The Darkish Historical past of the Pencil


Graphite pencils are a vital a part of an artist’s package. They’re a easy device, however the historical past of the pencil is filled with twists, turns, intrigue, and good innovation. This text traces the invention and improvement of the artist pencil, from the sixteenth century to the current day.


 

 

The Intriguing Historical past of the Pencil

What’s Graphite?

Graphite is a mushy, crystalline type of carbon discovered within the earth’s crust. It’s regarded as one of many oldest minerals on earth, and pottery embellished with graphite dates again to the Neolithic age. Later examples by Mayan craftsmen have been found in Southern Mexico. It was additionally used as a black pigment by the Aztecs.

Utilizing rocks, metals, or carbon-containing supplies as drawing instruments is an historic observe. So long as a fabric is mushy sufficient, it could possibly depart a mark when it’s dragged throughout a floor. Charcoal and chalk are a few of the earliest examples of drawing supplies. Sure metals, like silver, tin, and lead, are mushy sufficient to attract with on an abrasive floor. This method, often known as metalpoint, was widespread through the Renaissance interval.

 

 

The Delivery of the Pencil

The historical past of the pencil started in Cumbria within the north of England. Within the first half of the sixteenth century, massive veins of graphite have been found there. Graphite is normally discovered as a flaky deposit, however the Cumbrian deposit was strong which meant it may very well be minimize up into sticks. Locals used it for marking sheep. Inside 200 years a cottage business had emerged that produced drawing and writing instruments fabricated from pure graphite wrapped in twine or sheepskin. These have been utilized by artists throughout central Europe, and sixteenth and Seventeenth-century graphite works have been often known as ‘plumbago drawings’.

 

Pencil History

The Rev. William Atkinson, carrying a broad-brimmed hat, ca. 1760
George Romney
Graphite, 15.2 x 18.4 cm | 6 x 7.25 in
Metropolitan Museum of Artwork

 

It’s possible that many of those early pencils have been made with stolen graphite. The fabric was extraordinarily precious, not just for making pencils however for lining moulds for casting cannon and musket balls. With the worth hovering, graphite smuggling grew to become a giant drawback. Mines have been manned by armed guards and have been even purposefully flooded to stop theft. One idea holds that that is the place the time period ‘Black Market’ comes from, referring to how graphite would flip smugglers’ palms black.

Within the 1560s, Italian couple Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti invented the wood pencil-casing by hollowing out a flat rod of juniper wooden and becoming the lead inside. This innovation wouldn’t be mass-produced till the Seventeenth century, when retailers in Nuremberg noticed a chance in pencil manufacturing. They have been unable to supply strong lumps of graphite from Bavarian mines, however they might extract crushed graphite. It was then powdered and mixed with wax, sulphur, and antimony and encased in a wood holder. By 1662, pencils have been being produced in Nuremberg, notably by Friedrich Staedtler who would later give his identify to the Staedtler firm. Nonetheless, pencils constituted of strong English graphite have been nonetheless thought-about to be superior for one more century.

 

Panorama with cattle and figures; sketch for the Rustic Courtship, 1755-97
Thomas Gainsborough
Graphite, 28 x 19.9 cm | 11 x 7 in
Metropolitan Museum of Artwork

 

The phrase ‘pencil’ was first written down within the 14th century, so it predates the event of the graphite device. It comes from the Latin penicillus that means ‘little tail’, and was as soon as used to explain artist brushes.

 

Have Pencils Ever Contained Lead?

One deceptive facet of the historical past of the pencil is that we consult with the core of a pencil as a ‘lead’. Elemental lead has by no means been used within the manufacturing of graphite pencils. The confusion arises from the truth that, when graphite was first recognized in Europe, it was regarded as quite a lot of lead. It wasn’t till the 18th century that chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele found that they have been two completely different supplies. In 1789 Abraham Gottlob Werner coined the phrase ‘graphite’, that means ‘writing stone’.

 

The Invention of the Trendy Pencil

The invention of the fashionable pencil arose from the French Revolutionary Wars of the late 18th century. Britain imposed a naval blockade on France, slicing off their provide of top quality English graphite. French financial policy-makers have been eager to champion homegrown innovation in response to the rising dominance of British-made merchandise. Nicholas-Jacques Conté was tasked with reinventing the pencil, and in 1795 he mixed powdered graphite with clay to create a lead, which was then fired and encased with wooden. This was the creation of the pencil as we all know it at the moment.

 

 

Conté patented his invention and based Conté à Paris, which remains to be a number one maker of drawing supplies. In 1802 an identical technique was patented by Austrian inventor Joseph Hardtmuth. His firm, Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth, nonetheless make artist pencils at the moment. These improvements ended Britain’s monopoly as a result of strong graphite was not required to make prime quality pencils. In 1891 the final mine was closed. Nonetheless, the custom of Cumbrian pencil-making is sustained by Derwent, who’ve been producing artist drawing supplies in Keswick since 1832.

 

 

It’s fascinating to notice what number of acquainted pencil-making corporations performed important roles in pencil historical past. Staedtler, Conté à Paris, Koh-i-Noor, and Derwent are all nonetheless main gamers within the business.

 

Completely different Grades of Graphite Pencil

Conté’s technique of pencil lead manufacture meant that completely different portions of clay may very well be added to the powdered graphite to vary the depth of the mark. The upper the proportion of graphite, the softer the lead and the deeper and blacker the mark. The extra clay is added, the tougher and finer it turns into. These variations have been harnessed by artists to make drawings with unimaginable tonal vary.

 

A Lady Fishing, 1884
Georges Seurat
Conté crayon, 30.8 x 23.8 cm | 12 1/8 x 9 3/8 in
Metropolitan Museum of Artwork

 

Right this moment, graphite pencils are graded on a scale between 10H (excessive clay content material) and 10B (excessive graphite content material), with HB being the medium grade. There’s some confusion over what the letters stand for. Some sources say that they stand for ‘hardness’ and ‘blackness’, however Koh-i-Noor say that the system originated with them and that they stand for ‘Hardtmuth’, after their founder Joseph Hardtmuth, and ‘Budejovic’, the situation of their manufacturing facility.

 

Completely different grades of graphite pencil, from arduous and light-weight (left) to mushy and darkish (proper)

 

Current Improvements within the Historical past of the Pencil

The important design of artist pencils has not modified a lot within the final 200 years, however numerous improvements have made them even simpler to make use of. Rubber erasers have been developed within the 1770s. And in 1858, American inventor Hymen Lipman tried to patent his design of a pencil with an eraser hooked up to the top. Lipman’s patent was denied, however it appears that evidently from this time the eraser-capped pencil grew to become commonplace.

Mechanical pencils are one other method of utilizing graphite. Their benefit is that they maintain a degree with out being sharpened, making them helpful for technical drawing and effective line work. The historical past of the mechanical pencil is for much longer than we would suppose. The primary description of a graphite lead inserted right into a holder dates from 1565, and the earliest surviving instance of a refillable pencil was present in a shipwreck relationship to 1791. The primary holder with a lead-propelling mechanism was patented in 1822, and the spring-loaded design we use at the moment dates from 1877.

 

 

The great thing about pencils is their simplicity and immediacy. They’re extraordinarily transportable, simply erasable, and might be sharpened to a effective level for detailed work (or used blunt for softer shading). Pencils are nice for working shortly, like making a speedy drawing in a sketchbook, in addition to for complicated technical drawing. We use pencils so steadily, in on a regular basis life in addition to within the studio, that it’s straightforward to miss their usefulness. The historical past of the pencil, and the improvements that introduced us the instruments we use at the moment, is a reminder of how good they’re.

 


 

Additional Studying

Selecting a Rubber: Evaluating Erasers

Contained in the Sketchbook of Bridget Meyne

Inexperienced Earth: The Refined however Highly effective Color of Early Italian Portray

Artist Evaluate: Faber-Castell Polychromos Heat Gray Pencils

 

Store Pencils on jacksonsart.com

 

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