Pencil pots, pencil stands, whatever you call them, you will find them on most desks. These days most pencil stand are made from plastic, but you can also find some made from wood, glass, metal, ceramic or other materials. Unfortunately the big manufacturers of pens and pencils do not offer many pencil stands in their catalogues, resulting in a situation where there are many cheap pencil stands available from supermarkets, office supply stores and other retailers, but only few mid-priced ones (e.g. from Faber-Castell) and expensive ones (e.g. from El Casco).
In this post I will look at two plastic pencil stands. One is the Two-part Design pencil stand from Faber-Castell, the other one is the Pencil pot from Tesco.
Let’s start with the pencil stand from Faber-Castell and some numbers. I bought mine from Cult Pens for £ 14.95 (~ € 16.60), but you can get the same pencil stand from blah! for under £ 11 (~ under € 12) and on the Continent you can get it for under € 11 (~ under £ 10). I could not find a shop selling the pencil stand in the USA, so I am not sure how much it is in the States.
The pencil stand is black, made of plastic and produced in China. When both halves are closed it is a black cuboid, when you separate both halves you have two identical pencil stand with a wave profile. The outside is matt, while the plastic of the wavy surface is glossy. It looks really nice on the desk, but when it is closed it is a bit too high on most desks. Another problem is that you can see dust quite easily on the surface. Altogether a great pencil stand, with a modern look that will fit on most desks. Compared to other pencil stands it is maybe a bit expensive. The same money could have bought you a pencil stand from SUCK UK: very different, but probably one that friends of stationery might prefer.
Tesco, a UK supermarket chain, is selling a pencil pot that is also made in China. It is available in black and white. The label suggests that is is sold in the UK, Ireland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey. In the UK the pencil pot sells for £ 1 (~ € 1.10). The shape is simple, but nice and because the plastic is fairly thick the pot looks quite good in my opinion. The material even looks a bit like bakelite, which is why I bought this pencil pot in the first place.
Both are great pencil stands. The one from Tesco is very good value for £ 1 and especially the black one looks really good and has a charming simplicity. The stand from Faber-Castell is also very nice, maybe a bit expensive, but you actually get two solidly built pencil stands for your money (with more than 350 grams each). If you are a big fan of stationery you might however want to spend your £ 15 on the pencil stand from SUCK UK instead.
Prices and exchange rate: December 2009
An interesting article!
One has to wonder if there is anything unique enough about pencils to warrant specialty holders – especially as these open desktop cup/pot formats seem somewhat generic. Yet the Faber-Castell product does look quite nice, and being sold by a pencil manufacturer is an additional appeal.
I’ve found small inexpensive glass vases (for example ones from IKEA) to be pleasant displays and holders for pencils. They have a nice weight, and allow for a good view of the pencils.
Hello Stephen. Thank you for your response to the post. Using glass vases is a good idea. I should try that. In the past most of my pen pots where Coke and soft drink cans with the top removed. Now there are some other pen pots as well, but I think only one is made of glass (from an IKEA candle that came in the glass).
Very interesting! Thank you for showing these items (I haven’t seen them before).
Stephen: Using inexpensive glass vases is a very good idea.
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For over a year or so this item wasn’t readily available in the U.S., insofar as shops that carried the FC line didn’t carry them — they had to be ordered for around $30.00. But, Faber-Castell USA has been renovating their website and you can order one for about $20:
http://www.shopatron.com/products/productdetail/Pencil+Stand+-+black/part_number=118378/228.0.1.1.7224.66201.0.0.0?
Sean: I noticed the Faber-Castell Design pencil stand in your Blackwing 602 post. $20 seems to be a reasonable price. It is a shame that many of Faber-Castell’s products are not available in all markets. I hope this situation will improve in the future. The fact that Faber-Castell USA offers new products now, previously only available in other markets, is very encouraging.
Faber-Castell makes excellent and classic pencils; however I just came across this nice pencil pot and am currently considering to purchase (through cultpens.com in the U.K.) However one of the earlier posters is true in that any artistically designed, simple, elegant glass- or wooden- or whatever else made of pot is suitable for this purpose. Therefore just use your imagination. I now have a few pencil pots at home and office, one with writing pencils of various brands and hardness (B, 2B, etc.) and one with colored ones and pens. There is nothing more beautiful that writing with a nice pencil, sharpening it the old natural way and erasing any mistakes with a nice eraser. Pencil and a fountain pen are king and queen.