Goethe's Mechanical Pencil

This mechanical pencil was made after a pencil from the possession of Goethe. The pencil is depicted on a copperplate engraving by Carl August Schwerdgeburth. Pencils with such a mechanical function were a world first. They were initially made in England in 1825. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe preferred writing with a pencil because the "buzzing and squirting" of the pen could inhibit his train of thought and "stifle a small product in birth," as he relates in "Dichtung und Wahrheit." The original of the mechanical pencil can be viewed in the Goethe National Museum in Weimar. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, August 28, 1749 - March 22, 1832 Our brass replica has a silver-coloured, tin-plated surface with patination. The pencil is designed in such a way that you can refill it with modern customary pencil leads (diameter 0.7 mm).