UK made pencils are my main ‘thing’, but another one of my main collection directions is boxed ‘writing’ sets. Most major pencil makers produced really excellent sets, usually containing a mix of pencils, nib holders, erasers etc. Wolff made a very early example in the late 1800s which I’ve been hunting for forever.
Some day I’ll get round to posting my Venus pencil sets collection, but at the moment that’s a mountain too high to climb. This post is meant to be a catalyst to dusting off some of these items and just getting them on the blog for people to see and then refer to against their own sets. Plenty more sets to come, if I can ever get round to it.
There really isn’t much in the way of interesting history on these sets, so what I’ve done is simply hunt out as many catalogue images of the items as possible so we can see them together. All images were taken from the 1914 catalogue. This catalogue was an American copy, so there are some slight differences. Also, these sets appear to have only been released in the UK, so the set images within this catalogue are slightly different, therefore not included in this post.
Ok let’s start with the Lotus set. An interesting set for sure, seems a little ‘higher end’ than some other sets I’ve seen. Given the contents, I don’t think this would be a set for children. I see it as an adult gift, particularly with the inclusion of the pocket pencil and the fancier nib holder.
Item 6059 was not listed in the American version of the catalogue (and I don’t have a UK catalogue of this age), but we can still look at the contents.
The set comes in a two piece slide box and includes a nice selection of items, including the Lotus pencil itself – a model you don’t come across very often.
First item on the tour is the flat pencil. I’ve never really liked the terminology of these little pencil holders. I know there is a huge market for collecting these, and some collectors get really fussy about the correct name for each bit. But really, calling a pencil holder a ‘pencil’ with a ‘pencil’ that goes inside it seems a bit silly to me.
I’ve also never liked referring to the refills as ‘cedars’ either (which seems to be a popular choice). Whatever you choose to call it, its basically a pocket pencil holder and a pencil, as far as I’m concerned.
Nice that the set included two little pencils for the holder. I don’t think the stamping on the pencils is that well done actually, probably should have been a bit more crisp. Interesting that the holder is number 891 and the pencil refill is also number 891. Surely that would make reordering a particular item unclear?
Next up we have the Lotus pencil. I really like this pencil with its long ferrule and double stripe. Great finish on the barrel too.
The copy for the Lotus pencil is excellent – ‘… one of the most tasty pencils ever put on the market’!
They also appear to have come in a boxed dozen – would love to see an example sometime.
ALPCO made a wide range of penholders. The version included in the Lotus set is the ‘fancy tipped’.
The set also comes with a little medal nib case for storing your spare nibs and an eraser (more on that below).
Next up we have this leather Velvet set. As with the Lotus set, I see this as more of a set for adults rather than a school set or similar.
I don’t know my leathers, but it seems fancy.
There wasn’t an exact item in the American catalogue, however, a similar idea seems to have been this ‘writers companion’:
Looking at the contents, we have not one, but two short pencils with pocket protectors. I think my preference is the 811 over the 841. Interesting that they stamped the pencils with the holder item numbers – they are quite literally the same pencil, just with a different protector. Maybe it was too expensive to stamp the protectors, but I would have just stamped the pencils with the normal Velvet HB number.
The 841 has a cone shaped protector. Normally cone shaped protectors and end pieces on pencils where handy when using copier pencils. people would pop the pencil in their mouth when working with their hands, and so the end cap helped keep the pencil ink out of their mouths. 
The set came with two full length pencils, one in HB and one in B. Again, the numbering is somewhat confusing, with both being given 880 as their item number, irrespective of grade.
The American catalogue has a bit more common sense and gives each grade a different item number. Interestingly 880 doesn’t feature, maybe because the UK versions already used it in such a confusing way.
Finally, lets have a quick look at the two erasers. The Lotus came with an ink eraser and the leather set came with a ink & pencil version:
I couldn’t find exact images for either, but the closest things I could find were the 410 and the 416 – they seem like the same things to me
Pencil Fodder 