris (1851, 53, and 55) And inside, along the left, the grades of the original set of seven pencils are indicated: BBB, BB, B, F, HB, H, HH, with those grades described on the papered interior of the lid.
Six pencils--two of them partial, split horizontally down the middle, exposing the lead inside--are here; five of them original to the set and one of them, the second HH, also Faber, marked Siberian lead, known to be of the purest graphite ever mined and I believe of approximately the same age. All of the originals stamped with the Faber logo and on the reverse "E. Faber 133 William St. NY", which Faber departed in 1877 so they are clearly prior to that. All used to various degrees, as shown. With a metal push button mechanism to open and snap the box securely closed is still functioning. In one of my lives I'd just be a dealer of early watercolor boxes and papers and writing and drawing tools, and this box of pencils for me very much embodies the appeal!
7 1/4" x 2 1/2" x 5/8". General wear and obvious fading to the gold on face of box as evident, pencils used to various extents, two split down the centers horizontally as show, and one (HH) not original to set. All as found.
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