Graf von Faber-Castell

Founded 1993 (the line) · 1761 (the house of Faber-Castell) · Stein, Germany · Anton-Wolfgang, Count of Faber-Castell

Graf von Faber-Castell is the luxury line of a house that has been making pencils for more than two and a half centuries. It was founded in 1993 by Count Anton-Wolfgang von Faber-Castell, the eighth generation of the family, on a simple and risky idea: that a pencil could also be a luxury object, not only a pen.

History

The parent house, Faber-Castell, began in 1761 in Stein, near Nuremberg, when the cabinetmaker Kaspar Faber started making pencils. Eight generations later, in 1993, Anton-Wolfgang launched the Graf von Faber-Castell line with writing instruments in fine woods and precious metals. Out of it came the Perfect Pencil, a pencil with a metal extender holding a sharpener and an eraser, which became the line's emblem. Over the years fountain pens, rollerballs and ballpoints joined it in the same grammar: visible wood, exposed grain, silver or platinum at the fittings.

Iconic models

Perfect Pencil
A pencil with a metal extender carrying an integral sharpener and eraser; the object that defined the line in 1993.
Classic Anello
A fluted-bodied fountain pen with metal rings; the house's most recognisable silhouette.
Intuition
A body turned from a single piece of wood, with no visible join between barrel and section.
Guilloche
A repeating geometric engraving on the resin, taken from the watchmaking tradition.

Worth knowing

Faber-Castell is one of the oldest family companies in the world still in family hands: it began in 1761 making pencils, and the luxury line bearing the noble title did not arrive until 232 years later.