Not a real big deal but this nice mid-19th century, all original, unsharpened and as new, cedar mounted slate pencil will be appreciated by collectors of Civil War era everydayand personal items as well as deep dish antique writing instrument enthusiasts. Not to be confused with the more commonly encountered graphite pencil, this example has a slate center for use with the personal size writing slate used in the period. Boldly marked AMERICAN LEAD PENCIL CO. / SCHOOL SLATE 490 the piece was manufactured in the Jersey City Heigthts, New Jersey pencil factory set up in 1860 by Edward Weissenborn. We have only a few of these and are offering them priced individually for the collector who would like one or two. Don't forget to give our search feature a try for special wants. A simple key word in lower case works best. Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques !!