Category: Canadian Graphite

Red & White Food Stores

6/25/2022

The pencil above is imprinted with the name "The Red & White Stores". The Red & White Corporation is a chain of independently owned and operated food stores operating in the United States and Canada mainly serving small towns. While many of these stores have been replaced by larger grocery store chains, especially in larger towns, several survive. In Nova Scotia, there are a few remaining in Digby, Yarmouth and Shelburne counties.

The pencil shown here has a paper ferule indicating it was probably made in the 1940s during World War II when metal was reserved for the war effort. It is also stamped "Canadian Graphite" indicating it was probably made by Dixon Pencil Inc. This was the only company I know of that used graphite from an mine in Ontario and stamped there pencils with this phrase.

The next time I'm around Yarmouth, I'll have to stop in to the Red & White Dayton Food Store to connect with a bit of history.

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The Dixon Chancellor

4/23/2019

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The Dixon Chancellor is a relatively rare pencil to find. I recently found one in fair condition. The Chancellor was made by the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company of New Jersey before established a factory in Canada. I saw an advertisement from 1920 listing the Chancellor as well as other Dixon pencils for sale in Canada. The Dixon Company purchased the William Cane & Sons Pencil factory in Newmarket, Ontario in 1931 and established the Dixon Pencil Company of Canada. It is quite possible that the made in Canada Chancellor is just a re-branded Cane's pencil and likely made on the same equipment in the same factory. The Chancellor was made through at least the 1940s using Canadian graphite from the Black Donald Graphite Mine in Ontario. I'm not sure if Dixon ceased production of this pencil in 1954 when this source of graphite closed or if they found an alternate source of Canadian graphite and continued production.

The ad at right is from Maclean's magazine March 15th, 1935. "NEVER DONE BEFORE. EXCLUSIVE to DIXON. Canadian graphite from the famous Black Donald Mine at Calabogie, Ontario, has always been noted for its high quality, strength, and fidelity of color. But, due to its texture, Canadian graphite could not be successfully used for pencil lead making until DIXON applied the patented process of "Impact Pulverizing". The result is - STRONGER - LONGER WEARING SMOOTHER WRITING TRUE BLACK LEADS. Only in DIXON "CHANCELLOR" Pencils can you get the longer service and finer writing qualities of Canadian graphite leads. All other DIXON Pencils are made of British Empire graphite. Soon all DIXON pencils will be made with leads of CANADIAN GRAPHITE."

Advertisement from Maclean's magazine, p55, March 15, 1935.

The plaque at left gives some history of the Black Donald Graphite Mine where, at least initially, the graphite for the Dixon Chancellor pencil was acquired. Some additional history about this mine can be found in a magazine article titled, Graphite's Sterling History in Eastern Ontario. According to this story, "On March 5, 1954, the company closed and the remaining 22 workers were sent home for the last time."

Dixon had a nation wide advertising campaign in 1935 highlighting their new Chancellor pencil. You can see a few ads from newspapers across Canada below.

Advertisement from the Winnipeg Free Press January 25, 1935

Advertisement from La Presse of Montreal March 8, 1935

Advertisement from the Montreal Gazette, January 8, 1935

At right is a store advertisement from a Montreal newspaper in 1944. It appears that the Dixon Chancellor was a direct competitor of the Eagle Mirado and Venus Velvet as a high quality writing pencil.

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Red & White Food Stores

The Dixon Chancellor

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