If you have quality antique or
vintage pencil sharpeners similar to those that you see
on this page that you want to sell, please contact us at
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
providing me with as many details as possible.
Thank you!!
Antique pencil sharpeners / pointers
are a
very popular collectible office antique.
The market for pencil sharpeners has changed over the last few years,
mainly because of eBay and the internet. Ebay initially drove prices for early pencil
sharpeners to record highs, but
over time it overfilled the market and
has since caused demand to slack off for all but the rarest examples.
I have bought & sold hundreds of pencil sharpeners over the past 15 -
20
years. We have helped disperse several collections of antique pencil
sharpeners, and have helped
collectors add some of the rarest and hardest to find examples to their
collections. We always have a good supply of good shapeners listed
for sale on our
sister website
www.patented-antiques.com.
Here is a perfect example. Below is the Gould
& Cook pencil sharpener. It is a hard to find and desirable
pencil sharpener. Before
eBay and the internet they sold for a couple / few hundred dollars.
In the hey-day examples
were being offered for, and were selling for $1000-1500 on eBay and privately on a good day. The truth
was that much of that buying and selling was going on between
dealers driving the price up. After a short period most serious collectors had it, not
once, but 2 or three times. The final price
correction happened after 6 of them were listed on eBay the same week and
it became obvious what was going on. They started selling for no more than
a couple / few hundred again. Today they are still selling for j3 -
500
when offered and sold on eBay.
That is the truth and no matter
what you think or want to believe, it is still the truth.
Pencil Sharpeners are not alone in experiencing this sort of price adjustment. It just
happens. Just like it did with Beam bottles, beanie babies, lunch
boxes, Griswold and
every other collectible that got hot and then cooled off.
History
The
race to design and market the "best" pencil sharpener seems to have begun
in the 1880's to about 1910 or so. There were a few interesting
collectible versions designed coming from the popular deco era , but that
is the general time frame for most good examples.
In general unusual and rare Pencil sharpeners that date from before or near the turn of the century
are the ones that are the most collectible and have best held their value.
After that outfits like Boston and Dexter dominated the market, and the
era of design ended.
The following pictures are of some
of the earlier and harder to find styles of vintage mechanical pencil sharpeners.
Values for these patented pencil pointers can range from under $100 up into 4 figures
even today. There are
a few truly rare and desirable patented and mechanical varieties
that occasionally pop up and sell for record prices.
Mechanical pencil sharpeners that perform their job through the use of knives or other unusual methods
rather than the later more typical ones using
roller mill /
cutters / burrs such as Bostons & Dexters, are more desirable and
valuable.
The
pencil sharpener on the left is called the
Little Shaver or Handy, and it comes in a number of variations both in
finish and in simple design changes to hold the cutter, the pencil, or the
make-up of the swinging arm. Note the condition of that one with the original label
from a shoe store still affixed. Details like that greatly affect
value. Most sharpeners like this sell in the 100-200.00 range on eBay these
days, depending on condition and other variables.
The relatively common U.S. Automatic Pencil Sharpener,
is pictured on the right. This sharpener was patented in about
1906, and
several different variants of it exist. The example at the top of the page is a one-of-a-kind presentation piece
made by Asprey of London, which is England's equivalent to our Tiffany
& Co.
There is no value range for that sharpener as I obtained it through a trade, and
no other one exists that I know of. The typical model U.S. Automatic pictured on the right generally brings
$100 or less today in so so condition. They use to bring $200 or more
depending on condition. I currently have one in its original box in
mint condition with extra blades offered for sale right now on our sales
site
www.Patented-Antiques.com
Other variations of the Automatic that are known include a
leather covered model, or those with different labels or decals on the front..
There are also some with different bases as well. The same
company also made the pencil sharpener called the Jumbo which was the same basic
design, but a bit bigger and a bit more complicated, and it used a slightly
better design to turn the pencil instead of using the blade to accomplish
this task. Jumbos sell for approx twice what a US Automatic
would.
There are also a number of
foreign versions that are based on the same design that are available as
well. The Avanti on the left is an example of this type.
There
are a number of other sharpeners that are identical to this with different names
or housings on them. I have
been told Avanti sharpeners date from the 60's or later. In general
these sell for less than US models, and most
foreign sharpeners are also selling for a fraction of previous levels in today's market.
The
next picture on the right is of the patented Planetary Pencil Sharpener
which is a very graphic sharpener that
comes in a few different
versions as well. The one
pictured is a
later model. The earlier models legs are attached at the
base by a bar between them, making the foot portion one cast piece. This
pencil sharpener was designed to be either a table
or wall mount and you swung the legs around to accomplish this after
removing a screw. These unusual antique pencil sharpeners never had
a cover and are proper as shown. They are also often missing their
shaving drawers. They
typically sell in the 200.00 range today on eBay and use to bring twice
that easily
This next
sharpener is interesting because you had to provide your own blade, as in
a pocket knife
to perform the operation. It is marked the Johnson's Perfect
Pointer
and I have never seen another, or seen reference to one in any literature.
It is interesting to read the marketing blurbs that accompanied these
types of devices, all touting themselves to do the perfect job and usually twice as
fast as other devices. There were literally hundreds of different versions of
pencil sharpeners that were patented and marketed back during their heyday near the
turn-of-the-century and a bit before.
Some of these sharpeners originally cost
as little as $1 or less and were targeted at the masses, or
students. Other more complicated and dressed-up models, most
notably those pictured in catalogs for draftsmen and surveyors or the like
could cost upwards of $20.00 and were targeted
toward the wealthier segment of the population. In general these are
far less common and sell for a premium today. The names of some of
these are the Quail, President, The Right, Dixon, L. E. B. Perfection,
Lakeside, and a host of others.
Another antique pencil sharpener is the Rockford
Pencil Pointer, pictured on
the right, and
named after where it was made in Illinois. It is hard to imagine that
this one could outperform a pocket knife, but that is what the ads said,
and what makes it a good one. Want to have a
contest? I will put my pocket knife up against any of these
pictured and be willing to bet that I would win.
This sharpener has also seen a large drop in value from what they sold for
for a short period, but it is still a desirable and pretty hard to find
one, and in the near mint condition this one is in would still sell for a
few hundred on a good day I would imagine.
PLEASE NOTE!! We do not buy sell or deal in
or with email figural die-cast sewing machine that were made
The above pencil sharpeners are an example of the
caliber, condition and quality of these devices that I am primarily interested
in. To see past sales results click the Office Antiques link in
the right column.
If you have quality antique or
vintage pencil sharpeners similar to those that you see
on this page that you want to sell, please contact us at
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
providing me with as many details as possible.
To see examples of antique
and vintage pencil sharpeners and office antiques
that I currently have for sale please go to our sister site
at www.Patented-Antiques.com and
visit the office & scientific sale pages you will find there.
Thank you!!
Larry & Carole
