Saturday, March 29, 2008

Show and Tell....

I love crayons! I remember the excitement as a young girl when I would get a fresh new box - the one with the sharpener. The only problem - I never wanted to use them, because once you did, they were never the same again. Even if you sharpened them to a new point, they were no longer new and pristine. This is a box of crayons that I found in an antique shop years ago. The shop keeper didn't know what year they were actually made. The box says "No. 336 Crayola Drawing Crayon - Sixteen Colors". Then it says - Gold Medal and Made in U.S.A. Binney & Smith Inc., New York. I would love to know more about them. As soon as I saw them, I knew they HAD to come home with me. O.K., I just googled Binney & Smith and this is part of what I read: The first Crayola crayons were made in 16 colors; the eight-stick box sold for five cents and the 16-stick box sold for ten cents. Crayola Rubens crayons for art students and Perma Pressed fine-art crayons that could be sharpened were added to the product line. A new Crayola 48-stick box introduced in 1949 featured new colors, such as bittersweet, burnt sienna, periwinkle, and prussian blue. Nine years later, prussian blue was renamed midnight blue in response to teachers' observations that students were no longer familiar with Prussian history. (Note: The small p was an intentional grammatical error to keep the word consistent with the way all Crayola crayon names appeared on labels. Tests had shown that words written in lowercase letters were easiest for elementary school children to read.) By 1955 B&S had placed some 464 different items on the market.

I can't remember what I paid for these at the antique shop, but it was much more than 10 cents - LOL!

7 comments:

Susan in SC said...

Oh Linda! Another crayon lover!! I have several boxes hidden in my closet just to smell! LOL!!! Just kidding on that; but, I always buy extra boxes when they are on sale in August! Susan in SC

Joanne said...

Linda, I also always loved crayons (still do, lol). I'm glad you googled them and added the information here. It was interesting to read, and it sounds like you got one of those earlier boxes!
Joanne

Cindy said...

OMG!!! I was such a crayon freak when I was little!! And, my mother would NEVER buy me the big box with the sharpener. For the big box, my brother and I had to go to Grandma Alice's house, lol!! Grandma Alice never seemed to tire of sitting at the big kitchen window, color books scattered across the top....and coloring until our hands cramped!! She was a beautiful colorer....she did it all in little circles.
When my son was born, I vowed that he would have crayons whenever he asked for them. Consequently, he had baskets of blue and pails of purple crayons....gallons of green and yards of yellow. The crayons are gone now, but I still have color books stashed in my closet.
Thanks for the memories, Linda!!

Linda said...

Susan,

I smell them too! LOL! And I still have a couple boxes hidden in my closet also! The 64 crayon one and the 100 I think it is?

Joanne - I wish I could remember what I paid for them. I think it was around $30.00, but I'm not sure. And to think they sold for 10 cents way back then!

Cindy - We colored in coloring books all the time when we were kids and I did it beyond that. I still love to color in them, but it is hard to find decent looking books nowadays!

Linda

Les said...

Boy, Linda! I'll bet these are worth something now. What a neat thing to have!

Linda said...

Les,

I would really be curious as to what they are worth now!

Linda

Heidi said...

I love to color. My mother bought me a color book and large box of crayons when I moved to Europe. I gave what I had to my little neighbor girl. What a find this box of crayons is. It is all in mint condition too by the looks of the photo.

Hugs ~
Heidi