History of the Pencil

Ever wonder how the pencil came to be? Faber-Castell has a great page on their web site titled Pencil Discovery and Innovation.

The beginning of the pencil is explained here from the Faber-Castell web site:

The origins of today's pencil goes back to 1565, when a grey-black glistending substance was found in Borrowdale, in the Cumberland hills of England. It was said to be a 'lead' coloured material, greasy to touch an quick to stain the fingers. This substance became known as black-lead, an was found to be more convenient for a writing an drawing than pen and ink, as it's marks could be easily rubbed out.

This would be paired great with an Escher print:

M.C. Escher, Drawing Hands (1948) 

M.C. Escher Official Web Site