Category: pencils

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The world’s oldest known pencil

In almost every print and online source I’m aware of, the oldest known woodcase pencil is said to be this one:


© Faber-Castell

It appears to be a partially woodcased carpenter pencil, and is on display at the Faber-Castell headquarters.

Abbey Sy has a photo rich report of a trip to Faber-Castell headquarters. Transcribing the English version of the display plaque shown in a photo, it says:

“Oldest known pencil
“This wood encased graphite pencil from the 17th century was found in the 1960s during restoration work on the beams of a house in Langenburg (Swabia). This pre-industrial pencil, made of lime wood with the methods usual at the time, was very probably used by carpenters in their work. It has been in the Faber-Castell Collection since 1994.”

But there are other known very old pencils. The Japan Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association and the Tokyo Pencil Association Shogokai cite two:

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) had this pencil, which is said to have been presented by Dutch visitors:


© Tokyo Pencil Association

The pencil is held in the Kunozan Toshogu Museum in Shizuoka Prefecture. Electron microscope analysis reveals the graphite is from 16th century Mexico.

In 1974, it was discovered that Date Masamume (1567-1636) owned a pencil:


© Tokyo Pencil Association

This pencil has just stub of graphite at the tip and an advanced feature – a cap! Found in Masamune’s mausoleum at Zuihoden, it isn’t clear to me if the pencil was reburied.

To summarize, Ieyasu’s pencil is older than the Langenburg pencil, and the Masamune pencil is probably (though not definitively) older than the Langenburg pencil. The better known “oldest known pencil” has company.

The implication that the Spanish empire had 16th century access to a graphite source is also worth further examination by historians.

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Did lead pencils exist?

Lead Pencil, circa 1400© The Trustees of the British Museum, usage via the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

Did lead (Pb) pencils exist? This notion has been regularly dismissed as a myth.

Two years ago, I saw a display of three lead pencils in a special exhibition at the British Library. They were clearly marked “Lead Pencils” by the curators and dated at approximately the year 1400. No woodcase pencils were displayed.

An important point here is that professional museum curators at a top global institution have deemed these objects (one pictured above) pencils, with no footnotes or asterisks.

The Pencil by Henry Petroski has a chapter, “Before the Pencil”, which details the use of reeds and feathers as early writing and marking tools, as well as the stylus, made of bone, metal, or wood. Some might say these lead pencils are styluses. They no doubt are, but I believe we need to differentiate two categories of stylus.

The first category is a stylus that uses pressure to make a mark: A harder surface makes an impression on a softer surface. So an iron stylus marking a wax tablet would be such an example. (Petroski notes these implements were able to double as weapons, and fulfilled this dual function in Roman times.)

The second type of stylus may have the same appearance, but is functionally different – a stylus of copper, silver, or lead has an intrinsic marking ability, and leaves a mark though the depositing of the element onto paper with contact. This category of writing implement is still made today.

The first type of stylus is definitely not a pencil because it can not leave a dark mark on paper – but how about the second? The photographed lead pencil is in the dimensions of a modern pencil. (Some thin (e.g. 2 or 3 mm diameter) metal silverpoint styluses are not – they are clearly too thin and can not be handheld in the manner of a pencil. They are something other than a pencil.

A very related matter also circles the definition of a pencil – must it be woodcased? Animal skins, string, and paper have been used to wrap graphite cores. A post here on paper wrapped pencils remains very popular, and they are still manufactured. Any many pencil companies make woodless pencils. At this blog, the term “woodcase pencil” has often been used to differentiate from mechanical pencils, but includes more than just the modern glued slat pencil. A working definition of pencils can reasonably include the outliers like extruded pencils, paper wrapper (and recycled paper) pencils, and woodless pencils.

If the definition is focused on a pencil being a handheld round cylinder – then bingo – this is a 620 year old early pencil.

So were there lead pencils? I hope that I’ve supported the notion that the answer isn’t a simple no – it depends on assumptions and definitions. I would love to know if the British Library had any internal discussions about their use of the term.

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The Bartleby

The Bartleby Website

With thanks to Matthias of Bleistift fame, I have learned of an exceptional website devoted to writing culture, The Bartleby. Upon first view, I was surprised by the mixture of interviews, travel, and literary content. The website is German/English bilingual, with a very attractive design.

After some browsing, I was wondering whether it was a publishing house or an international airline that had put together this amazing site. It was neither – I thought the quality and design of the site meant there must be a commercial basis, but I was wrong. There is no advertising or industrial affiliation – it is an amazing high level personal contribution.

As a Canadian, the latest article Artists on the go | See how Sophie Mutlu, illustrator, and Peter Zenkl, photographer, live and work in Yukon, Canada was of particular interest.

This young couple, after a VW motorbus ride from Mexico found themselves in a very remote part of northern Canada and chose to stay. An interesting thing is that very few remote communities of 25,000 are served by international flights – yet the Yukon capital of Whitehorse is served by a seasonal flight to Frankfurt! (You can read the comments for speculation about how this flight might be viable.)

There is even a YouTube video with 700K views on this unusual flight:

So I suspect there is a Germany to Yukon connection worthy of further exploration.

I like The Bartleby’s explorations of literary hotels and writing culture. It is most recommended!

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Howard Koch’s favorite pencil

Howard Koch, a Hollywood blacklisted screenwriter who may be best known as a co-writer of Casablanca, paid tribute to the role of pencils in his work:

“On my desk, sharpened by my patient secretary, were a dozen brown pencils. Eagle Number One. I’d learned to have great respect for these pencils and use them to this day. Sometimes they seem to take off on their own with me merely holding them, like the marker on a ouija board. The pencil obediently wrote down the two words that open every screen play — Fade In.”

Howard Koch, Casablanca: Script and Legend, Overlook Press, Woodstock, N.Y., 1973.

Eagle was a pencil company and “Number One” is a grade, so the exact pencil being referred to isn’t clear. What is extremely clear is Koch’s appreciation for these tools. A pencil having it’s own life, to “take off on their own”, is an engaging line of thought.

My thanks to Gerald for providing the citation.

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Happy 25th Anniversary to The Pencil Pages!

Not many websites make it the age of twenty-five. Today, let’s recognize The Pencil Pages, one of the first websites devoted to the woodcase pencil. Author Doug Martin created a website with articles, an often cited (and still not surpassed) directory of pencil manufacturers, photos of pencils, and a classified section.

The classified section at Pencil Pages (still going) was the first online place I’m aware that fostered a basic conversation about pencils, with posters speaking to one another.

Congratulations on this significant anniversary.

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Fabula Organic Pencil

Fabula Organic Pencil

Constructed from coffee, tea, and flowers, the Fabula Organic Pencil is definitely a challenger in the sustainable pencil category. It is also tactile, aromatic, and visually interesting.

The Fabula appears to be the sole product of a Croatian company of the same name. It has won a red dot and other design awards. I’m not sure of the company’s health after the pandemic – they have mainly marketed the pencil as an environmentally friendly corporate gift. At retail, it has sold for $US5-6 per pencil, so it is not cheap.

As far as I can tell, the pencil is not extruded, but rather baked around the lead. The “cap” of the pencil contains seeds – my particular pencil has Golden Forest Berry.

Fabula Organic Pencil

I was fearing that the lead would be “novelty pencil” grade, but it isn’t – it has a nice smooth slightly dark lead.

Fabula Organic Pencil

The pencil has some instructions, plus a warning. Sharpening can be done over a potted plant, as the shavings will be nutritious for the plant. When the pencil becomes a stub, that stub can be soaked in water for two days, forming a seed solution that can be planted.

Maybe you can guess the warning? Being water soluble, you’ll want to keep the pencil dry.

The pencil has a heft, and is imperfectly round – my pencil seemed a bit squished near the point.

The pencil is wrapped in a piece of paper containing environmental tips and further information about the pencil.

Fabula Organic Pencil

I like the Fabula, and am very curious about how it will wear over time.

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