Pencil Warriors
[N.B. This post has been revised. The original article referred to these images as “centurions”, but in the comment section, it was noted that neither is a centurion.]
There is a certain well known pencil manufacturer who has often used a graphical image in their products, packaging, and advertising. The details of the image have changed over time, but it remains recognizable.
I just recently bough some pencils from another manufacturer, and to my surprise, they also have a relatively similar figure on their box.
Pencil image No. 1:
Pencil image No. 2:
Can anyone recognize both images?
July 16th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Pencil Centurion No. 1 has to be Staedtler. No idea on the second one.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Hmmm what can it be? The first one is a greek guy, probably Ares, judging from his helmet. (I know, it is Mars wearing a greek helmet) - the staedtler logo from 1925.
The second one - a medieval knights helmet. Could be anyone - but from the colour scheme I guess it must be some Staedtler too?
However, to the best of my knowledge none of them are centurions in the Roman/Latin meaning of the word.
best regards
Henrik
July 17th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Thanks Henrik, I was suspecting that “centurion” might not be the right term.
July 17th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
To reveal where the images came from…
The first image is from Staedtler. The image is from the interior of an old box housing a half-gross of Staedtler 2957 pencils. (I’ll probably feature these pencils in a future article.) I think the artwork is great. This of course is not the surprise.
The second image - which to me also evokes Staedtler, even if based on another era of warrior, is to my surprise from General Pencil. It is from the box housing a half-gross of Cedar Pointe pencils (which I’ll also likely discuss at some time).
July 18th, 2008 at 1:17 am
First of all, thank you for a nice blog. I always read you findings with interest - some of them have inspired me to try pencils I haven’t even imagined existed. Then I hope I haven’t stepped on any toes - but as a teacher I’m afraid I’m in the bad habit of correcting people, unfortunately I can’t promise it won’t happen again :) .
best regards
Henrik
July 18th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Thank you for the correction - it is appreciated. I did use the word carelessly, and am fortunate that a professional teacher enjoys the blog enough to take some time and point out the error.
I will reword the post.
July 20th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Blush :)
kind regards
Henrik