Pencil sharpener
F W Woolworth & Co Ltd
Category
Metalwork
Date
1936
Materials
Metal
Measurements
1.875 ins (h)1.625 ins (dia)
Order this imageCollection
Shaw's Corner, Hertfordshire
NT 1274987
Caption
The playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856– 1950) disliked fuss about his birthdays. He received many unwanted gifts from admirers, including a bison’s foot inkstand and a personal- ised box of chocolates, which he donated to the local village fete. In 1936, his friends at the Malvern Festival (founded to stage Shaw’s plays) discussed possible presents for his 80th birthday. Shaw thanked them but suggested only token gifts from Woolworths that cost no more than threepence. He preferred useful gifts rather than expensive trifles and admired new department stores, which provided low-cost goods for a mass market. Shaw was delighted with his personal and amusing Woolworths presents, which included a coat hanger from actress Wendy Hiller (star of the 1938 film Pygmalion), sealing wax and a razorblade. This metal pencil sharpener in the shape of a globe was the gift of actress Mavis Walker, who gave it to him during rehearsals at the festival. Contemporary photographs show it in use on Shaw’s desk in his famous revolving writing hut, where it can still be seen today.
Summary
A cast metal pencil sharpener in the form of a globe, decorated with a map of the world. The lower half of the sphere acts as a receptacle for the shavings and sits on a metal base. The globe pencil sharpener was given to Bernard Shaw by the actress Mavis Walker in 1936 for his eightieth birthday, when he was attending rehearsals at the Malvern Festival. Shaw stipulated that all gifts presented to him that year were to be purchased from Woolworth’s, costing a maximum of threepence. He used the pencil sharpener on his desk in the writing hut at Shaw’s Corner, seen in photographs taken during the 1940s.
Provenance
The Shaw Collection. The house and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust by George Bernard Shaw in 1950, together with Shaw's photographic archive.
Makers and roles
F W Woolworth & Co Ltd, retailer
References
Holroyd, 1991: Michael Holroyd, Bernard Shaw The Lure of Fantasy 1918-1950, volume 3. London: Chatto & Windus, 1991