The document below shows that #3 Dixon Pencil Company, #4 Eagle Pencil Company and #18 Venus Pencil Company all established in Canada in early 1931.

Eberhard Faber would establish their factory in Acton Vale, QC shortly after this document was published.

The table comes from a  Dominion Bureau of Statistics document listing a census of Pen and Pencil Manufacturers in Canada in 1966. This industry is defined as comprising those "Establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing fountain pens and parts; ball-point pens; lead and mechanical pencils; and crayons". According to this report, over half a million gross of non-mechanical black lead pencils were produced in Canada in 1966.

Note that the Eagle factory in Drummondville is now owned by Berol Limited and the Venus Pencil Company has become Venus Esterbrook Canada Ltd.

The Ticonderoga is probably the most popular pencil made by Dixon and is a classic yellow pencil with its distinctive green ferrule with two yellow bands. In the US, the pencil advertisements often had patriotic american symbols and characters. In Canada there was often alternate advertising.

The Eagle Pencil Co. of Canada Ltd. had a factory located in Drummondville, Quebec. This factory was located at 201 St. Jean St. in Drummondville.

Around 1970 Eagle changed its name to Berol and continued production of Mirado pencils. Berol was purchased by the Empire Pencil Company in 1987 but they continued to manufacture pencils under the Berol name into the 1990s.  ​In the mid-1990s, Sanford bought numerous pencil companies including Empire/Berol and not long after the factory in Drummondville was closed.

Eagle Canadiana pencil crayons were made at the Eagle factory in Drummondville, Quebec. This factory operated under the Eagle brand from 1931 until about 1969 when the company changed its name to Berol, the shortened surname of the company's founder Daniel Berolzheimer. I've seen written that the first Canadiana pencil crayons were made around 1951.

The boxed set of eight pencils above is an early set. In my opinion, this is one of the most beautifully made sets of colored pencils to have been produced in Canada. Check out these photos of a similar set from the Pencils and Other Things blog.  The pencils inside don't have the white imprint or area for a signature that the pencils below have.

The  version of these pencils shown above has a spot for you to write your name on them just like the Laurentien pencil crayons. I believe that the stylized letter E trademark seen on the pencils below started being used around 1960.

When Eagle changed its name to Berol in 1975, Canadiana pencils continued to be produced but now with the Berol brand name. The pencil crayons from Eagle appear to start at number 501 (with Crimson Red) while the Berol versions seem to start at number 551 (also with red). I know that Berol had a set of 60 colours. I'm not sure how many colours were available in the Eagle sets.

The packaging above was used from about 1975 to the mid-1980's. The set of pencils shown below is a more modern version. The pencils are the same but the packaging and the gold lettering are changed.

Mongol pencils were made by Eberhard Faber (Canada) Ltd at their factory in Acton Vale, Quebec (at 1100 Bernard St.). Most of these pencils were most likely made in the early-1960s to mid-1970s.  The Eberhard Faber factory in Acton was acquired by Dixon Ticonderoga in 1978.

I have pencils with both the EF logo and the diamond star logo. The EF logo appears to have been registered in Canada in 1965. The diamond star logo is older and registered in 1921 and in use in the US even earlier.

I have one pencil, shown below, that is stamped "Gouvernement du Quebec."

The Primer Print 1 is a red jumbo pencil with a 10 mm diameter (a bit larger than the blue Primer Print 2 below). This version of the pencil has a big spot for students to write their name on. Bob Truby's site has photos two different versions of this pencil. 

I found this collection of Primer Print 2 pencils at a second hand store in July 2018. They're in really nice condition. They're a large diameter (approx. 8 mm) round pencil for younger students.

Canadian made Eberhard Faber pencils are fairly rare. The factory in Acton Vale, Quebec was not established until 1951 and only lasted until 1977 when it was sold to Dixon. Eberhard Faber made a wide variety of pencils. This post is just about writing pencils (except Mongol pencils which are in a separate post).

Without a doubt, my favourite vintage Canadian pencil is the Maritimer 1758 HB manufactured by Eberhard Faber. 1758 was the year that representative government was established in Canada with representative government in Nova Scotia. In 2008, there was a celebration was entitled Democracy 250 to commemorate this. 

It is a beautiful pencil with glossy red paint and bold white lettering. I don't know much about this pencil other than what is listed at Brand Name Pencils. Eberhard Faber made a series of these pencils in Canada including the Newfoundlander 1497 HB  (1497 was the year of John Cabot's voyage). 

The quintessential Canadian pencil?

These pencils date from the early 1970s after the Venus Pencil Company acquired Esterbrook. 

These pencils are probably from the 1980s. Faber-Castell acquired Venus Esterbrook in 1966. They no longer have Canada stamped on the side and the printing is in gold instead of blue.

Laurentian pencil crayons (later spelled Laurentien) were an iconic part of many Canadian students' school supply checklists and lots of Canadians fondly remember using them in school. These colour pencils were made in Canada by the Venus Pencil Company. They were also sold in the US under the brand name 'Paradise.' Each colour was labeled with a number for use with Colour-By-Number kits. Production of these colour pencils in Canada ceased in the mid-1990s. Laurentiens continued production in the US until about 2011 when the product line was discontinued.

My oldest set of Laurentien pencils probably dates from the early 1960s. The pencils come in a box labeled Laurentian on one side and Laurentien on the other. All the pencils are stamped Laurentian. Later pencils were stamped with the French spelling "Laurentien" which was intended to help sales in Quebec. I'm not sure when Laurentien pencils were first made (I've seen the date 1951 but no evidence of this). Venus Pencil Company Ltd started in 1931 as the Canadian affiliate of the American Pencil Lead Company. American Pencil changed their name to the Venus Pen and Pencil Corporation in 1956 (after their most popular pencil line). In the early 1970s, Venus was acquired by Faber-Castell and the corporate branding on these pencils changed.​

One way to date larger sets of pencils is to check the name of colours #14 and #21. In the mid-1960s or early 1970s, Venus changed the name of #14 from "Natural Flesh" to "Flesh" and then to "Soft Peach", and #21 was changed from "Indian Red" to "Roan Red". 

In 1967, the name of the company was changed to Venus Esterbrook Canada Ltd. The case was changed to vinyl with a metal snap but the pencil crayon markings remained unchanged.

I have several sets of various sizes of Laurentien pencils with the Faber-Castell brand name on them. These were sold in a vinyl pouch and in several different sizes. Early sets has "Venus Canada" marked on each pencil and later sets are simply marked "Canada". In the mid-1980s, some packages advertised contests for personal computers (I've seen both Vic 20 and Commodore 64 contest packages). The sets I have below all have UPC-A barcodes which were in use starting around 1974.

Some early Laurentiens with the Eberhard Faber brand were made in Canada. Later ones were made in the US. The US made pencils were eventually branded with the Sandford name and then the vinyl pouch was changed back to a box. The set of 20 pencils I have shown below, has "Made in Canada" on the front but the pencils are all stamped "U.S.A."

Sanford produced Laurentien pencils in the USA through the early-2010s. After several mergers in the pencil industry, Laurentien pencils eventually became the property of the Newell-Rubbermaid company. This multinational company had numerous other pencil brands in its portfolio​ including Prismacolor and PaperMater. Laurentien Pencils ceased production in late 2011.