Four flavors of the Eberhard Faber Mongol mechanical pencil No. 38, complete with pocket clips and clamp erasers.
Before the company began selling mechanical pencils, extenders with clamp erasers were paired with Van Dyke and Mongol pencils.
1923 Eberhard Faber Co. Catalog
The wood-cased versions of the Mongol pencil line far-outlived their mechanical cousins (the brand itself lasted for more than 80 years), but perhaps the No. 38 was in part an extension of the 1582’s design.
Contrapuntalism 
The colours make me think of precious stones.
Are the bodies made of clear plastic? I think they are and the mechanism under it looks rather fascinating.
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Nice set of Mongol 38s. I have only seen them in really rough condition, those look almost pristine. Were they from a salesman sample? Love those old extenders with the clamp erasers too! Great stuff.
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Matthias and Patrick:
Something I’ve noticed about EF products made of plastic (some as recent as the 70s) tend to end up warped in some way. I don’t know what the proper chemical explanation is, but it’s similar to when a wood-cased pencil ends up with a slight curve to it. These are nice and straight, but I’m not sure how they escaped warping. Maybe it has something to do with being exposed to daylight for an extended period, or maybe even humidity…I don’t know.
The plastic barrels are translucent so you can see inside to a degree. A nice touch is that they have the “characteristic Mongol band” painted at the top and at the tip (though the blue pencil looks like it got by quality control…)
I have yet to determine the span of time when the arrows were punched from the clamp erasers.
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I happen to have three E.Faber Mongol No. 38 working pencils that I’d like to sell. I’d say they’re about 8.5 out of 10. One each, red, light green and dark green. The biggest fault is the one clip that I unwittingly broke while trying to make it smaller so that it wouldn’t slide on the pencil. I have the two pieces and am unfamiliar with what’s possible in the way of potential repair. Needless to say this is not an area of expertise for me. The second problem is three varying degrees of black paint loss around the tops. There’s a little surface wear on the metal parts, but there’s not a whole lot and there is varying gold paint loss in the inscribed Mogol No. 38 part. I’ve seen that there’s one for sale on eBay for $118. I have a hard time believing they’re worth that. Can anybody offer any input that might help me find a place to sell them (I assumed I’d sell them together), and figure out what they are really worth? I would greatly appreciate it. BTW, there’s not even much info about these pencils on Google!
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