Up to 1958 the largest size box Crayola had made was 48 crayons. In 1958 all that changed. The 64 count box was introduced! There were 4 versions that year. I am lucky enough to have 3 of those four version because a generous reader John Corb sent some amazing boxes from his collection.
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The crayon sharpener on a box might see standard now a days, but back in 1958 it was brand new! There was even a new patent for it, US Patent 2,587,881. In a patent the need for a patent is stated in the first paragraph. One of the funniest lines is "since crayons are often used by small children, the shavings therefrom are often deposited about and must be subsequently gathered." I do not know how many times I have really used a crayon sharpener, but I gather objects deposited from my children ALL THE TIME. The idea was to have a spot to sharpen the crayons so the sharpener would not get lost and the shavings would not get all over the house.
Also of note is the colors gold and copper. I think they contained real metal. The colors were green in color, and colored green when I first used them, but then I did this swatch and they showed their true colors. Gold is on the left and copper is on the right.
Here is the wrapper.
Here are the sleeves. Notice how the sleeves are numbered. This was probably to make sure the right sleeves got in the right box.
Color Information
Here are the colors that ended up being in the 64 count box at the end of the year:
- orchid, lavender, carnation pink, thistle, red violet, violet red, brick red, magenta, maroon, mulberry, indian red, red, melon, salmon, orange red, red orange, orange, flesh, maize, goldenrod, yellow orange, apricot, orange yellow, yellow, lemon yellow, green yellow, spring green, yellow green, sea green, olive green, green, pine green, aquamarine, forest green, turquoise blue, green blue, sky blue, blue green, periwinkle, blue, navy blue, midnight blue, cornflower, blue gray, cadet blue, violet, blue, blue violet, violet, plum, tan, burnt orange, mahogany, burnt sienna, brown, raw sienna, bittersweet, raw umber, sepia, black, silver, gray, gold, copper, white
The first boxes had brilliant rose included, but was later changed out to magenta. The two colors are very similar in color.
Here are all the swatches from the 64 crayons, as vibrant and saturated as ever. I was surprised that some of the dark ones colored very light. Some of the crayons went on smooth and some were a little harder to color with. I wonder if its from developing some kind of film in storage. In this exercise color combinations like red violet and violet red tell a story. Whatever color is listed second is the dominant color, violet in red violet and red in red violet. All the crayons follow this pattern.
Here they are in color order in the box. Isn't is so pretty?
Collecting Information
These are excellent boxes to collect being the first 64 count Crayola boxes.
Boxes: 64 Count Crayola Crayon boxes
Year: April 1958, June 1958, October 1958
Style Numbers: none
Code Numbers: none
UPC Numbers: none
Manufacturing Location: USA
Purchase Information: from fellow collector
Where to buy: eBay
Where to buy: eBay
Here are all the sides of the boxes and collecting information.
April 1958 64 Crayola Crayons
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1958-1961 64 Crayola Crayons
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June 1958 Crayola Crayons
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US Box
Canadian Box
