Pencils, eh
A virtual museum of the golden age of the Canadian pencil industry.
The William Cane and Sons Company Ltd. was the first company (that I'm aware of) that manufactured pencils in Canada. William Cane was Newmarket, Ontario's first mayor and a successful entrepreneur. He begain a woodenware factory in Newmarket in the late 1870s or early 1880s. William died in May 1899 and his son, Henry S. Cane took over the family business. It wasn't until the outbreak of World War 1 that this company began to embark in the pencil business. Prior to WW1, high quality and low cost pencils from Austria and Bavaria were popular in Canada. During the war, these pencils became scarce. To capitalize on this opportunity, Cane's began to make pencils for the domestic Canadian market. By 1918, a number of different styles of pencils were being manufactured and advertised in Canadian trade journals such as the Bookseller & Stationer and Office Equipment Journal. These pencils were manufactured until the late 1920s when the company fell on some hard times. Eventually, in 1931, the pencil manufacturing part of the woodenware business was sold to Dixon Pencil Company and a Canadian subsidiery of the US pencil company was created. Dixon continued making pencils in the old Cane's factory until it closed in 1990. These pencils are increadibly rare and until recently I have only seen advertisements, never an actual pencil. There were made in relatively small numbers for only about ten years. These pencils are a historic example of Canadian industry. I feel like these pencils are true museum pieces. The close up of the paper band shown below contains images of Canadian industry and transportation.
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