Pencils, eh
A virtual museum of the golden age of the Canadian pencil industry.
|
The Dixon Encore is one of the few Canadian pencils made with Canadian graphite. In the 1870s, the Dominion Plumbago Company made pencils with Canadian graphite but the actual pencils were manufactured in the US. The graphite in these pencils however was of high qualities and they won medals at both the Philadelpia Centennial Exhibition in 1876 and the Paris Worlds Fair in 1878. It was not until the 1930s that Dixon Canada began to manufacture and advertise pencils both made in Canada and using domestic graphite. These pencils included the Chancellor, the Actuary and the Encore.  Dixon Encore 2487 HB This Encore is round and untipped. There were several other versions of the Encore produced including 2486 (yellow tipped), 2488 (hexagonal untipped) and 2489 (blue tipped). The Encore was produced fro the 1930s or 1940s until at least the 1980s.
 1979 Moyer's School Supply Ltd catalogue
0 Comments
Vintage metallic colored pencils are pretty cool and quite rare. This Eagle Radiolite is a great example.  Other examples of Canadian pencils with metallic paint were the Venus Lustro, Eberhard Faber Tinsel Tint, and the Dixon Nu-Glo and Semi-Glo. All quite rare and hard to find. The Radiolite name probably came from the popular wrist watches of the 1920s and 1930s (such as the Ingersoll Radiolite watch) whose hands were painted with radium to make them glow in the dark. These pencils don't glow in the dark and don't have radioactive elements in the paint either... just lead in the paint! An interesting post about these watches stated that they were popular gifts to servicemen on the front lines of World War1, "Because they were so essential for safety, glow-in-the-dark wrist- watches became a popular gift to send to loved ones in service. The adverts for these were pushed particularly hard at Christmastime: ‘Not only will a reliable watch afford him good service, but it will prove a real companion and friend.’ "
The 111th Grey Cup is being played today to decide the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship for the 2024 season. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are competing against the Toronto Argonauts. A great sporting even like this deserves a great pencil. Eberhard Faber Pencil Co. of Canada made these Grey Cup pencils probably in the 1950s or 1960s. I'm not sure of the significance of the number 1921 on the pencil. The 1921 Grey Cup pitted the Toronto Argonauts against the Edmonton Eskimos with the Argonauts coming out victorious.  The pencils and card with the price in this picture are from an eBay auction quite a number of years ago (an auction that I didn't win). These are a pretty rare item.
I recently purchaed this vintage X-acto set. It is nearly complete with all of its original components. It is stamped with the name of the Canadian company that sold it, Hughes-Owens. Hughes-Owens started prior to 1900 as a manufacturer and distributor of enginnering and surveying tools. They sold slide-rules, drafting sets, levels, etc. This set probably came from the Halifax store, on Hollis St, sometime around the 1950s (see below an image from a 1951 catalog).
I thought, "what a great pencil sharpening kit!" The block planer and the spokeshave remind me of the Høvel pencil plane. The regular hobby knife would actually be easier to use but it would be fun to give it a try. Perhaps I should start an artisinal pencil sharpening business like David Rees, author of How to Sharpen Pencils. My favorite comment on the linked video is, "I've never seen the line between serious and satire toed so masterfully."   Image of the No. 86 Hobby Chest from a 1951 X-acto catalog |
Archives
June 2025
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
