Oh la la

"Oh là là" is a French phrase used to express admiration. I can think of no better phrase to describe the two Eagle Pencil Company colored pencils sets shown below.

The Prismacolor set (no. 952) has a gold colored box with a red velvet overlay and appears to be factory sharpened. The Verithin set (no. 796) has a silver colored box with a blue velvet overlay. They have a snap closure at the bottom to hold the box closed or to hold the box in an easel stand for easy access. These sets are from the early 1970s (I've seen a magazine advertisement  for the Prismacolor set from 1973). I've only ever seen this style of box made in Canada. I found my Verithin set at a second hand store with only half the pencils in it. I've restocked the box but it still doesn't quite have the original 12 colors.

The clean look of the box is made possible because the sets were sold with a boxboard sleeve. All of the necessary sales information was on the boxboard that was often discarded after the set was purchased. I don't have the sleeve for either of these sets but I have seen one from an old ebay listing.

Prismacolor Set 952 includes 12 pencils:
901 Indigo Blue
903 True Blue
909 Grass Green
910 True Green
915 Lemon Yellow
918 Orange
921 Vermilion Red
924 Crimson Red
931 Purple
935 Black
938 White
946 Dark Brown

Verithin Set 796 includes 12 pencils:
734 White
735 Canary Yellow
737 Orange
738 Grass Green
739 Peacock Green
740 1/2 Peacock Blue
741 Indigo Blue
742 Violet
744 Poppy Red
745 Crimson Red
746 Dark Brown
747 Black