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1923
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Advertising Mechanical Pencil The Atlantic Refining Company Scripto
A neat find out of a home. This is an old or vintage advertising collectible, a mechanical pencil (lead pencil) marked or stamped along the body with "The Atlantic Refining Company". The letters were impressed into the mechanical pencil body then filled with a white paint, however, now much of this white paint is gone so the name can be hard to photograph, does not appear"bright white" in person and can be hard to read, but we guarantee this is what it says. This is marked on the clip "Scripto, Atlanta, USA", so Scripto is the manufacturer of this pencil. There are no other Scripto markings, such as item or manufacturer number.
This old mechanical pencil measures about 5 1/4 inches long from the tip where the lead would be to the end of the eraser. There is no lead currently in this pencil. You can turn the eraser part just fine as if to lengthen/show and retract lead, when you turn this all the way now you can see the tip of the metal that would sit behind any lead in the pencil. The eraser, and the mechanical pencil overall, has been used, with the eraser definitely looking dirty/darkened/rounded/used and not pristine and new, but it still retains much of its original shape. The vintage mechanical pencil is eight sided or octagon in shape and measures about 5/16 inch in width to the pencil body and 3/8 inch in width with the angular clip. The clip can not be moved. The eraser and metal below the eraser can not be removed from this mechanical pencil (you may be able to remove the eraser if you tug hard enough, but we don't want to tug that hard). The body of this vintage mechanical pencil is a true red in color. The body looks like it is made of some sort of celluloid or plastic, and could be red bakelite, but we just don't know.
We are not certain what the age is of this old mechanical pencil. From some internet research, The Atlantic Refining Company began business in 1866 in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as The Atlantic Petroleum Storage Company. By 1874 it was known as Atlantic Refining and was purchased by John D. Rockefeller and incorporated into his Standard Oil Company (Standard Oil Trust). By 1882 it had a major refining plant for petroleum in Point Breeze, Philadelphia and became a major producer of illuminating fuel for oil lamps and lighting. When Standard Oil was broken up (1911), it reverted back to its own company under The Atlantic Refining Company name. It merged with Richfield Oil Company in 1966 and became Atlantic Richfield Company or ARCO. In 1985 it was split off from ARCO and reverted back to the Atlantic name until it was purchased by Sunoco in 1988. In the mid-1990s Sunoco rebranded the Atlantic gas stations with the Sunoco name. Given all this, we are not certain of what period during the use of The Atlantic Refining Company name this mechanical pencil dates to. From the style, we would guess that this pencil dates to the 1940s/1950s period, but it is possible that it dates to the 1980s, we just don't know.
We've provided 8 images to try and show from differing angles and close-ups of the markings. Please note that the camera lighting sometimes causes white "hot spot" reflections. Please use the zoom feature to examine closely.
Overall much used vintage condition. This mechanical pencil does not have a new, pristine appearance. It overall feels/looks used but there are no large gouges, dents, cracks, chunks missing. When you lay this mechanical pencil on a table, you can see that the body is slightly bowed as it does not lie flat on the table in the middle. It appears lightly dirty with expected use/storage wear on the body including many tiny spots, marks, rubbed spots, scratches, etc., with some very, very tiny chipping along the line edges of the body (we have not tried to clean this and are selling it as is/as found). As stated prior, the white in the Atlantic name is largely worn away and the eraser is used, looking dirty/darkened/rounded. The metal at the front of the pencil where the lead is projected is darkened/discolored and shows scrapes/wear/use marks. The clip metal has an expected worn/used look, and the metal below the eraser is very worn, having a brass type color because the silver top coloring is very tarnished/dirty/worn away. No question this piece was used and likely loosely stored, but all that adds to the believability of its age and its great vintage look.
Nice addition to any collection related to advertising collectibles from gasoline or refining companies, including Standard Oil and The Atlantic Refining Company in specific. Could also be added to a collection related to Scripto mechanical pencils, particularly advertising mechanical pencils made by that company. Could also make a nice addition to a geographical collection related to South Philadelphia or Pennsylvania industries overall.
Manufacturer: The Atlantic Refining Company
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2109
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Railroad Mechanical Pencil American Refrigerator Transit Co Train Car
Neat vintage find out of a home. This is a vintage mechanical pencil made by Quick Point in St. Louis, Missouri. It was made for the American Refrigerator Transit Company, also based in St. Louis, MO.
From some internet research, the American Refrigerator Transit Company made refrigerated train cars for transporting refrigerated goods on railroads. They began making refrigerator train cars in 1881 for the Missouri Pacific Railroad and the Wabash Railroad. The company is now a subsidiary of Union Pacific Corporation.
This vintage pencil measures about 5 1/2 inches in length and has rounded sides with a width of about 5/16 inch. The base color for this piece is a marbled pale yellow or pale amber type with a red band and red end cap and silver color for the pencil point and pocket hanger. The American Refrigerator Transit Company name is printed on the pencil body in black below a colored graphic of one of the refrigerator cars (and the company name appears also on this train car graphic). On the metal pocket hanger is imprinted "Quickpoint, St. Louis". While we don't know the exact age of this piece (we are not experts here), our guess is that it could date from the 1930's to 1960's.
As shown in several images, the end cap is removable with what appears to be the original pencil eraser still attached (the eraser feels hard to us so we don't know that it would work anymore as an eraser, but it is there). We can't tell if this is a working pencil or not. We don't see any lead in the point, nor see any when we twist the cap piece, and we don't have lead to try inserting here. Net, we just don't know if you could use this as a pencil today as found, so we are selling this as is/as found and can make no guarantees as to whether this piece works. We also have not attempted to clean this piece.
We've provided 8 images to try and show all sides, with and without the end cap, and close-ups. Please note that the camera lighting creates white "hot spot" reflections on the smooth pencil body. Please use the zoom feature to examine closely.
Very nice overall vintage used condition with expected wear but nothing bad. We see no chips, cracks, breaks or major scratches on this piece. The train car graphic (with dots of wear), company name and the marbled body design look good. There is expected age/wear with some darkening/general wear on the marble and red end cap, the hard condition of the eraser as stated earlier, much darkening/tarnishing/wear dots on the metal holding the eraser that gets hidden beneath the end cap, general wear/small scratches on the metal pocket hanger piece, wear/dots/some small scratches on the metal point piece, some spots/dots/dirt on the yellow marbled areas with some tiny indented lines (particularly on the end cap and near the pocket hanger), and likely other light general wear. While not mint or new looking, this piece has a great look with wear that supports its age.
A nifty addition for a railroadiana collection or one related to mechanical pencils in general or items/companies related to St. Louis, Missouri.
Manufacturer: American Refrigerator Transit Company
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