Ancient Propelling Pencil

[Writer01]

There are times when it's nice to walk around a field. Sometimes I do it with a metal detector, just for fun. I live in a medieval village, and my field has been worked for hundreds of years, so you never know what you might find. Once I found a lovely little toy pistol. Once a lump of harrow, once a ploughshare. But once I found this in my hedge:

 

 

As you can see, it's a delightful little pencil. I guess early twentieth century, although I'm no expert, and a lively little tool to use. There's a logo on the front of the clip, which seems to be a J and F intertwined - whether the J is first or the F, I have no idea. On the rear of the main barrel (is that the term?) there's an inscription - SILVRIX 332.

 

 

The mechanism seems to work fine, still. There were leads inside it, and they still functioned when I first tried it. It did need cleaning, mind. The darned thing was about four inches underground. That may explain some of the scratches.

 

 

In short, though, it's a lovely little device. I am sure that a farmer about eighty years ago was kicking himself when he realised he'd lose this no doubt valuable and valued little pencil. Hopefully I'll be able to carry on using it myself for some little while, too. It really is a nice little tool.

 

Any ideas where it may have come from? I have an inkling that it may be French from the 1920s, but that's only a gut feel. All comments gratefully received.

 

Mike

[FrankB]

That is a great find. Thanks for sharing.

[eilu]

WOW... a great find indeed. AMAZING.

 

Although it does make me think what will happen in the future when our descendants turn up lumps & lumps of plastic pens & pencils... will they think the same or go "My god, what were they thinking back then??"

[Writer01]

The great thing is, future metal detectors will suddenly find a bunch of metal items. Little roller ball refills, BIC bits and so on. And I know how they'll feel. Irritated beyond belief! Because just now, the bane of my life seems to be ring-pulls from coke cans and beer cans!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[thibaulthalpern]

WOW... a great find indeed. AMAZING.

 

Although it does make me think what will happen in the future when our descendants turn up lumps & lumps of plastic pens & pencils... will they think the same or go "My god, what were they thinking back then??"

 

They won't be able to find it. There is no such thing as plastic detector like there is metal detector---just yet. There might be a precious resin detector in the works though. ;-O LOL

[Kimo]

It looks very much like a Yard-o-led design. Yard-o-led is a well known British makers of such pencils as well as pens. I do not know Yard-o-led markings, but the ones on yours suggest it may be another company that capitalized on the Yard-o-led designs and reputation by marketing a similar design for a lower price.

 

My guess on the age would be a bit later than yours - perhaps 1930s or 1940s - but that is just a guess. Hopefully someone will recognize the makers marks.

[Writer01]

Thanks, Kimo. I can see what you mean about the general style, but I've never seen a YOL as small as this - should have pointed out that the pencil's only about four inches long. I think that there's more to the "Silvrix" than I'd realised. I've found an Ebay advert in France on a google search, that mentions one "Silvrix" pencil in a batch of nine different pens and pencils. However, if that's the case, I'm not sure what the "J E" badge means. Must be some ancient French firm, I think. Thanks for the message, though.

[Writer01]

WOW... a great find indeed. AMAZING.

 

Although it does make me think what will happen in the future when our descendants turn up lumps & lumps of plastic pens & pencils... will they think the same or go "My god, what were they thinking back then??"

 

They won't be able to find it. There is no such thing as plastic detector like there is metal detector---just yet. There might be a precious resin detector in the works though. ;-O LOL

 

I know they won't find the plastic - I was thinking they'd have more precise kit for finding metal, though, and would keep turning up biro balls and roller balls in their plastic housings! That's drive me potty in a soggy field in the rain!