A.W. Faber: Pencil Pusher
I literally gasped when I saw these lithographed renderings from A.W. Faber’s late 19th century catalog of pencils and other office supplies. The pamphlet cover states that Faber has factories in France and Germany and “houses” in London, Paris and Berlin. But the company address is at 78 Reade Street, right here in NYC. I applaud the University of Houston libraries: another superb digital archive. I came to this collection first via Tom Lynch’s blog Went Sketching. One of his posts then led me to the over-the-top obsessed German pencil-centric blog Lexikaliker. I love the interwebs.
Wednesday 04.11.12 at 5:34 pm
These are just brilliant!!
Thursday 04.12.12 at 12:00 pm
Stunning!
Sunday 04.15.12 at 12:44 pm
Thank you for linking to my blog 🙂
Tuesday 05.22.12 at 10:18 pm
this is so you! you could have drawn these! amazing!
Wednesday 10.24.12 at 8:43 pm
Dear Ms. Easton,
In plate 12A of “Faber’s siberian lead pencils” I have in my hand something that is very close to #5003.
I cannot find it anywhere else online and your blog is the closest I’ve gotten. The pencil is very thin, black paint on outside, round lead, has that ball on top (which looks like ivory), reads: A.W. Faber No.4 133 William Ste New York
Its personalized to a R. A. Porter
If you can help me determine any more about this pencil I found I’d appreciate it. I can send pictures.
Thank you!