HISTORICAL  OVERVIEW

There exists only few material on the history of colour pencils. Even though a writing utensil catalogue from 1820 provides one of the first references to a red wood-cased pencil, the significantly longer history of creative colour work suggests that colour pencils must have been in existence long before then.

So-called "porte-crayons" – wooden barrels with an adjustable ring retaining the lead within the barrel – were used for both pencil and colour pencil leads.