Old Derwent / Derwent vecchie

Old pencils (Derwent vecchie) are the best ones, by far and large. They were brought to me from London by my mother, around year 1977.

There is not much left of them, and I have so many pencils, now... but I still enjoy drawing with them, every now and then (see post below), sparingly, to have them last as long as possible.

I wonder if they are so much better then the new ones because time improves them (as it happens with watercolour paper) or if it is because the quality of those manufactured later is actually lower.

There is a third possibility, however: may be, in addition to the reasons above, these old pencils carry... the sweet flavour of love and youth.