1. Martini Auctions

It is nice to know that there are alternatives to eBay.

What’s amazing to me is that Martini Auctions consistently has some of the absolutely rarest and most collectible pencil items around:

A Sterling Silver Faber-Castell TK 9400 Leadholder. Mentioned at leadholder.com, examples of this limited edition of 1948 are rarely seen. The asking price? €500. Ouch!

Eberhard Faber Cartograph pencils. These seem to be a variant of Landkartenstifte. Though incomplete and mismatched, it is still a fascinating historical item.

Lyra 190th anniversary pencil extender. Did you know that an established pencil manufacturer issued a luxury pencil extender some years before Faber-Castell?

These are just a few highlights. Alas, all somewhat expensive.

2. World Cup pencils

Faber-Castell has announced a special pencil for the 2010 World Cup!

It looks like it might be triangular in shape. I’m wondering if this will be part of a set of 24? That would be super-collectible, I would guess.

3. A pencil made from finger-joined slats, with two species of wood!

Woodchuck has mentioned the existence of these pencils before, but this is the first photo I’ve seen.

Remarkable!

Two wood finger joined pencil.

Seen at On the desk, at any time.