Falsified Headers

This is the story of my first fully intentional purchase of pencils in I can’t say how many years. Easily eight.

I saw the pictures on Amazon. I knew there were no more Canadian pencils. What else would be uncommon and interesting? Oh! Dutch pencils! German pencils! Cheap, too! I ordered a dozen each. The Lyra Studium HB indicated a box of 12, the Bruynzeel HB too. I already knew I would be gravitating toward softer leads, so I also got a dozen Lyra Graduate 6B to see how soft was too soft. Strangely they were listed as sold individually, so I ordered 12.

Most new pencils now have a UPC on the stick itself, so when these arrived I found it bizarre that yes, the Lyra Graduate 6Bs indeed were sold individually with no box, even by the dozen, but had a separate UPC sticker covering each of the pre-printed ones. Perhaps this was Amazon’s code or the export market code. Either way, they were right at the grip and would have become a sticky mess without removing, I assumed. They were a sticky mess even when I removed them, unfortunately.

On to the other Lyras, which as HBs in a pleasant yellow, I assumed would be typical school pencils similar to the Mirados I’d been enjoying from the family box. Instead they were waxy extruded crap. I remember back to my elementary school days, when sometimes other kids would have extruded pencils and if I borrowed one, I remember how my hand would be sore I had to press so hard to get a dark line. Apparently the appeal of these is that they dull more slowly and are stronger because they essentially have no seams and the plasticized structure makes them somewhat bendable. On top of this, the stick read “Germany” but the box said otherwise…

So I guess the label on the stick is not very meaningful in our global supply chain world. I’m curious what future collectors and archeologists will think when they see pencils from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, all with “Germany” on the side. Perhaps they’ll think these were all part of some vast German colonial empire… Competing with the empire where things from these countries also say the names of other countries - perhaps a great global colonial competition was underway? They would be partially right, I suppose, but the colonial conflict is called capitalism.

I would have to do more homework… Speaking of which, I had some other (sticky) Lyras that I actually liked but where on earth were they from? I searched until I found a picture of the back of an actual box of Lyra Graduates (they do come in boxes if you buy the art pastels, it appears), which clearly indicates made in China (as a tickbox, supposedly so that they can move their production around as currency fluctuations and supplies dictate, without having to print new packages, which are likely made in higher-cost countries, like Canada).

So, bummer number two.

These beautiful Dutch pencils would redeem the shopping spree, wouldn’t they? But oh, dear. The back of the box here also showed Made in China, despite the stick also saying “Holland”. The Bruynzeel HBs were beautiful and felt nice to write with, and actually remain some of my go-to pencils when I’m working with good paper (bad paper usually requires something softer). But I was so sad and disappointed now.

Note that my desire to avoid these duplicitous brands is not a sort of anti-orientalism or sinophobia. I realize lots of great things are made in China (and Inda, and elsewhere), but because SO MUCH stuff is made in China, honestly it seems less special. And if I were to get some Chinese or Indian pencils, I’d prefer some local brands, not colonial brands. I’m becoming really intrigued at the challenge of finding stuff that isn’t as fleeting a part of this mobile capitalist post-national world. The small bits of manufacturing plant remaining in the old industrial centres of the world look like they’ll be a bit more of a search to come by.