Pencils, eh
A virtual museum of the golden age of the Canadian pencil industry.
Below are some photos of these pencils from recent online auctions. The Eagle Capital pencils are packed in one row of 8 pencils while the Artglo are packaged with two rows of 6 pencils.
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This pencil contains the images and names of the cartoon characters Popeye, Olive Oyl and Wimpy. The character of Popeye first appeared on January 17, 1929 in the King Features Syndicate daily comic strip named Thimble Theatre. This comic had been running for nearly 10 years prior to Popeye's introduction. It was a very popular comic strip in the late 1930s and early 1940s. I believe this pencil was probably produced some time in the 1940s. The top of this pencil contains the text "©1929KFS" in reference to Popeye's debut. "No. 184" is also printed at the top of this pencil. During some additional searching, I found some images of this same pencil but in a yellow color and with a ferrule on the end. Perhaps this came in two different versions. The Eagle Chief Wahoo No. 185 is another early pencil showing the popular cartoon figures Chief Wahoo, Minnie Ha-Cha, Pigtails and Gusto. The comic strip Big Chief Wahoo was started in 1936. That pencil had a ferrule and eraser on the end. A picture of that pencil was shared on a Facebook group. The poster said that they found the pencil in their grandmother's kitchen "junk drawer" many years ago but didn't know much more about it. I'm curious to discover if there are additional comic strip pencils produced by Eagle during this time period.
If you went to school in Canada in the 90s then you're probably pretty familiar with Le Kitt pencil boxes. Either you or a freind probably had one to hold your school supplies. A few pencils and pens, some pencil crayons, an eraser or ruler. You may have had it covered with stickers. These plastic pencil cases were made by Berol in a number of different colours. I've seen purple, green, yellow, blue, red in various shades. My 30 year old box shown here is dark green. From what I can tell, these were made in Canada from the late 1980s (at least 1989) until the late 1990s. There were two main designs of the sticker on top of the box. Early boxes had the black band across the top with the words Le Kitt and a design witha white background. Later boxes, like mine, had the words Le Kitt on the top left with wider variety of items shown... not just pencils and erasers, this pictures sewing supplies and a wrench. It is interesting that while the Eagle/Berol pencil factory in Drummondville shut down in 1992, these were still being produced in Canada at some other facility until the late 1990s. They must have been produced under a contract with a Canadian plastics company. It would be interesting to find out where they were made in Canada. Do you have any memories of Le Kitt? What did you stash in these ubiquitous plastic boxes?
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