HOUSE OF GRAPHITE

Dixon's "American Graphite" was the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company's premium cedar-cased graphite line (introduced 1872 in Jersey City, NJ), encompassing both numbered everyday writing "fine goods" and the hexagonal "Artists" / "Artists' Perfected Graphite" drawing and drafting pencils. The artists' pencils were catalogued in eleven degrees of hardness on Dixon's own letter scale — from VVVS (very, very, very soft) through SM, MB, M and H to VVVH (very, very, very hard) — finished in the natural colour of the cedar and gold-stamped, with the hard grades marketed to architects, draughtsmen and engineers and the soft grades to fine artists. The writing pencils were sold as No.1–No.5 in round and hexagon shapes and several finishes (model 152 being the round, satin-finish SM grade, equivalent to a No.2); the line predates and was absorbed into Dixon Ticonderoga, and the "American Graphite" name is long discontinued. This specimen: American Graphite in grade VVVH.

H M MB MH S SM VH VS VVH VVS VVVS