Tuesday, January 1, 2019

A Mongol sighting


[Robert Bice as a police dispatcher. From The Racket (dir. John Cromwell, 1951). Click for a larger view.]

It looks like — is it? Hard to tell. Hit Pause. Look closely. Yes, it’s a Mongol pencil. The ferrule is the giveaway: dark, shiny, dark. Click for a larger view and you, too, can be sure.

I rediscovered the Eberhard Faber Mongol, the pencil of my childhood, in the early 1990s, after I stopped smoking cigarettes and became an ever more dedicated stationery fiend. I like Mongols, on my desk or in the movies. And yes, I also noticed the cigarette in the dispatcher’s hand.

Related reading
All OCA Mongol posts (Pinboard)

comments: 5

The Crow said...

Shiny dark green ferrule. I have a few Mongol stubs in my used pencils box, complete with test-anxiety teeth-marks. Thank you for the memory.

Michael Leddy said...

If it’s a Mongol, I think it’s going to be black and gold. Maybe it’s a really old one? (You know, the way old black fabric begins to look greenish.)

Michael Leddy said...

I wasn’t kidding about the black looking green. But I just realized: you must be thinking of the beautiful green of the Dixon Ticonderoga.

The Crow said...

Maybe so, Michael. I'll have to find my box of stubs to check it out! The longer I type, the more I think you are right. Still, it will be fun to visit with my stubs...provided I can find them.

Michael Leddy said...

Maybe there’ll be a Mongol or two too. :)