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.

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."

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?

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.