Founded in 1761 at Stein near
Nuremberg by cabinet maker Kaspar Faber (1730–84), the enterprise remained in the Faber family for eight generations.
[5] It opened branches in New York (1849), London (1851), Paris (1855), and expanded to Vienna (1872) and St. Petersburg (1874).
[5] It opened a factory in
Geroldsgrün where slide rules were produced. It expanded internationally and launched new products under Kaspar Faber's ambitious great-grandson, Lothar (1817–96).
[5] In 1900, after the marriage of Lothar's granddaughter with a
cadet of the
Counts of Castell, the A.W. Castell enterprise took the name of
Faber-Castell and a new
logo, combining the Faber motto,
Since 1761, with the "
jousting knights" of the Castells'
coat-of-arms.
[6]The Castell family were
mediatised counts of the old
Holy Roman Empire, and as such ranked with the
reigning dynasties of Europe.
[7] In 1901 the head of the family was granted the hereditary title of
Prince by
Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria.
[7] A descendant of the first prince, Count Alexander Friedrich Lothar
von Castell-Rüdenhausen (1866–1928) married Baroness Ottilie von Faber (1877–1944), heiress of the Faber pencil "dynasty" in 1898.
[7] Although the immensely wealthy Lothar had been
ennobled in 1861 and made
Baron von Faber in the
Kingdom of Bavaria in 1881,
[5] in the
German Empire his daughter's marriage to a mediatised nobleman would have been deemed
morganatic, and the Count's trafficking in commerce considered an act of social
derogation for a member of the
Hochadel, so Alexander renounced his birth rank prior to the marriage. He was granted the new hereditary title of
Count von Faber-Castell by
Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria for the descendants of his marriage to the Faber heiress.
[7] Although Alexander and Ottilie divorced in 1918, the Faber business trust had conferred headship of the company on Alexander,
[5] who even kept the Fabers' renovated palace at Stein (
commandeered to
billet journalists during the
Nuremberg trials, including
Ernest Hemingway and
John Steinbeck).
[8]In 1927 Alexander resumed his original name for himself, his second wife (born a countess, Margit Zedtwitz von Moravan und Duppau, 1886–1973), and their son, Count Radulf (1922–2004). His issue by the first marriage had never been considered
dynasts of the House of Castell, but they inherited the vast Faber fortune and continue to include
Castell in their name with the
comital title.
Alexander and Ottilie's only son, Count Roland Lothar Wolfgang Christian Ernst Wilhelm von Faber-Castell (1905–78), inherited headship of the Faber-Castell companies from his parents.
[5] By his second marriage in 1938 to Katharina Sprecher von Bernegg (1917–94), Roland was the father of the current head of the family, Count Anton-Wolfgang Lothar Andreas von Faber-Castell. Anton-Wolfgang was born in
Bamberg 7 June 1941, was married (briefly) in Las Vegas on 16 June 1986 to Carla Mathilde Lamesch—mother of his only son, Count Charles Alexander von Faber-Castell, who was born in
Zürich 20 June 1980—and he wed secondly, at Stein on 12 December 1987, Mary Hogan (b. 1951), by whom he has three daughters (Katharina, and the twins Sarah and Victoria).
Anton-Wolfgang's niece, Countess Floria-Franziska von Faber-Castell (b. 1974) was married at
Kronberg on 17 May 2003 in a much-publicised wedding attended by members of Europe's reigning families, to
Donatus, Hereditary Prince of Hesse, a great-grandson of King
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and a grand-nephew of
Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, sister of
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Floria is a daughter of Hubertus (1937–71), second son of Roland. Various branches of the Faber-Castell family still
flourish, but in the past the Faber and Faber-Castell corporate holdings have usually passed to the
eldest male of the
patrilineage,
[5] currently Count Anton-Wolfgang, third of Count Roland's five sons.
Faber-Castell's Tri-Grip pencils with eraser caps and a sharpener.
Faber-Castell erasers
Faber Castell Polychromos
Faber-Castell 2/83N slide rule
Faber-Castell's Poly mechanical pencil
