In 1761, German Faber-Castell launched the first branded pencil, and in a sense launched the entire industry of art material manufacturing. By now, Faber-Castell’s high quality pencils are standard issue artillery in every artist’s arsenal. To celebrate the company’s two hundred fiftieth anniversary, Faber-Castell has created a “Birthday Box” set worthy of its heritage. The set comes in a beautifully handcrafted brown wooden box, complete with a metal handle wrapped in leather. Inside, the box contains plenty of toys to craft your art: on top of a complete set of Faber-Castell’s standard color pencils, 120 Polychromos artist’s pastels, black-lead pencils, 120 Polychromos artist’s color pencils and 120 Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils are included. Nevermind the additional crayons, porcelain water pot, eraser pencil, art eraser and more. Only 1,761 of these sets will be made and sold. Of course, with a collection this good you wouldn’t want those jerks at Otis, RSDI or PAC getting their greasy mitts all over your stuff — you can’t trust those Vegenaise-eating, Salem-listening miscreants as far as you can throw them, so a security closure and individual code come with each set. Now that’s how you assemble a box set worthy of 250 years of creativity.