The company was originally established in 1761 when a carpenter by the name of Kaspar Faber (1730-1784) opened a small pencil factory in Stein, Germany. The business was called “A.W. Faber” after his son, Anton Wilhelm Faber (1758-1819), who grew the company into a flourishing pencil manufacturer. In 1900, an heiress to the Faber fortune (granddaughter of Lothar Faber) married a count of Castell and the newly united A.W. Faber-Castell soon began producing a high-quality line of “Castell” drawing and copying pencils. The company has its headquarters in Stein to this day, now operating under the name Faber-Castell with 8,000 employees worldwide.