Last week, a Thoreau pencil sold by online auction for $USD2200.
The auction, arranged by the Thoreau Society and Thoreau Farm Trust, offered a single pencil from the famous Thoreau & Company. This pencil maker, associated with the earliest organized pencil making in the United States and a family business of Henry David Thoreau, is described in the chapter An American Pencil-Making Family in Henry Petroski’s The Pencil.
I accept the provenance of the pencil, and the price seems reasonable to me. I do wish there was a better photo of the pencil itself.
For added interest, note the famous donor.