VW Toys this month turns the spotlight on a very special pencil box produced by the A.W. Faber Company.
The business was founded in 1761 in Stein, Germany by cabinet maker, Kaspar Faber, and, despite numerous expansions over the years, remained in the Faber family ownership for eight generations.
It started out making pencils, but grew to offer a wide range of office supply products, opening a second factory in Geroldsgrün, Bavaria, where it produced slide rules (remember them?) and another in Noisy-Le-Sec, France for its range of ink pens.
Through marriage, the Faber lineage merged with the noble Castells
