2B Tombow 8900 Pencils
£12.50
Definitely a Japanese design classic beyond the field of stationery - these pencils even have their own nickname "Hachi-Kyu" ("Eight-Nine" in Japanese)! Tombow released the model in 1945 as a premium "retouching pencil", thus avoiding price restrictions set for regular pencils - each one costing a hefty 30 Sen back then (though not as expensive as German imports which were sold for 60 sen) Unfortunately for little Hachi-Kyu, its imprint "Highest Quality" was dropped and downgraded to "High quality" after the introduction of the - also emblematic - Mono pencil in 1963.
In our eyes, this pencil undeserving of its demotion, is very special - in particular because of its box, virtually unchanged over the decades, boldly featuring the company's namesake Dragonfly insect, or in Japanese Tombow.
2B grade
