This image was attached to a recent listing on Vinted. It was the only one available from the seller. The text read: “Leadholders. Good conditions.”
I’m curious: how many, if any, interesting pieces do you spot in the shot?
This image was attached to a recent listing on Vinted. It was the only one available from the seller. The text read: “Leadholders. Good conditions.”
I’m curious: how many, if any, interesting pieces do you spot in the shot?
I see a.w.faber varius in the middle. I think thats really rare…
Is this listing already sold?
If not I wod like to get it…
I can see one straight off. Is that a Faber Castell? The shape looks like it would be very welcome to hold. 2 mm lead?
I find your levels of good taste and perfect pencil-oriented vision absolutely remarkable.
Unfortunately, the listing closed a few days ago, but let’s look at the bright side: the seller accepted my offer, and I can now show you a few pictures of the lot from a better angle, one revealing what pencils actually were there.
The best items, as it was pointed out already twice, are the green one in the middle (its bulbous tip was what drew my attention towards the listing: I instantly remembered it from an old page on the now-defunct leadholdercom website), the blue one in the centre, and the yellow one closer to the slide rule.
Also, this was one of those cases where the seller frankly had no idea what was really at stake, so the price tag for the lot (to which the person decided spontaneously to aggregate a few boxes of lead) was a ridiculous 15 EUR, plus shipping — and no customs, as the lot was already in Italy. I consider this as my über-lucky find of 2023, and I know I just dried out all the favours from the Gods of Pencils up until who knows when.
Photos and closeups soon, when the camera is ready.
Yes that is varius, very rare
Aaaand here are the pictures, this time with the pencils oriented so that the inprints are reasonably visible.
Picture 1 shows the lot as a whole (I omitted the two lead pointers, they are just plastic bases with a layer of sandpaper glued on top, and the slide rule, which took too much space), including the boxes of lead the seller decided to get rid of.
Picture 2, on the other hand, just focusses on the pencils:
It turns out that the lot was based on a set of “Technograph 30B” 2.00mm clutch-type leadholders (standard 4-jaws chuck) in dark green and yellow-orange, with the notable addition of:
• One brown 2.00mm leadholder labelled simply “Præditus”, all caps (it really seems just a knock-off of the Koh-I-Noor Totiens 827: the metal band on the tip, the weight and the shape all seem to match), with possibly a full-metal body;
• One L.&C. Hardmuth “Koh-I-Noor” 1511 «H», yellow wooden body with white plastic (?) rear cap, where the lead is secured via the double screw of the two collets on the tip — the one closest to the tip tightens the jaws gripping the lead, the other one closer to the wooden barrel prevents the first one from unscrewing;
• One J.S. Staedtler “Mars Lumograph 1018” «6H» Bavaria, wooden blue barrel plus metallic ends, with a simpler single-collet securing system, highlighted by two separate knurled bands (one made of rings perpendicular to the body, the other made of lines parallel to the body);
• And finally, a A.W. Faber “Castell” 9026 Varius, Germany, probably from the 1930’s-40’s, wooden green barrel with a very unusual bulbous metal tip, and a locking mechanism similar to the one used in modern drills (three gripping jaws advance or retract slowly as the tip is screwed clockwise or counterclockwise, ultimately blocking the lead very firmly). This pencil seems to accommodate a wider range of lead hardness, whence probably the 3B and 6B boxes included in the parcel.
Kudos to @nidora and @cytherian for spotting this last item. I saw it once or twice on sale from I think Berlin-collectables on Ebay, but never managed to get one — and I didn’t think I’d ever see one myself. As i said, I’m afraid my pencil luck is over for a while now.
Phenomenal luck! Congratulations. You must’ve put out the message with the right energy to tickle out the opportunity.
That happened to me a couple of times, but… of course… not in other times where I’d been hoping for a long time. Patience is the key!