I recently picked up a set of Cox & Co’s Object lessons. The set contained three ‘lessons’: how needles are made, how pen nibs are made, and how pencils are made. Whilst the other two are interesting, it’s the pencil cards that I really bought the set for.

As an aside, if you are interested in the needles cards, or the pen nibs card (made by Perry), drop me a line; I’d be keen to sell or trade.

I don’t know a lot about these lesson sets, but it seems like they were used as teaching aids in schools.

The set was produced by Cox & Co, but reading the presentation cards we can see that the pencils came from Ann Banks Limited. This makes them quite special.

Ann Banks Limited ran from 1887 to 1893 so we can date this quite easily. There were various iterations of the Ann Banks brand; you can read about Ann in a couple of my earlier posts:

Ann Banks Pencils – Part 1 of 2 – Pencil Fodder

Ann Banks Pencils – Part 2 of 2 – Pencil Fodder

I’ve come across many of these types of sets before; most of the pencil manufacturers have made one at some stage. Given the age and maker, this set becomes much more interesting.

The set was complete and in extremely good condition. Normally you would expect a missing pencil or bends to the card.

Alongside the main sheet was an explanation card (note the reference to Banks).

I’m tempted to get the set framed with the explanation card. It makes for a cool display item.