FABER, LOTHAR VON; AND FABER, EBERHARD

born June 12, 1817, Stein, Bavaria died July 26, 1896, Stein born Dec. 6, 1822, Stein, Bavaria died March 2, 1879, New York, N.Y., U.S. E. Faber also called John Eberhard Faber German brothers who expanded a family pencil business into a worldwide firm preeminent in the manufacture of writing products and art supplies. Taking over a pencil business started by his great-grandfather Kaspar Faber (d. 1784) near Nrnberg, Lothar von Faber established branches of the company throughout Europe and in the United States and contracted (1856) for exclusive control of all graphite being mined in eastern Siberia at that time. He won (1881) a patent of nobility and an appointment as councillor of state for his services to German industry. His brother, Eberhard, went to the United States in 1849 and built a Faber manufacturing plant, the first large-scale American pencil factory, in 1861 to serve an American market previously supplied by exports from his brother's plant in Europe. The German branch of the firm passed out of Faber hands in 1903, while the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company, incorporated in the United States in 1898, remained under family control.