With Faber-Castell’s 250th anniversary three years away, preparations have no doubt begun for some very special pencil products from the world’s oldest pencil manufacturer.
Here are three of my ideas for fantastic pencil offerings I would love to see:
1. A historic woodcase pencil series, with perhaps five different eras (one for each half-century) of pencils recreated in their original dimensions and finishes with modern materials.
2. A series of pencils in an extensive variety of woods. (This idea from the catalogue Pencils)
3. A pencil box – a modern, adult pencil box meant for a desk that could house a gross of pencils, in wood with silver or platinum hardware.
Any other ideas?
did they just HAVE an anniversary? like their 100th something or other?
One of their products, the Castell 9000 pencil, had a 100th anniversary in 2005. But the company itself dates from 1761.
I’d like to see a very nice adult pencil box as well, which isn’t made for kids, like all the ones I currently see at local stores (pink and blue..?). A couple of recreated pencils from back in the day,would also be nice.
I would also welcome pencils that have been recreated in their original design, including the lettering, but without a barcode (maybe they could adopt Caran d’Ache’s solution with the barcode on a small piece of removable shrinking foil).
For the 225th Anniversary Faber-Castell made a set of six pencils similiar Gunther’s suggestion. The pencils were named Rokoko, Empire, Biedermeier, Jugendstil, Jahrhundertwende and Art Deko. The set was sold in an ugly card box. And I’m not sure if it was the real original design, I guess it was faked.
For the 100th anniversary of the Castell 9000 pencil they made a tin box with a dozen of 9000 pencils including a green eraser.
Let’s wait and see…
Thank you for all the comments.
Frank, the historical information is especially appreciated.
Frank, if you’re by any chance reading this, have you seen the Staedtler ‘historical pencil’?
There is a photo here:
http://web-what.com/magazine/stationery/cat79/staedtler_historical_pencil.html
You sound like you know your pencils. :-)
No, I haven’t seen this set so far, but good to know. Maybe it was made for the 100th anniversary of the Mars Lumograph in 2000 (Mars was copyrighted as a brand name in 1900).
Unfortunately there are a lot of Staedtler pencils (and other things) not sold in Germany.
Okay, thanks for taking a look.