Yard O Lette

[winsonli]

I have heard of the brand Yard O Led, but what is Yard O Lette? Are they the same company?

[Yuki Onitsura]

Perhaps some dodgy rip off of Yard O Led?

 

Yuki

[QM2]

I believe "Yard o Lette" was the name of smaller (half-legth) Yard-o-Led pencils in the 1940s-50s.

[Deirdre]

They're the little girlie ones.

 

(I so want one for my birth year)

[winsonli]

Was Yard O Lette designed and marketed as a girl's pencil, or is it just smaller?

[twdpens]

Was Yard O Lette designed and marketed as a girl's pencil, or is it just smaller?

 

Just slightly smaller, and cheaper. The ones that I've seen had grey acrylic bodies rather than solid silver or rolled gold. All-metal types were also made but I suspect these were plated rather than solid silver.

 

In common with most pen manufacturers, Yard-O-Led no longer makes budget versions of their products .

 

HTH,

 

Martin

[Deirdre]

See item 130279830471 on ebay.co.uk -- it's a Yard-o-Lette that's hallmarked sterling. They did make sterling pencils in that line at one point, but I don't know when they stopped. That one's from 1947. (No affiliation and didn't want to link directly since this isn't Market Watch.)

[soapytwist]

I have a Yard-O-Lette in sterling silver. Mine's odd in that although it's stamped 'Made in England' and 'Sterling Silver', it isn't hallmarked which is unusual for an English-made piece of silver - it also means I can't date it acurately.

Yard-O-Leds had a 'yard of leads' in each pencil (literally 12 x 3 inch leads), but the company was born out of Sampson Mordan who were famous for their small pencils. I guess they still wanted to cater for the market that Mordans used to service.

[Deirdre]

I have a Yard-O-Lette in sterling silver. Mine's odd in that although it's stamped 'Made in England' and 'Sterling Silver', it isn't hallmarked which is unusual for an English-made piece of silver - it also means I can't date it acurately.

That's bizarre. Sterling hallmarks were used in Britain from 1478 onward. Maybe made for the export market?

[richardandtracy]

I have a Yard-O-Lette in sterling silver. Mine's odd in that although it's stamped 'Made in England' and 'Sterling Silver', it isn't hallmarked which is unusual for an English-made piece of silver - it also means I can't date it acurately.

That's bizarre. Sterling hallmarks were used in Britain from 1478 onward. Maybe made for the export market?

Or it slipped through the net, wasn't hallmarked & is therefore illegal to sell in the UK. It's possible to imagine one being found on the floor & put in a batch just come back from the assayer's office.

 

Regards

 

Richard.

 

[burmeseboyz]

Or it slipped through the net, wasn't hallmarked & is therefore illegal to sell in the UK. It's possible to imagine one being found on the floor & put in a batch just come back from the assayer's office.

 

Very suspicious, I smell Victorian intrigue!

[sumgaikid]

Or it slipped through the net, wasn't hallmarked & is therefore illegal to sell in the UK. It's possible to imagine one being found on the floor & put in a batch just come back from the assayer's office.

 

Very suspicious, I smell Victorian intrigue!

 

Elementary,my dear burmeseboyz!

 

John

 

[oion]

I have a Yard-O-Lette in sterling silver. Mine's odd in that although it's stamped 'Made in England' and 'Sterling Silver', it isn't hallmarked which is unusual for an English-made piece of silver - it also means I can't date it acurately.

Yard-O-Leds had a 'yard of leads' in each pencil (literally 12 x 3 inch leads), but the company was born out of Sampson Mordan who were famous for their small pencils. I guess they still wanted to cater for the market that Mordans used to service.

 

Interesting. I just acquired a sterling Yard-o-Lette, and it's not hallmarked either. The top nut-like part is stamped with "MADE IN ENGLAND", "YARD O LETTE", and "STERLING SILVER" on opposing sides. If you look at the current auction #370166521234 (ebay.co.uk), that version of Yard-o-Lette also has "LADY" stamped above YARD O LETTE.

 

Mine is less than 4 inches long and, unlike many YOLettes I've seen on auction, does not have a top ring but rather a clip. The clip has "PAT. NO 422767" stamped onto it, but I've never been able to find information on that patent. Does it even exist? Is there a trick to finding old patents filed in another country? Are numbers reused, or is that number a fake? Hmmm.

 

The lack of hallmarks and possible fakeness doesn't bother me, though, because it was cheap and I bought it less for collecting value than functional, assuming I can get it working again. I happen to like the portable size, weight, and balance; despite the very short length, it seems easier to use than all the very slim pocket models but far less chubby than others (Lamy Scribble comes to mind). It reminds me a lot of the Caran d'Ache Ecridor XS pencils, which I'd get if I had a lot more money.

 

There is so little information on the internet about this. The only other very cursory blurb I could find was on the UK site "The Arts and Crafts Home."

 

Now, I actually want to use this pencil so I intend to clean it up somehow or send it to a restorer. The only downside to this vintage pencil is that silver tarnishes, so I'll have to figure out how to deal with that. (A part of me wouldn't mind stripping the silver although that would be bad--I wonder if I can get it replated with something else. Probably not. Anyone know if I can dip an entire pencil into a silver cleaning solution?) Perhaps I'll post some pictures after cleaning/restoring this thing.

[soapytwist]

I checked this with my father (a wholesale jeweller for twenty years, a retail one for ten, and an antique dealer for the last twenty). He said there's nothing illegal about not hallmarking. He reckoned that with items where the whole item is NOT made of silver (the Parker 75 and related Cisele pens spring to mind), companies might take an economic view not to bother, especially on items where there are lots of small separate parts.

The Yard-O-Lette would need the barrel, the clip, the 'bolt' and the top all hallmarking, and each one needs to be struck by hand all of which costs money for the testing. I see the 'Sterling Silver' mark as a form of 'self-certification', where the company is certain of the quality of material they are using for the product. In effect the hallmark could be seen as a marketing tool!

[soapytwist]

**Deleted - double post**

Edited March 4, 2009 by soapytwist

[oion]

I checked this with my father (a wholesale jeweller for twenty years, a retail one for ten, and an antique dealer for the last twenty). He said there's nothing illegal about not hallmarking. He reckoned that with items where the whole item is NOT made of silver (the Parker 75 and related Cisele pens spring to mind), companies might take an economic view not to bother, especially on items where there are lots of small separate parts.

The Yard-O-Lette would need the barrel, the clip, the 'bolt' and the top all hallmarking, and each one needs to be struck by hand all of which costs money for the testing. I see the 'Sterling Silver' mark as a form of 'self-certification', where the company is certain of the quality of material they are using for the product. In effect the hallmark could be seen as a marketing tool!

 

This makes sense for all these plated pencils and pens ("rolled" or whatever). I don't know how much the YOLettes originally cost on retail, but I suppose these weren't considered "top of the line." ROI and all that. Of course, I wonder just how many were produced en masse compared to the other YOL lines. The one Deirdre spotted must have been solid, then.

 

Any licensing/accreditation/hallmarking/certification is good for marketing. But I'll treat mine as perfectly legit anyway.