Featured Pencil

Hi
I have just bought , I believe a ebony and silver propelling pencil stamped S Mordan & co makers . Can any help me date it . and any general information. Cheers

 

Very nice Cassy .. Joy.

 

That's a score.

 

Is it ebony or very hard early rubber. Just asking to learn thanks!

 

Sampson Mordan, One the best British makers of his time....
Nice

 

Sampson Mordan & Co. was a manufacturer of pencils and other similar desktoppy items, usually in sterling silver, that was in business from the 1820s up to 1941, when their factory was destroyed by some very angry Germans in an airplane.

The pencil you have there is typical of the kind of propelling pencil common during the Victorian era, up to the early 20th century (about 1910-ish).

The tip etc, will indeed be made of sterling silver. You can take that almost for granted, even if it isn't hallmarked.

The barrel will most likely be made of EBONITE. Also called hardened rubber. This was an industrially-produced material common during the 1800s and early 1900s, and was used to replace the rare ebony wood, commonly used in manufacturing at the time (in the same way that celluloid was used to try and replace rare ivory).

Not sure if it's ebony or ebonite? Check for sun-damage. One trademark flaw of ebonite is that it browns and fades when exposed to sunlight. If you see any unsightly browning, that would indicate exposure to UV sunlight, and therefore = ebonite.

Given that this is probably the better part of 100 years old (or VERY easily more), and I don't see any browning, I'd say it's ebony. For a fountain pen or propelling pencil of this age to be made of ebonite and NOT have any browning, it would've had to have been sealed in a vault for 100 years, that's about the only way you can prevent it, unless you only used it at night like some sort of scriptorial vampire.

So yes, I'd say this is a silver and ebony propelling pencil. Ca. 1880-1910, made by Sampson Mordan & Co. VERY famous manufacturer. I have a few of his things in my collection (I collect antique writing paraphernalia).

A word of warning: Pencils this old took different sized graphite rods than what we use today, so it will be very hard, if not impossible, to find something to stick in there. To fill the pencil, you unscrewed the nozzle, wound the plunger all the way back, loaded ONE (very small) graphite rod, and then screwed the nozzle back on. Then you advanced the plunger to propel the graphite (hence the name PROPELLING pencil) out of the nozzle to write with.

 

Thank you Shangas!!

 

Ebonite browning is extremely common. Find any piece of antique ebonite-ANYTHING, and it will almost certainly have at least some of it. I collect old fountain pens and old pens made of ebonite often brown due to age and light-exposure.

I know one guy (a fellow collector) who took one of his antique pens to work. He went home and forgot he left it on his desk. He came back the next day and it was brown.

Why? Because he'd left it on his desk, and the sunlight had browned it. The only way to prevent this is to keep it away from direct sunlight. Methods do exist for re-blacking browned-off ebonite, however.

 

Thank you all for your help. I bought it off a car boot for £2 was going to leave it at first . But then changed my mind , glad I did now . Lovely piece of history
Cheers Neil

 

For two quid? Eep.