Pens to the People: How the 362-year-old German manufacturer Staedtler has been selling pencils to the Chinese for one-hundred years

J.S. Staedtler ca. 1930s Chinese advertising card and original pencils. From the MOFBA collection.
J.S. Staedtler ca. 1930s Chinese advertising card and original pencils. From the MOFBA collection.

Would you believe that a 362-year-old German manufacturer has been marketing & selling pencils to the Chinese for 100 years? Well, this ca. 1930s advertising card and original pens from our collection tell the story of how that indeed came about… 

Friedrich Staedtler worked as a grocer in Nuremberg, Bavaria.

 

In around 1662, he started to produce wood-cased pencils with graphite leads, thereby vertically integrating the entire manufacturing process – much to the dismay of the local carpenters and gunsmith’s guilds.

 

This made Friedrich the first German pencil maker we know of today to be mentioned in writing.

Johann Sebastian Staedtler, the great-grandson of Friedrich, began manufacturing a new type of pencil in 1834 and went down in history as the inventor of the wood-cased colored pencil based on oil and chalk. On October 9th 1835 he opened a factory and formally incorporated his business as J.S. Staedtler. The company continued to expand over the next decades and in 1922, a first international subsidiary located in New York was established.

1926 announcement of J.S. Staedtler opening offices in China
1926 announcement of J.S. Staedtler opening offices in China

Already three years later in April 1925 an initial print advertisement for Staedtler pencils, transliterated as Shī dé lóu (施德楼), appeared in the Chinese newspaper Shishi Xin Bao (時事新報). Then, on August 5th 1926, we can find an announcement in several local newspapers that the “Staedtler Pencil Factory has set up branches in Shanghai, Tianjin, Hankou and other locations across China”. The ads also mention that the renowned German trading firm Behn, Meyer China Company (天利洋行) has been appointed as managers of Staedtler’s China operations. 

In Shanghai, the company’s office was located on 58 Kiangse Road (todays Jiangxi Lu) and its long-term manager appears to have been a certain Mr. K. Kroier. 

 

Staedtler and its China agents Behn, Meyer & Co. lost no time to market and sell its products in the Far East. Starting in 1926 we can find numerous Chinese print ads and artefacts from marketing activities such as the advertising card from our collection. Staedtler’s “Cock” brand red pencils were particularly highlighted in advertisements and they were also the most well received in China. The rooster has auspicious connotations for fidelity and honesty in the Middle Kingdom, while the color red is a symbol of good fortune and happiness.

Staedtler continued to successfully operate in China throughout the 1930s and 40s, until at least the end of WWII. 

Today, the company claims to be the largest European manufacturer of wood-cased pencils, mechanical pencils and erasers

 

Staedtler has nine manufacturing facilities and over 26 global subsidiaries, including once again one in China - close to a hundred years after its first entry to the market.

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