Category: pencils

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The Carl Auböck egg paperweight

“On the desk of the German architect and Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius sits a solid-brass egg.”

From Perfecting the Paperweight by Victoria Woodcock in the November 20, 2021 How To Spend It, the weekend magazine of the Financial Times.

This paperweight egg shared the desk with companion objects such as pre-Columbian artefacts given to Gropius by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The Financial Times says the desk was designed by Marcel Breuer, while Historic New England credits Gropius himself. The desk broke when shipped from Germany to the US.

The desk remains at Gropius House in Lincoln, Massachusetts. A clear photo doesn’t show an egg.


Click the image to go to the Historic New England site. (c) Historic New England

(Can you see a pencil?)

The original 1952 egg is now made by Auböck’s grandson, and available at London’s Sigmar for £170. I think that’s a pretty reasonable price for a famed design object of such provenance.


(c) Signum

The general Auböck catalogue is well worth browsing. Another stationery object – a giant paperclip – is also for sale at Mark+Fold.

Thank you to the Financial Times for illuminating this interesting stationery item.

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Marlborough’s


A recent trip to Toronto’s Marlborough’s Stationery revealed that they have gone out of business.

This wasn’t a store with any sort of prominent internet profile. It was a neighbourhood store with basic stationery, and over the years began stocking children’s toys and greeting cards (and recently, masks). They had some nods to quality – notebooks from Clairefontaine and pencils from Staedtler.

Marlborough’s was founded in 1922. They were 99, and almost made it to their centenary. This is so sad.

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Newell Brands cancel Mongol pencil trademark

Mongol pencils

On October 15, 2021, the US Patent and Trademark Office published the news that Newell Brands had cancelled their trademark for one of the world’s most famous pencil brands, the Mongol.

Eberhard Faber IV was interviewed by Sean Malone, and Mr. Faber suggested that the name came from Purée Mongole soup. An update notes this story as being apocryphal.

(I’m really happy that Contrapuntalism remains online, though at a different address. It has a remarkable sixty posts that mention the Mongol pencil!)

I reached out to Newell, but did not hear back. They spoke to me last year about the Mirado, but I didn’t hear back about the Mongol.

So why the cancellation? I don’t know, but I’ll speculate that in 2021 Newell don’t want a trademark that can readily be interpreted as an ethnocultural or racial term.

There are still Mongol pencils in other countries – Colombia, the Philippines, and Venezuala.

Truly the end of an era, this pencil brand will not be quickly forgotten.

Mongol trademark

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Insights from Helmut Zeilinger

Faber-Castell interview with technical product manager Helmut Zeilinger

It is rare for anyone other that the CEO of a pencil company to address the public regarding pencils. It is particularly unusual to hear from the knowledgeable craftspeople and engineers who produce pencils at large scale.

Henry Petroski let the world know about the centuries of engineering that form the basis of pencil making, and Faber-Castell has very kindly featured an interview with their technical product manager Helmut Zeilinger in the latest online Faber-Castell magazine.

Mr. Zeilinger offers many insights:

Sharpening problems result from mismatched halves of the pencil.

How would one resolve this issue? “For the wood alone, our specifications at Faber-Castell are almost as detailed as for individual parts in car production,” says Mr. Zeilinger. Unfortunately the subject of which wood species are ideal isn’t explored (but another article on Faber-Castell’s plantation likely provides the clues).

“Hardly anyone thinks about sharpening,” says Mr. Zeilinger. Maybe not. But don’t tell David Rees.

How often should a sharpener’s blade be replaced? Apparently after fully sharpening 12 pencils. Umm, has anyone ever seen a replacement Faber-Castell blade?

There is much more in the information rich article. I’ve like to thank Faber-Castell for this excellent article and Mr. Zeilinger for sharing his considerable knowledge!

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