Pencils, eh
A virtual museum of the golden age of the Canadian pencil industry.
"Canada's Pride" was a graphite pencil sold by Librairie Beauchemin Ltd (a bookstore, not a library). Library in English and Librairie in French are false cognates (aka False Friends or Faux Amis)... two words that sounds the same but have different meanings. Une librairie is where you go to buy a book, not to borrow one. The company had a long history in Montreal as a book printer and seller, starting around 1845. The image below left shows an advertisement for Canada's Pride pencils from a 1911 Almanac. I don't know if they had the facilities to make these pencils themselves or if they were made in the US and imported. They appear to have been popular and I've seen a number of advertisements over a decade long period (1906-1916). The pencil is described as, "The colour, a beautiful brilliant golden yellow, with an embossed silver inscription, makes it the prettiest pencil." Below you an see a patent record for the words "Canada's Pride" and "Maple Leaf" from July 1908. In a Canadian government publications dated 1916 for equipping Canadian Expeditionary Forces for overseas deployments, it specifically lists "Canada's Pride" pencils as part of the supplied equipment. Note the alternate "Orloff" pencil was probably manufactured by Eagle Pencil in New York. Like many old pencils sold in Canada, I've never seen one of these pencils other than in advertisements. If you're aware of any photos, please let me know.
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Red and Blue checking pencils have historically been used by copy editors. The red end could be used to identify mistakes by circling or striking errors, while the blue end could be used to make notations, notes or additions. Many of these pencils are painted two different colors to identify which side had which color core. Interestingly, most of the Canadian versions of these pencils were painted all red and imprinted to identify the color of each side. Below are a few Canadian red & blue editing pencils.
I recently acquired a receipt that appears to be from 1919 from a pencil company that I haven't heard of in the past. The receipt says that the company is a pencil manufacturer but the items on the receipt appear to be dip in penholders and rubber bands. I'm honestly not sure if this is an actual receipt or a page from a 1940s Bookkeeping and Accounting workbook. There are clues that could point in either direction. I learned a few things about invoices by looking at old accounting textbooks. In the top right you'll see the statement "TERMS N/30 2%/10". I found that this means that if the buyer pays the invoice within 10 days, they may deduct 2% of the price of the invoice. If the buyer does not pay in the first 10 days, they are expected to pay the total amount of the invoice in 30 days. These terms are sometime read, "net 30, two ten". The accounting textbook contained several sample invoices that were similar to this one except for the block in the bottoms with all the initials and handwritten notes.
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