Collectors and accumulators of woodcase pencils have long looked for display options, and the choices are few. As well as offering a collection of 500 colour pencils, Felissimo is a rare vendor of display cases for pencils. Today we’ll look at their “Aurora” and “Flower Vase” models.
I am sure that some craftsperson out there could also come up with something! There are a lot of low cost cases and displays for fountain pens out there – pencils also deserve some attention.
First, the Aurora, which holds 100 pencils between two fitted acrylic sheets. These photos show the assembly stage on a desk, though the display is meant for a wall – probably a white wall to best show the pencils.
The sheets fit together with acrylic nuts and bolts. Probably no explanation is necessary, though an instruction sheet is supplied. Round modern standard sized pencils seem to fit best, and hexagonal and triangular pencils also work. But – no oversize pencils, no pencils with ferrules and erasers, and no square pencils.
I thought the Aurora would be great for displaying some of my favourite novelty pencils. These favourites all seem to come from the UK – Japanese pencils such as the Pantone and Japanese Railway tributes series are in square format.
Well, I think it is taking shape nicely, though 100 turns out to be a large number. I’ve filled only about a third of the case and I’m out of pencils.
The view from the top:
The entire case from the top:
The Flower Vase displays hold 25 pencils each, and are a non-acrylic plastic. It seems to be a pretty good way of keeping a number of pencils tidy:
You can of course use everyday pencils, such as these California Republic Prospectors:
Displaying vintage pencils is of course another possibility. Starting with major manufacturers in Germany and Austria, I was surprised that I couldn’t find that many to display. I may have to rethink this!
Something else to note is that, especially with the vintage pencils, positioning the imprints is key, and not easy to accomplish in a satisfactory way. It is easy to put a pencil in, but if you want to adjust it, hard to remove.
The products are nice though not perfect, and I hope to show some photos when (and if) I figure out what to put in them!