A silver and enamel pencil

A silver and enamel pencil,

by William Wright Ltd, Birmingham 1914,

the pull-off cover reveals the pencil, the body applied with various enamel flags of the six Allied powers of the First World War, and inscribed 'FOR "A SCRAP OF PAPER" 1914', with a ring attachment, length 8.2cm.

Belgium was established in 1839 and its independence was guaranteed by the Great Powers under the Treaty of London. When, on 4th August 1914, the British Ambassador in Berlin protested to the German Chancellor that German troops had invaded Belgium and threatened military intervention unless they were withdrawn immediately, the Chancellor dismissed the threat by contemptuously suggesting that Great Britain could not possibly be considering a general European War on the basis of that mere "scrap of paper" [i.e. the 1839 Treaty of London].