“ Their business was founded in 1760 at Stein, near Nuremberg, by Kaspar Faber (d. 1784) . It was then inherited by his son Anton Wilhelm (d. 1819) . Georg Leonhard Faber succeeded in 1810 (d. 1839) , and the business passed to Johann Lothar von Faber (1817–1896) , the great-grandson of the founder. At the time of his assuming control about twenty hands were employed, under old-fashioned conditions, and owing to the invention of the French crayons Contés of Nicolas Jacques Conté (q.v.) competition had reduced the entire Nuremberg industry to a low ebb (see Pencil) . ”