Eberhard Faber Van Dyke/Microtomic Drawing Pencil

I can’t seem to find any information about when the Van Dyke was introduced. The earliest catalog reference I have for it [as of june 2006] is from 1921. Prior to the introduction of the Van Dyke, Eberhard Faber’s professional quality drawing pencil was the Mongol.

The first Van Dyke drawing pencils were non-Microtomic. Microtomic was Eberhard Faber’s marketing term used to describe their graphite refining process introduced in the 1930s. When the Microtomic process was adopted, the term began appearing on the reverse imprint of the Van Dyke. By the 1940s, the Van Dyke box began featuring Microtomic in much larger type than the Van Dyke name (see box below). In 1953, the Van Dyke was redesigned and although the Van Dyke name still made a token appearance on the pencil imprint, they were now known as Microtomic Drawing Pencils. By the late 1950s all vestiges of the Van Dyke name were dropped.

As with the Koh-I-Noor and A.W. Faber companies, The U.S. Eberhard Faber was re-incorporated during the second World War and operated autonomously from the European Eberhard Faber. The two company’s products diverged somewhat during this time but I don’t know enough about the German Eberhard Faber company to give a history of their version of the Van Dyke. I believe they kept the yellow color and never used the Microtomic name. There is a German Eberhard Faber leadholder in the Leadholder Galleries that reinforces this theory.

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The pencil pictured above is an early example of the restyled Microtomic in “Dusk Gray” dressing which retains a small reference to the Van Dyke name in the imprint. Later examples of the Microtomic (as shown below) would abandon the Van Dyke name altogether.

 Box of one dozen Microtomic Van Dyke 600 pencils.

obverse  reverse

Card-mounted Microtomic circa late 1950s.

obverse
reverse

 box

 Eberhard Faber Microtomic Drawing Pencils one dozen box (obverse).

 Eberhard Faber Microtomic Drawing Pencils one dozen box (reverse).

half gross box (half scale)		box end

obverse  reverse

 obverse