Eberhard Faber had especially nice boxes up until the 1960’s. I love these striped Blackwing and NoBlot boxes, but most of all the yellow sliding Mongol boxes. Can you imagine a child today going to school with an object so well-designed and with a paper-engineering complexity all its own?
The NoBlot has always been a bit of a disappointment, though I tend to pick it up when I find it as NOS. The great motto, “A Bottle of Ink in a Pencil” leads one to expect a dark lead but instead it is pale grey and scratchy. I know that one is supposed to wet the page and make the mark indelible (that’s what the motto really refers to), but even so, it is lighter than copy pencils from A.W. Faber and others.
They really knew how to design handsome boxes back in the day. Nowadays, you’re lucky if you get much more than a barcode and a logo.
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Nice find and comparison. The Noblot is a discontinued pencil that is still sought by dental and medical labs.
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Thanks. I’m curious to know if they are used in the same way the Dixon Film Markers are used…on x-rays and such? Or was there another application?
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Eberhard Faber had especially nice boxes up until the 1960’s. I love these striped Blackwing and NoBlot boxes, but most of all the yellow sliding Mongol boxes. Can you imagine a child today going to school with an object so well-designed and with a paper-engineering complexity all its own?
The NoBlot has always been a bit of a disappointment, though I tend to pick it up when I find it as NOS. The great motto, “A Bottle of Ink in a Pencil” leads one to expect a dark lead but instead it is pale grey and scratchy. I know that one is supposed to wet the page and make the mark indelible (that’s what the motto really refers to), but even so, it is lighter than copy pencils from A.W. Faber and others.
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Thanks for the comments everyone. I added a photo to this post of an old Van Dyke box that you might like as well.
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Just reminds me that I received my 2 dozen Palomino pencils in 4 ziplock plastic bags – what a letdown compared to these beauties.
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