This post came about because of an interesting quirk with Faber’s Polygrade pencils, the ‘moving’ F grade.  You may have … More

Let’s talk about the Cumberland Pencil Co; not the one that directly went on the become ‘Derwent’ and has a … More

I’ve decided to group a couple of pencils together for this post; the E Wolff & Son ‘Mathematical’ pencil and … More

I’d planned on writing about E Wolff & Sons’ ‘Pure Cumberland Lead’ pencils next, but a last-minute change and today’s … More

B.S. Cohen Ltd was one of the founding companies of the Royal Sovereign Pencil Co Ltd (via Arthur Johnson Ltd) … More

In 1937 Staedtler had their 275th anniversary, and with that, they released a range of ‘275 years’ branded pencils across … More

I have covered a lot of Wolff’s pencils on this blog, but I’ve held off on the biggie, the pencil … More

This is part 2 of a post on Ann Banks pencils.  The first part can be found here and I … More

Banks is a surname you really should know if you want to understand pencil making history, with Jacob, Joseph and … More

  [This post was updated on 11 October 2020 to include new images and information.  I originally wrote the post … More