HOUSE OF GRAPHITE

The A.W. Faber Polygrades, launched by Lothar von Faber in Paris in 1837, were the firm's premium graphite pencils and, by Faber-Castell's own account, the first sold in matched sets of differing hardness; they were polished black and stamped in gold, and made with Siberian graphite in a Florida-cedar casing. Period boxes carried a full hardness ladder from very soft to very hard (BBBB through HHHH), with F originally placed between B and HB before it moved to between HB and H in the mid-1880s, and the line sold for decades until it was replaced by the green Castell 9000 range around 1905. Faber-Castell revived the name in 2017 for Lothar von Faber's 200th anniversary with a limited-edition reissue of 12 pencils graded 5B to 5H, supplied unsharpened like the originals. This specimen: A.W. Faber Polygrades in grade HH.

B BB BBB BBBB F H HB HHH HHHH