Historic Folk Toys: Desk, 'Colonial Cedar Pencil (5/Set)'

Colonial Cedar Pencil (5/Set)Product Description: Our Colonial Cedar Pencils are a set of five round, natural 7-inch cedar pencils without erasers similar to those used in England and imported to the American colonies during the 18th century. Pencils of this nature would have had to be sharpened by whittling or cutting one end with a knife. No pencil sharpeners for those colonists! Pencils are neatly wrapped in a parchment history sheet.Historical Background: The word "pencil" comes from the Middle English word "pensel" and the Middle French word "pincel," which is derived from the Latin word "penicullus" (meaning a painter's brush, pencil or stylus). The English word "pencil" came into use in the late-16th century to describe what we call it today.The first pencils were produced in Keswick, England, with Cumberland Graphite. Pencil making was first a cottage industry in Keswick with families making artists' pencils in their homes. These home-based pencil "factories" were the origin of