Blackwing Collections

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Eberhard Faber, Eberhard Faber Blackwing, Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602

Part of my original aspirations for this blog was to create a kind of repository for the history of the Eberhard Faber Blackwing, including stories, photos, and anecdotes that readers would be willing to share. Though many readers have reached out through e-mail over the years (thank you for the media sightings!) there hasn’t been much in the way of readers’ own collections.

Consider this an invitation to share some photos of your Blackwing “nests” if you’d like—no matter how many or how few you might have (even if it’s just one pencil!). Based on the questions I usually receive, there are many people who would be interested in how long you’ve been using and/or collecting Eberhard Faber Blackwing pencils.

As far as privacy is concerned I’d be happy to post things anonymously, or include whatever details you’d like; it’s up to you. You can get in touch using the following address: blackwingpages [at] gmail.com.

Eberhard Faber: First Glance

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Eberhard Faber, Eberhard Faber Blackwing, Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602, Eberhard Faber Company

This is just a one-off printing for now: 396 pages so far, but much more to go. It begins with a comprehensive history of the Eberhard Faber Company, including a detailed account of their break with A.W. Faber-Castell in Germany. Below are Lothar Washington Faber, and his son, Eberhard Faber III.

It was Eberhard III who created the Blackwing. He had a background in chemistry, which informed his efforts in creating the 602’s unique lead formula.

The Blackwing 602 was nestled between the Van Dyke 601 and the Microtomic 603 (which was actually a re-branding of the Van Dyke).

Here are a few examples of the graphics found in company advertising and packaging.

The quality of the printing revealed that a lot of the older photos I’ve taken need to be re-done, but there are several shots that still hold up under scrutiny.

I still can’t predict a publication date, but this first compilation was a major step forward.

The Blackwing Is Ready For Its Close-up

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Blackwing 602, Pencil Documentary, William Allen

Today I spent the afternoon with William Allen, who is finishing-up a documentary he is making about the pencil. You can see a trailer for it here, and its Kickstarter page with updates here.

We discussed the history of the Blackwing, the seeming mystique surrounding it, and what the future may hold for pencils in general. In addition to the filming, many photos were taken of Blackwing pencils as well as some other vintage Eberhard Faber items I brought along.

William hopes to have the documentary finished by this winter. For updates, follow the Kickstarter page or try his Facebook page.

Thanks to William for having me along, and be on the lookout for a screening of “No. 2: Story of the Pencil” at a film festival near you this winter.

“Faber-Castell Since 1761”

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A.W. Faber-Castell, Faber-Castell

The 520-page book “Faber-Castell Since 1761″ has officially been released. So far I’ve seen it only through European booksellers, and its availability in the U.S. might be limited since it is written in German.

This link is an English translation of the publisher’s page (Collection Rolf Heyne) for the book, and European Amazon sites allow you to see a bit more of the contents. And here is a PDF announcing the book. There are a few booksellers on Amazon.de that will ship to the U.S. for as little as 5 Euros, which is a pretty good deal owing to the weight of the book.

This book has been in the making for some time; I first learned of it around 2009 or so and have been looking forward to it ever since. Initially it was scheduled to be released for Faber-Castell’s 250th anniversary in 2011, but was held back and expanded to include coverage of the worldwide events that marked the anniversary.

It is interesting to see that the Blackwing is mentioned specifically in the table of contents, in the chapters devoted to the brothers Johann and Eberhard Faber. But regardless of the Blackwing 602 this book, with nearly 600 images, will be of interest to anyone who wants to learn more about the history of pencils. It’s worth noting that much smaller books of this sort have been published throughout the decades, going back to the 19th century, but they were often published for friends and trade partners rather than being made available to the general public. As a result, they are exceedingly rare and difficult to find (much less buy). Since a book like this doesn’t come around very often—in fact it may be unprecedented—it may be better to pick one up sooner rather than later.

One’s Work On Display

Recently published photographs from California Cedar’s “Blackwing Experience” at the Art Director’s Club in New York contained some images that looked very familiar. The image between the arrows was taken from this site.

Photo Credit: California Cedar Blackwing Experience Facebook page (Click to enlarge).

Part of it is a catalog image from the Eberhard Faber Company that I cropped (and was first posted here), but the photo of the Blackwing pencil to the right is my original photograph, which I combined for this graphic found here:

(Click to enlarge).

This image from the “Blackwing Experience” shows another printed image from my blog, which I cropped from a catalog and was first posted here:

Photo Credit: California Cedar Blackwing Experience Facebook page (Click to enlarge).

It originally came from this post:

(Click to enlarge).

Also, a scan of a ca. 1930 Eberhard Faber score-keeping card I have, which I posted under “Blackwing Ephemera” in June, 2011:

Photo Credit: California Cedar Blackwing Experience Facebook page (Click to enlarge).

(Click to enlarge).

It’s possible that they arrived at this image independently, but given the other items, it seems more likely that it was seen here first.

Postscriptum: Of course, I can’t say that their use of an Eberhard Faber stand is an infringement of my work, but given this post of mine from October, 2010 (and all of the other unique circumstances), I can’t help wondering where they might have gotten the idea:

(Click to enlarge).

Some conclusions:

1. I posted this just to further document a trend.
2. I can’t say with certainty, based on the photographs, whether my name or my blog is credited for each item, but it doesn’t appear so. No one mentioned their intention to use the materials. Some items are under my copyright, others aren’t, however they are all from this blog. If I am mistaken about this, I invite Mr. Berolzheimer to please contact me. Pending proof, I will amend my statement about the work having been taken from my blog.
3. No one gets to say “I didn’t know”. Parties were aware by April 10th that some of my work was already appropriated for a video prepared for this event, and these photographs were taken approximately one week later. I don’t know if the displays were prepared by California Cedar or by someone else, but they had to have been approved by California Cedar since they were present for this week-long exhibit.
4. I can’t say with certainty that this isn’t just a coincidence. However, I can say with certainty that it would have to be an immeasurable and incomprehensibly big coincidence.
5. Though copyright is a concern here, it’s more about something else: that same feeling you get when someone next to you is copying off of your test. If that person scores highly on the test, you’re certainly not upset about going uncredited—you’re upset someone has copied off of you, even if the person admits to it.

Thank You.

Dear Readers,

If this is your first visit here, please be sure to visit this page. It is a summary of the contents of this blog; an essay called “No Ordinary Pencil.”

Not long after I started this blog, California Cedar’s first Palomino Blackwing* began making its way into the world, and I was excited like a lot of people and very supportive: I gave them some early photos of mine for free, which were used for some international PR, and loaned them some items to be photographed for their website. However, that initial excitement dwindled into ambivalence after some early misrepresentations were uncovered, but the benefit of the doubt persisted. Though not long after, that ambivalence eventually turned into disappointment—I, as well as others in the pencil community, noticed that the advertising campaign for the Palomino Blackwing was at times wildly inaccurate (if not purposely suggestive), and my site and its contents were in some ways becoming an involuntary partner to that enterprise. I finally began posting about these things along with other blogs in order to bring attention to what was going on. My intention was, and remains, to document as accurately as possible the interesting true story of the Blackwing, and to that end it was hard to understand the choices that CalCedar kept making.

For better or for worse it seems that this blog happens to be the only one of its kind vis-à-vis the history of the Blackwing 602 pencil. The blog itself is about two years old, but it represents about four years of work and countless hours spent researching, photographing, collecting, trading, and writing—all done just for doing’s sake; a labor of love. But because this blog has content unique to the Internet, it means that it gets the attention of those who would like to use that content. Most have done so rather innocently (personal blogs, sharing photos, etc.) which is fine by me, and some have been responsible enough to send queries or notifications, but others—including some for-profit companies—have been less honorable and have infringed upon my copyrighted work. But my complaint isn’t simply about scholarship and attribution, and it’s not at all about money. Rather it’s a combination of the appropriated work, plus how it has at times been folded into California Cedar’s questionable PR campaign, which in turn has distorted the Blackwing’s story, that has spoiled things (see this page for details). Everyone wants to be recognized for their work, but this is less about my wanting credit than it is about me wishing they would just do their own work and leave mine alone—just like how you’d want the person sitting next to you to stop copying from your test paper.

Knowing that a company—one with vast financial resources—was watching my every post (the CEO of the company has subscribed to this blog) slowly began draining my enthusiasm: it’s difficult to explain just what it’s like to work hard for each new and unique Blackwing-related “find” and to put the work into posting about it, only to realize it’s likely just to be taken or copied in some way (and sometimes even inaccurately to boot). And it puts me in a unique position: as a consumer, I share the opinion of those who think CalCedar’s marketing has been inaccurate and questionable at times, but I have no control over that. The best I can do for the Blackwing is to publish my own work and let people decide for themselves. But, when on top of everything else it’s my own work that is being copied—especially when it’s coming from a company that claims to be continuing the “legacy” of the Blackwing—that’s a bridge too far. My interest remains unabated, but I don’t want to continue this blog if it means being a source of reference for CalCedar’s designs—the Blackwing, and the work I’ve put into documenting it, mean too much to me.

 

I want to say how grateful I am to everyone who has visited here, supported this site, and contributed to the conversation. It’s remarkable how this immeasurably obscure thing—a pencil—could bring together so many kind and like-minded people from all over the world. I’ve enjoyed hearing from you and more importantly, learning from you.

I’m going to leave the site up and the comments open, and I will be cleaning-up and updating older posts as well as continue to edit and expand the “No Ordinary Pencil” essay, but I do not plan on posting any new Blackwing content. There’s always a chance there might be a new post, but if there is it will likely be about current events. I would have preferred to keep sharing my ongoing research about the Blackwing 602, to say the very least, but not everyone is playing fair—I hope you understand.

For anyone who thinks this is about pencils, it’s not—they’re just pencils. It’s about caring for something very deeply.

Thanks for all of your support, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading.

All the Best,
Sean