Another simple ‘show and tell’ style post today; however, the pencils are still pretty interesting.

I came across this set quite a few years ago. I hadn’t seen another example before, and I haven’t seen another example since – that’s the kind of item I always try to hunt out for my collection.

I spoke with the team at Staedtler to try and work out what exactly I had. I had a pretty good idea already, but i was hoping they could provide me with confirmation and some more information.

The set comes in a thick cardboard wallet, which is felt lined to keep the pencils safe. It’s a small set, roughly A5 in size.

According to Staedtler, such samples are produced in Nuremberg during the original production trial run. They represent the standard against which the writing properties of the lead produced in a particular series are tested. They are used to guarantee the consistent quality of their leads.

Since the samples are for testing the leads, they do not carry the article number of the finished pencils, but rather the number of the lead or the designation of the order lot, or the production date. You can see from the examples within the case we have lead tests for 1959, 1965. 1976 and 1985.

German isn’t my first language, but ‘Muster’ seems to translate as either ‘sample’ or ‘pattern’ – makes sense. ‘Minenauftrag’ seems to be a reference to the ‘lead order’. ‘Auftrag-Nr’ is ‘order number’. If I’ve got any of that wrong, please someone do let me know!

Interestingly, the Mars 100 pencil seems to specifically reference the pencil model. None of the other model numbers ring a bell, so may not be model numbers at all.

As surprised as Staedtler were to find out I had these, they did some checking and were able to confirm that my set contains old, non-valid samples, and as such were no longer confidential. They did say that such samples are only used for internal evaluation and are ordinarily highly confidential.

The two round pencils were quite shiny and hard to photograph so I’ve opted for two close-up shots.

An interesting piece for sure. I’d be interested to know if any readers have similar sets for other manufacturers.