I know that shorthand will be of interest to a lot of people. I find it fascinating, but it is so specialist and I don’t think its a topic that I’d want to spend the time it deserves reading into and researching.

Generally i have found that shorthand pencils tend to have the following characteristics: (i) round barrel; (ii) they come factory sharpened, frequently at both ends; and (iii) they all boast a core composition that promises good point retention.

Shorthand pencils have always been of interest to me and, like many other pencil collectors, I have a ton of different models from different makers. I’m going to focus on one old pencil in this post, but if people were interested I could dig out other interesting shorthand examples to discuss.

The pencil we are looking at today is Pitman’s Special Shorthand Pencil. Over to Wikipedia for a very quick history lesson on Sir Isaac:

Sir Isaac Pitman (4 January 1813 – 22 January 1897) was an English publisher and teacher of the English language who developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in Stenographic Soundhand in 1837. He was vice-president of the Vegetarian Society. Pitman was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894.

So why have I focused on this particular pencil? Well, truthfully, because it was made by E. Wolff & Son, and that’s enough for it to get a space on this blog.

I only have one of these, and even then it’s not in great shape. It’s in ‘just good enough’ shape as the images will show. It would be nice to try and add an unused version to my collection, but given this is the only one I’ve ever seen, it could be quite a hunt.

The trade notice from Bookseller of Thursday 09 August 1923 gives us a good steer on the rough release date. The Special Shorthand being referred to as the ‘latest addition’. The review is absolutely glowing, with the Bookseller essentially saying its the best pencil they have used.

The only advertisement I could find for the Pitman’s branded pencil (manufactured, as we know, by Wolff), was in the Ballymena Observer of Friday 02 January 1925. The date appears to line up with it’s recent release.

However, if the Special Shorthand is a new addition, then how come Professor Everett is giving them his recommendation in the Belfast Telegraph of Monday 10 February 1890?

I had a quick look though my hard copy of the earlier wholesale catalogue, and it does appear that even though the ‘Special Shorthand’ was being billed as a new model, there was a similar model released previously: the ‘Reporters Pencil’. The key difference being the Reporters Pencil was indelible.

Ok, I know I said that this post was ongoing going to be about one particular pencil, but I’ve decided to close with two pictures of a Harvey’s Reporting Pencil. I can’t find any info on this model, and that’s not really a surprise; however, looking at similarities in stamping, barrel, etc. I would hazard a guess it’s a rebranded Wilson era Cumberland or similar.