FABER, the name of a family of German lead-pencil manu facturers. 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 suc ceeded 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 em ployed, under old-fashioned conditions, and owing to the invention of the French crayons Contes of Nicolas Jacques Conte (q.v.) competition had reduced the entire Nuremberg industry to a low ebb. Johann brought his factory to the highest state of efficiency, and it became a model for all the other German and Austrian man ufacturers. He established branches in New York, Paris, London and Berlin, and agencies in Vienna, St. Petersburg and Hamburg, and made his greatest coup in 1856, when he contracted for the exclusive control of the graphite obtained from the East Siberian mines. Faber had also branched out into the manufacture of water-colour and oil paints, inks, slates and slate-pencils, and en gineers' and architects' drawing instruments, and built additional factories to house his various industries at New York and at Noisy-le-Sec, near Paris, and had his own cedar mills in Florida. For his services to German industry he received a patent of no bility and an appointment as councillor of state. After the death of his widow (1903) the business was inherited by his grand daughter Countess Otilie von Faber-Castell and her husband, Count Alexander.