The stamp of the month for August took me on a journey into the past – to a man whose name is scarcely known today, yet whose invention still shapes our everyday lives: Nicolas-Jacques Conté (1755–1805). An artist and technician, both visionary and practitioner, to whom we owe the pencil in its modern form.
An everyday object with a remarkable history
When we hold a pencil, it seems unremarkable: a small piece of wood, a grey core inside, and that’s it. Yet the story of this tool is surprisingly complex. It takes us to England, to France, and finally to the workshops and laboratories of Nicolas-Jacques Conté. As early as the 16th century, a black mineral was discovered in Borrowdale, in England’s Cumberland county near Keswick. It proved excellent for writing. At first, people thought it was lead and called it “plumbago.” Only much later did they realize it was pure carbon: graphite. This graphite was of exceptional purity, making England one of Europe’s most important suppliers. It was guarded closely, smuggled, and traded – a raw material of strategic importance.
France in distress
Toward the end of the 18th century, France’s situation grew dire. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British fleet blockaded French ports. The famous Battle of Trafalgar, where Admiral Nelson defeated the combined French and Spanish forces, made matters worse. This cut off supplies of high-quality English graphite. What at first seemed a trivial shortage turned into a serious problem: without graphite, no usable pencils could be made – and without pencils, there were no reliable maps, technical sketches, or precise artillery and engineering calculations. A crisis demanding a solution. At that moment, Nicolas-Jacques Conté stepped onto the stage.
Conté – a man of many talents
Conté was an extraordinary figure: painter, physicist, chemist, engineer, and pioneer of ballooning. In 1798 he accompanied Napoleon on the Egyptian expedition and became a founding member of the Institut d’Égypte in Cairo. A French stamp from 1972 depicts this episode symbolically – a scholar and an officer discussing an excavation – recalling the close cooperation between the army and science, of which Conté was a part. His name appears in art history as well as in science and technology. Napoleon himself called him “a universal man with taste, intellect, and genius, capable of reviving the arts of France in the midst of the Arabian desert.”
The birth of the modern pencil
In 1795, on behalf of the French government, Conté developed the process that still underlies pencil production today. He ground lower-quality graphite available in France into fine powder, mixed it with clay, and fired the mass in a kiln. The hardness of the core could be adjusted through the ratio: more clay made it harder and lighter, more graphite softer and darker. These leads were encased in wood – and the modern pencil was born.
This technique was brilliant not only because it solved the acute raw material shortage, but also because it improved quality significantly. The pure graphite sticks used until then – already manufactured by the Faber family, who quickly adopted the new method and whose company Faber-Castell is now the world’s largest pencil producer – were brittle and smeared easily. 
For the first time, different hardness grades could be reliably produced – a breakthrough welcomed by both artists and engineers. Conté’s name still lives on in Conté pencils and Conté crayons, cherished by artists worldwide. The pencil had conquered the world and became a symbol of “writing.”
Almost at the same time, Joseph Hardtmuth (1758–1816) in Vienna experimented with similar methods. He also mixed graphite dust with clay and other substances and fired it into leads, which he successfully marketed through his company, Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth, founded in 1790. This company still exists today. Whether Hardtmuth or Conté had the idea first cannot be definitively determined – but what is certain is that both played a decisive role in establishing the ceramic graphite lead, turning the pencil into a standardized tool available worldwide.
Fame and tragedy
Conté gained great fame with his invention. In 1804, at the height of his recognition, his wife died. The loss struck him deeply, extinguishing his creative drive. His moving words have been preserved: “Now I am no longer filled with the desire to please her.” Only a year later, in 1805, Nicolas-Jacques Conté himself passed away. His legacy remains: a tool that transformed writing and thinking – still everyday, practical, and indispensable today, and one that even gave rise to the invention of the pencil sharpener.
Honoured on stamps
The pencil remains our loyal companion – simple, inexpensive, sturdy, and always ready to forgive mistakes. Whether children scribble their first letters, engineers draft plans, or artists sketch ideas: one stroke can be erased, a new one begun – and that is what makes it so special. No wonder there are around 30 to 40 stamps worldwide celebrating it. This small piece of wood with a graphite core has achieved something only a few everyday objects ever do: it has made history.
The stamp of the month for August, however, honours not only the pencil but above all the life of Nicolas-Jacques Conté. It shows him with his distinctive eye patch, which he had to wear after a laboratory accident, and combines symbols of his varied career: the Eye of Horus, recalling the Egyptian expedition; an observation balloon, symbolizing his pioneering role in aeronautics; a cogwheel, representing his engineering spirit – and of course, the pencil itself. The design – fittingly – was created in pencil technique by Clovis Rétif, who artistically condensed Conté’s versatility and legacy both on the stamp and on the souvenir sheet.
Details of the August 2025 Stamp of the Month:
- Country: France
- Issue date: 28.07.2025
- Size: 30 × 41 mm
- Colours: Multicoloured
- Designers: Clovis Rétif | Louis Genty
- Printer: Philaposte (Phil@poste)
- Type: Commemorative stamp
- Perforation: 13 × 13¾
- Printing method: Intaglio
- Gum: Normal
- Face value: €2.10
- Print run: 594,000