After mentioning the modern Mirado, I remembered that I had a vintage box of Eagle Mirados laying around.
Those with Eagle eyes will note that the original half-gross box appears to have an invited guest:
The pull out tab helps to access the pencils, yet I guess I never pulled it all the way.
It has a bonus!
No kidding – the Eagle Pencil Company offered handwriting analysis for ten cents. Their graphologist, Dorothy Sara, appears to have written a number of books on the subject.
Ten cents seems pretty good for getting to know “your inherent talents, your virtues, and also your faults.”
The box also tells us what a “True Medium” is. No doubt related!
The pencils, given their age, have very nice imprints:
Great post. Of course its not totally personalised but the TUL graphologist will analyse your handwriting for free.
I have many Mirados, in many versions (and some Mikados), but no invitations for handwriting analysis :-(
The ‘chemi-sealed’ phrase has been around for a long time – do you have any idea what it means?
Wow, very cool post!
Hi botogol,
Henry Petroski’s The Pencil says this was a technique invented in 1933 by Eagle that involved:
– bathing the leads in sulphuric acid to remove wax
– bathing the leads in calcium chloride to add a gypsum sealant
– the wood treated with a resinous binder
Overall, these extra treatments resulted in 34% stronger points, and contributed to better sales.
“The Pencil” is a neat book for us pencil nuts. It also covers mechanical pencils if I remember it right. I have other books of his related to engineering, as I’m an engineer.
It is amazing what the they did to the wood pencil to make it better – in the past…
It makes me a bit sad to see all these pencils and the great design/art work that came with them disappear…
I like that name, “Dorothy Sara.”
The slides from my boxes of Eagle Turquoise have a similar warning, but the goodies are an “emergency rule,” a protractor and a chart of decimal equivalents for fractions. That the pencils are 8H (!!) means that they’ll remain alas unsharpened.
Thank you for these great comments. I just noticed that this is the blog’s 400th post.
One more curiosity. The “guest” I mentioned in the post is a non-matching box, probably newer. The box mentions a grade 11/2 pencil called “Servisoft” – has anyone heard of this?
If you go to this address, you can hear Dorothy Sara explaining graphology:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RHO944/ref=dm_sp_adp
Congratulation on your 400th post – keep up the excellent work!
To me, the box is a real work of art; the graphics and the typography are fantastic. It is a pity that such “everyday art” is disappearing.
“Servisoft” (I have never heard of it) is great, but “True Medium” is interesting as well. I am amazed to see how much effort has been put into the smallest of product details!
And I thought I had every Mikado and Mirado ever made, but ‘servisoft’ is a new one on me. I guess I need to read my old boxes more closely. Be sure I’ll be checking it out when I get home! If anyone finds a specimen, I want it!
I have the same kind except they are colored pencils not writing pencils
I have a Full unused box No.4 HARD with a slide off top and gold rater than white lettering. Date on box,1936
I have a feeling I have seen No. 1-1/2 Mirados, in Mexico, a long time ago.
I may have commented this before, but for most of my elementary and high school time, the “Standard” pencil was the 2 or 2-1/2 Mirado, and we considered them to be junk pencils, they seemed to be horrible in many aspects, mostly the wood splintered when sharpened and the lead broke a lot. I preferred to use the HB Turquoise pencils instead, or the Bic ones that were not made from wood.
Does anyone have boxes of vintage Eagle MIRADO – 172 2B for sale? (without eraser tops)
@Bob Kingdom
I have a box of Eagle MIRADO – 172 2B. The box is slightly rough around the edges as they have been sitting in my grandfathers house for many years. No idea how much they are worth but drop me an email and I’ll send you a picture of the box.
Thanks,
Patrick
patrick_gough@hotmail.co.uk
How old are these pencils? I just found a 5 or 6 cm pencil in one of the walls of our house, yellow with the imprint E “CHEMI*SEALED”” MIRADO – 172, so must be missing some pencil from both top and bottom. House is 1890s, and I notice above these kind of pencils have been round since the 30s?
This is from brandnamepencils.com:
“History: The company was originally founded in New York City by the Berolzheimer family, and in 1969 became part of Berol Corporation. Berol was purchased by Empire in 1986, which was purchased by Sanford in 1995 (which has been a division of Newell Rubbermaid since 1992).”
I have a box of the Berol Mirados labeled “Berol Mirado 174”, so yours would predate 1969. After Pearl Harbor, the name was changed to “Mirado” from “Mikado” so it would also be post early 40’s. Older pencils also had flat sided/square ferrules. I’m not sure when the change to round ferrules was.
I also have one example of a Mirado with no brand name at all (just says “Mirado Classic”), but it still has the “Chemi-Sealed” stamp, so it may date from the Empire period of 1986-1995.