It was under these circumstances that =Anton Wilhelm Faber=, the son of the founder, whose name the firm still bears, and since 1810 =Georg Leonhard Faber=, the father of the present proprietor, stood at the head of the establishment. Many improvements had been attempted and several adopted; much valuable experience had been gained, many processes in the manufacture had been perfected and a number of intelligent workmen drawn together; spite of all this however the mercantile relations above described operated most perniciously upon the manufactory. The mode of manufacture induced by the enslavement of industry on the part of trade more especially destroyed that conscientious strictness, which must form the foundation of a solid industry. Things went so far that articles were sent forth into the world, possessing the outward appearance of pencils, the wood being just tipped with lead at each end as though it was properly filled, whereas in fact you only had a useless stick of wood before you. Such swindling impositions, sent forth by the Nürnberg manufactories into foreign countries, were well calculated to bring about a complete collapse and it is difficult to regain confidence once deceived or esteem once forfeited. But it must not be supposed that the interests of the Nürnberg pencil manufacture were not solid. The unscrupulous transactions on part of some establishments as a matter of course damaged the reputation of those which carried on their business in an industrious and conscientious manner and the renown of the whole trade was thus placed in jeopardy. In the year 1839 the present proprietor =Johann Lothar Faber= undertook the management of the manufactory upon the death of his father _Georg Leonhard Faber_ abovenamed. This gentleman had, down to his nineteenth year, endeavoured as far as possible to perfect his commercial education in Nuernberg in the most fundamental and general manner and, from his earliest youth, especially devoted himself to the study of everything at all bearing upon his father’s manufactory. Even at that time he directed his attention not merely to his father’s affairs, but also to the developement of a business so sadly crippled and underwent many privations in order as much is possible to satisfy the manifold claims laid upon him by the aim which was always present to his imagination.