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A. Hammer Pencil Factory (Soviet Union)

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 30 November 2023

Presentation on A. Hammer
The flag

See also:

Soviet Union

Presentation on A. Hammer

image located by Viktor Lomantsov, 10 January 2018

A Soviet advertising poster (1928) for American pencils "A. Hammer" shows a mysterious red flag with logo.
Big image - https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/164839/29146087.880/0_d41aa_62caa691_orig.jpg
Viktor Lomantsov, 10 January 2018

These pencils were the products of Armand Hammer (1898-1990), a prominent American businessman, philanthropist and communist sympathizer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_Hammer
Miles Li, 10 January 2018

The poster is a publicity image for the pencil brand "A. Hammer". It has been claimed that it was done by Владимир Августович Стенберги (English: Vladimir Avgustovich Stenberg) and Георгий Августович Стенберги (English: Georgiy Avgustovich), known as the Братья Стенберг (English: Stenberg brothers) in a Constructivism technique.

"Soviet advertising pencils 1920's. A. Hammer" Pencil factory "A. Hammer" began work in Moscow in April 1926, as a private American industrial concession. On February 19, 1930, the factory was taken over by the state and was renamed (the) "Карандаш фабрики им. Сакко и Ванцетти" (English: "Sacco and Vanzetti Pencil Factory" (after. Sacco and Vanzetti, after the Italian immigrant workers whose execution in the U.S. in 1927 for crimes they allegedly did not commit made them martyrs to the socialist cause). Thus, the pencil (company and) brand A. Hammer lasted a little less than four years.

A. Hammer's (named after its founder, Armand Hammer) factory was the only private pencil factory for the whole of the USSR's existence and was a strong competitor to the state pencil factories. Consumers willingly bought pencils and other stationery products of the A. Hammer factory, although it was much more expensive than similar ones at state factories.

A. Hammer's products were of high quality, colorfully framed and competently promoted to the market. It can be assumed that it was the competition between the private pencil factory A. Hammer and the state pencil factories that caused a large number of pencil advertisements in the USSR in the late 1920s. In the Soviet Union, neither before nor after, this has taken place. And, of course, the most vivid and numerous was the advertisement of A. Hammer.
Esteban Rivera, 10 January 2018

The flag

The flag in question is a swallow-tailed red background, featuring a square emblem in the canton, made up of a (supposedly) naval-like emblem design displaying a crossed hammer and anchor pointing upwards in white over light blue background, and coming out of the top left corner, are eight red rays over a white background. In the middle, in black background, the statue of liberty (featured from the waist up). The pencil is featured on the New York skyline with an arriving ship at night.

The pencil featured in the poster reads (from top to bottom, written vertically): naval-like emblem design displaying a crossed hammer and anchor pointing upwards in black - A. HAMMER "DIAMOND" (diamond being a type of pencil manufactured by the company).

Below, the following inscription in three rows, from top to bottom (in Cyrillic script) and in capitals:
АМЕИРКАНСКАЯ ПРОМЫШЛЕННАЯ КОНЦЕССИЯ А.ГАММЕР (English: American Industrial Concession A. Hammer) КАРАНДАШИ ПЕРЬЯ (English: Pencil's feathers) МОСКВА ♦ НЬЮ·ИОРК (English: Moscow ♦ New York)

The image Victor mentions is part of a two series posters, as part of the company's:

1. Outdoor advertising. In 1927 - 1928, several color posters with images of the top products of the factory were published. Probably, they were distributed to wholesale customers for registration of retail outlets. Also issued postcards with images of these posters."

The poster caption reads: Плакат «А. Гаммер. Diamond. Карандаши. Перья», год издания - 1927, размер 71,5x51 см. (English: Poster "A. Hammer. Diamond. Pencils. Feathers ", the year of publication - 1927, the size of 71.5 x 51 cm.

Esteban Rivera, 10 January 2018

This flagoid was used originally (and uniquely) in a promotional poster for the A. Hammer Pencil Factory - a joint Soviet-U.S. office material manufactor, based in Leningrad in the 1930s. The shown flagoid is mainly red with an emblem at the upper hoist (in typical Soviet fasion) and is forked, and seemingly not tapering.

Although the flag seems to be wholly ersatz (a flagoid), and never used outside the image of this poster, the emblem itself seems to have been the logo of the company, as shown, i.a., in this other image: https://mf.b37mrtl.ru/rbthmedia/images/2017.12/original/5a40b7eb85600a4e382760ee.jpg (Not sure whether this is another poster, a packaging label, or both.)

This logo combines the symbols of Leningrad (Sankt Peterburg) and of New York City, showing a white on black contour representation of the Statue of Liberty (from the bust up) on a central square area and on the wide edge around it the lettering "A. Hammer" in black blocky capitals at the bottom and on the other three sides a red and white radiant pattern (with nine visible red rays) beaming from the upper left corner (dexter / hoist side) where there is a (light) blue quadrant sundisc bearing in white historical arms of Sankt Peterburg [ru-spe.html], with the grapple however replaced by a hammer.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 30 November 2023