This early Venus has a left-handed imprint.

The Venus brand pencil was introduced by the American Pencil Company in 1905. This gave them a jump on the other major American pencil manufacturers in the move into high-end pencils targeted at architects and artists. During World War I the supply of imported German pencils which dominated the top of the U.S. market was interrupted giving U.S. manufacturers their chance to move into this market. Because Venus had begun to establish herself before the war, she became the most popular drawing pencil during this time. Her history since then is a bit less glamorous, the brand having been used and abused by more hands than a three-dollar whore. Sorry, but the imagery of the phrase seems suitably vulgar to describe the fate of this once proud pencil.



Variations of the left-handed imprint. (I am unsure if these non-“drawing” designated versions were actually different in any way than the “drawing” version shown above.)

circa 1910 package		reverse

circa late 1930s package		reverse

American Pencil Co. Venus Drawing Pencil with eraser tip

This style of box was introduced in 1940 as announced in this magazine ad.		reverse

early Venus Esterbrook example

Notice on this example, only the Venus brand appears, not the maker. This was a prescient move by someone as the owner of the Venus brand was about to start rotating through every pencil company in the western hemisphere before being completely discarded. Faber-Castell would be the owner of the brand beginning in 1973. The early Faber-Castell Venus pencils are identical to the one pictured below. Oh. I think I’ll make an entry for the early Faber-Castell Venus and just use the same pic...

late Venus Esterbrook example

Venus Esterbrook box circa late 1960s		reverse

As an examination of the images below will reveal, there is no longer a Venus pencil. The distinctive finish lives on, but the goddess is dead. The countless mergers, bankruptcies, and acquisitions of the last 40 years have scrambled the identities of many previously competing brands of pencils. Nowhere is the fallout of these machinations more dramatic than with the once proud Venus Drawing Pencil.