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1. Long history. Casper Faber founded Faber-Castell back in 1761 (for comparison - the USA gained independence in only 15 years). He was a furniture manufacturer who made pencils in his spare time. Over time, he was able to raise capital and start a company that now has 8,000 employees in 15 factories producing over 2.5 billion pencils per year for 120 countries. Casper Faber started his business in the German village of Stein, where the company's headquarters are still located, and Faber-Castell became so important to local residents that in honor of the brand's 200th anniversary, a day off was declared in the schools of the village, which by that time had turned into a small but cozy town.
2. Family continuity. Despite the scale of a huge international corporation, Faber-Castell remains a family business. And it's not just that the brand's main customers are schoolchildren and their parents. Throughout the brand's history, it has been owned exclusively by the descendants of Casper Faber and their family members. And starting with him, the company is currently managed by the tenth representative of the family, Marie von Faber-Castell.
3. Count's supplements. The attentive and curious may have a question: if Faber-Castell has always been run by only members of the Faber family, where did the incomprehensible "Castell" in the name come from? The second half of the company's modern name appeared thanks to the daughter of Casper Faber's great-great-grandson, Wilhelm, who married Count Alexander von Castell. He joined the company's board of directors and, in addition to modernizing the brand name, also donated the knights from the family coat of arms and the green color from the flag of his regiment for the Faber-Castell emblem.
And the company's name took on its modern look because Wilhelm insisted that his daughter keep her branded surname when she got married. Her fiancé, the count, also found it difficult to change his, so they became Faber-Castell, and then their new surname became the name for their company. By the way, it was under Alexander that the famous «Polychromos» appeared, the first ever multi-colored pencils for artists. You can buy their descendants from us.
Pencils as a gift
4. Records-records-records. Near the Faber-Castell factory in Malaysia, there is the largest pencil with a height of 19.75 m and a diameter of 80 cm. Of course, this record is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.
5. Lothar von Faber. Just Lothar von Faber. This man, the great-grandson of the founder of Faber-Castell, is so legendary and epic that he deserves a separate paragraph. Long before Tony Stark, he was a genius and philanthropist. He did not become a billionaire and a playboy, but he brought Faber-Castell up several levels at once. He:
• was for capitalism with a human face: he built factories with good access to light and air, organized insurance and pension systems for his workers, which was a rarity at the time, as well as savings banks, a «consumers' club» where they could buy food at reasonable prices, apartment buildings and a library;
• actively invested in future generations: opened and supported a kindergarten in Stein, sponsored schools and other educational institutions;
• was a formidable innovator: invented the hexagonal shape of pencils so that they would not roll off horizontal surfaces, built a factory that dealt with graphite boards to diversify risks, with him Faber-Castell became one of the main suppliers of slide rules;
• became a penman thanks to the King of Bavaria and his court advisor and a bearer of the Legion of Honor thanks to the Emperor of France;
• made his contribution to the development of the law protecting the rights of the owner, when, as a court counselor, he submitted a petition for consideration to protect his products from numerous low-quality counterfeits;
• spared no money to improve the quality of the product: graphite for pencils was delivered from Siberia, and wood for the body - from Florida;
• long before Steve Jobs, he realized that the presentation of the product was no less important than its quality: Lothar was the first to brand pencils with the brand name «A.W. Faber » and spared no expense to decorate the windows of his shops and presentation tables.
6. Premium brand - premium pencils. It is not surprising that the most expensive pencil in the history of mankind belongs to the authorship of Faber-Castell. It was the Graf von Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil with a body made of 240-year-old olive wood, a cap and a tip with an eraser made of 18-carat white gold. A total of 99 of them were made, each at a price of $ 12,800, and they are all already sold out. However, you can buy on our website a set of the same pencils without such frills, but of the same quality.
7. Such a non-random SV. The famous German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld designed this box, which holds an infinite number of Faber-Castell pencils. And each of them is marked with the «SV». It means that these pencils have undergone the patented SV process during their production. It consists in the fact that the lead grooves are pre-lubricated with a special synthetic resin. Thanks to this, the pencil rod becomes indestructible, like Superman, and at the same time sharpens better.
8. Eco- and child-friendly. Faber-Castell takes a responsible approach not only to its customers and employees, but also to Mother Nature herself. The company owns more than 10 thousand hectares of forest, the wood from which is used to produce pencils. And as the trees are cut down, the workers immediately fill the losses by planting seedlings. At the same time, 1/3 of the forest is not touched at all in order to protect the balance of local flora and fauna.
With no less eco-sensitivity, Faber-Castell also treats the materials from which its products are made. All pencils, including varnishes and paints, are absolutely harmless to human health, so you can watch with peace of mind as your children gnaw Faber-Castell pencils!
9. American primacy. It so happened that Faber-Castell became the oldest company in the USA. The brand has long since spread its influence to North America, having been listed in the US company register at number 5 under Lothar. And since the previous 4 brands later disappeared, the title of the oldest (at least technically) company in the Western Hemisphere went to Faber-Castell.
If these 9 interesting facts have drawn your attention to Faber-Castell products, then welcome to our website. Here you will definitely be able to turn around when choosing a particular set of pencils or pens from Faber-Castell.
