Very Black

Dixon Special Black 312 and Eagle Veriblack 315.

If you want a vintage soft black Canadian sketching pencil you have two very similar pencils to choose from. Dixon's Special Black 312 and Eagle's Veriblack 315. The have lots of  similarities. They both date from at least to the early 1900s, have a mini-jumbo (8.5 mm diameter) size, a similar number and had a similar purpose. Dixon and Eagle were direct competitors and these two pencils are nearly carbon copies... I wonder which came first? Below is some information on each of them.

Dixon Special Black 312

While the American version of this pencil was painted yellow, the Canadian version was painted blue. This pencil was already a popular staple of American schools when the Canadian subsidiary of Dixon started in 1931. These pencils were manufactured for quite a long time.

The two advertisements below come from publications from the early part of the 20th century. This pencil was advertised heavily in educational journals at this time with an aim for school use.

From the Journal of Education, 1915

From the School Arts magazine, 1912.

Eagle Veriblack 315

Perhaps the Canadian version of the Dixon Special Black was painted blue to make it stand apart from the Eagle Veriblack pencil which was also painted yellow, as many school pencils of the time were.

An early Eagle Veriblack 315 pencil.

A later Berol version of this pencil was painted black instead of yellow.

The advertisement below is dated from 1910 and shows a similar drive to get the Veriblack in schools and educational institutions as a drawing pencil.

An advertisement for school pencils including the Veriblack 315, 1910.