Pencils, eh
A virtual museum of the golden age of the Canadian pencil industry.
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This short 6 inch wooden ruler has a really interesting story to tell. Here are two parts of that story: French Lines and the history of the Biltmore Hat Company.   French LinesThe top of this ruler has a unit of measurement labelled "French lignes". The ligne is a historic unit of length used in France and elsewhere prior to the adoption of the metric system in the late 18th century. It is still used sometimes today in ribbon manufacture. The unit is included on this ruler since these ribbons are often used in men's hat bands and the ligne would be used to measure the width of these ribbons. There are 11.26 lignes per inche. This information is all from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne. Biltmore HatsBiltmore Hats Ltd., founded in 1917, has a long history in Canada. For a detailed telling of this company's story, check out this article from the Guelph Historical Society. After learning about this company's history, I checked out vintage Biltmore hats on eBay and now I feel like I need to add a vintage fedora to my collection of Canadian odds and ends.
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The Cavalier was a pencil that appears to have only been produced for the Canadian market (as far as I can tell). It is described in the 1950 Moyer's school supply catalogue as, "a very fine inexpensive school pencil." It appears to have been made until at least the 1990s. Earlier versions were made under the Eagle brand name and later versions under the Berol brand. All of the pencils that I've seen have been painted red with a silver imprint although some early pencils may have been painted black. I much prefer the less boring red color.  Image from the 1950 Moyer's School Catalogue page 51. In the collection of Cavalier pencils seen below there is an early Eagle Cavalier. The reverse side of this pencil is stamped "Calgary Catholic Schools". The first Berol pencil included the rectangle logo. the last pair of pencil are probably from the 1990s with just the name Berol but no logo. The Eagle pencil is painted the darkest shade of red. The 181 pencil is round and untipped. The 182 is hexagonal and untipped and the 183 is hexagonal tipped with a silver ferrule and pink eraser.  A collection of Cavaliers Perhaps the reason that these were only sold in Canada was because there was a Cavalier Pencil Company in the US although the Canadian pencil may predate the company.
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