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The Faber-Castell Timeline

As the world’s oldest branded writing instrument company, which has been overseen by the same family for 250 years, Faber-Castell has an illustrious history.

  • 1761 – Kaspar Faber starts making the first Bleyweissstift pencils in a small workshop in Ansbach, Germany
  • 1840 – Lothar von Faber, Kaspar’s great grandson, lent his name to the pencils (with the company now called A. W. Faber) and set standard lengths, diameters and grades of lead hardness that are still in use today.
  • 1849 – Lothar opens his first international branch in New York. He later handed over the management to his brother Eberhard (Eberhard Faber would become a separate brand).
  • 1851 – London branch opens, in order for Lother von Faber to be present at the Great Exhibition
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  • 1855 – Paris branch opens
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  • 1856 – Lother von Faber acquires the rights to a graphite mine in Siberia, giving him a distinct commercial advantage
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  • 1861 – The company celebrates its centenary, with 250 employees
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  • 1867 – Napoleon makes Lothar von Faber a chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur, raising this to a hereditary peerage in 1881
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  • 1870 – A.W. Faber is officially entered into the US Register of companies, fifth on the list. As the four companies before it no longer exist, A. W. Faber is the oldest brand name in America
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  • 1872 – Vienna branch opens
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  • 1874 – St Petersburg branch opens
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  • 1884 – The elegant Faberhaus building on Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse is opened. It was later destroyed in World War II.
  • 1898 – Lothar Von Faber’s granddaughter Ottilie marries Count Alexander zu Castell-Rüdenhausen, who takes on the business
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  • 1900 – The company takes the name Faber-Castell
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  • 1905 – Faber-Castell launches the legendary Castell 9000 pencil, bearing the company’s signature dark green and coat of arms. It’s still popular today
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  • 1914-1918 – World War I hits the company hard and it loses its American subsidiaries until 1994
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  • 1925 – Count Alexander builds a new production facility at Stein, Germany, which is where Faber-Castell’s pencils are made to this day
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  • 1928 – Count Roland von Faber-Castell inherits the company. Under his leadership, the company starts manufacturing pens, and opens subsidiaries in France, Australia, Austria, Argentina and Peru during the 1960s.
  • 1948 – Production of TK pencils starts. This new technical pencil proved popular on an international scale.
  • 1949 – Faber-Castell were the first German company to include ballpoint pens in their range.
  • 1961 – The company celebrates its bicentenary with 3000 former and current employees.
  • 1967 – Count Roland buys back a major share in Brazil’s Lapis Johann Faber S.A, which had been confiscated during WWII, making it the largest pencil factory in the world.
  • 1978 – Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell takes over the company.
  • 2011 – Company’s 250th anniversary.
  • 2019 – Company employs 7500 people globally, under the leadership of eight generation Charles von Faber-Castell.