I posted this picture over at Leadhead's at the end of my show report. Usually at a show, I'll come home with one really nice find from one of the "Big Four" manufacturers (Parker, Sheaffer, Wahl Eversharp and Waterman). This show was really unusual in that I came home with a major find from EACH of the Big Four:
The major finds are grouped in the middle here: a Parker "true blue" (modernistic blue) pencil made for the Zaner-Bloser Co. of Columbus, Ohio (my hometown); an Eversharp Skyline demonstrator in clear lucite (never knew such a thing existed); a Sheaffer balance in red and black pearl (factory tinted during the Depression), and a Waterman 32 pencil in an odd size (a stubby 1/2" shorter than normal), made in Waterman 94 plastic.
There's other great stuff here. On the left are 2 Moore pencils (yes really, those are Moores!), an Eclipse REPEATING pencil from the 1920s, and a Parker Depression/Thrift Time pencil in mottled hard rubber - a really unusual material for these.
On the right side are an Autopoint pencil with a top that's got the Autopoint guys stumped (Mike Little actually had 2 of these - I gave the other to Joe Nemecek), a Presto cap-actuated (rather than button activated) repeating pencil, a red Dow checking pencil and an all metal Ross-Memo pencil with an extremely unusual pattern.
All of these provide great material for Leadhead's blog when I return after the first of the year, but in the meantime, I thought these might be really neat conversation starters here -