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lost color lists
48 turns to 64
krayola kolor notes
prefluorescence
cray o dentifier
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| 48 turns to 64 |
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8/20/02.... v1.1 the 64-count box of Crayola crayons has to be the quintessential icon of a Baby Boomer childhood...introduced in time for Xmas 1958, its color line-up remained unchanged, except for FLESH renamed PEACH in 1962, for the next 32 years...where did it come from?...to asnwer this question, we must confront the Big Lie: Crayola's color chronology, as it relates to BB crayons, 1949-1972, is wrong wrong wrong wrong & wrong...and the sad thing is, other sites copy it and perpetuate the myth... the 48-count box was indeed introduced in 1949...but the color line-up Crayola gives for 1949-1957 wasn't available until 1958, as sort of a junior version of the new 64-count flagship box...call it the "new-48"...the "old-48", introduced in 1949, consisted of what can now be called "classic" and "lost" colors...and the 64-count was put together with: classic colors from the old-48...RENAMED lost colors from the old-48....and new colors...(well, more or less...) Crayola's bogus color history sounds like it's written by someone who, as a child, got a 48-count (new-48) sometime after 1958, then later, got a 64-count...she noticed the 16 additional colors...to her, they were "new" colors...so she assumed that's how the 64-count came about...48 + new 16 = 64...problem is, it just didn't happen that way... in 1958, melon, for example, was just as new to the 48-count as it was to the 64-count... and where did the old-48 come from?...it was an outgrowth of the rare 52-count box available in the late 30's and early 40's, wrapper types 3 and 4, a combination of standard colors and the special Munsell Crayolas...in the 1920's, the regular Crayola boxes underwent their first major graphics redesign...the so-called "bone-logo" remained, but without the quotation marks...the fussy scrollwork was replaced by solid green, including the famous triangles in the upper front corners...and on the back, "black, white and 30 colors" was replaced by "50 colors"...this coincides with the introduction of the Munsell Crayolas, whose wrapper resembled styles 00 and 1, indeed the style available in the very first redesigned boxes...and of course, excluding gray and black, there were 20 Munsell Crayola colors...once the Munsell brand was discontinued, the 20 Munsell colors got regular Crayola wrappers, type 4, and were made part of the 52-count...some of these were in turn renamed, others retired, and the old-48 debuted in 1949... THE OLD-48 introduced in 1949...the box is a chevron box, with 3 green stripes, not counting the green corner...both the "rubens" & "gold medal" logos are present...the top front flap reads: "CRAYOLA DRAWING CRAYON [sic]"...the wrapper is type 5, that is, "crayola" spelled all in caps, all the same size (earlier wrappers have the beginning C and ending A larger)...with the color name above "crayola" but WITHIN THE OVAL... the color line-up consists of 27 classic and 21 lost colors, as follows: CLASSIC COLORS: black... blue... blue green... blue violet... brown... burnt sienna... flesh... green... indian red... lavender... magenta... mahogany... olive green... orange... prussian blue... raw umber... red... red orange... red violet... salmon... silver... turquoise blue... violet... white... yellow... yellow green... yellow orange... LOST COLORS: azure blue... brilliant rose... carmine red... cerulean blue... cobalt blue... dark green... dark red... gold ochre... light green... light magenta... light turquoise blue... light yellow... medium blue... medium orange... medium red violet... medium rose... medium violet... medium yellow... middle blue green... neutral gray... rose pink... BOXES: besides the original box, call it box A, the old-48 is found in 3 other boxes...box B is also a 3-stripe rubens/gold medal logo box, but front top flap reads "CRAYOLA CRAYONS No. 48"...box C resembles box B but "Binney & Smith Co." is replaced by "Binney & Smith Inc."...big deal!...then box D, a 2-stripe binney & smith logo box, the same type that introduced the 64-count, reading on the front: "brilliant colors"...you can tell it from the new-48 box because it does not yet have "non-toxic" on the front below the logo... CHANGES: at least 3 line-up and 1 wrapper change occured to the old-48 before its demise in 1958...here is an approximate chronology: ...box A inaugurates the old-48... ...change 1: NEUTRAL GRAY is renamed GRAY... ...box B introduced... ...change 2: wrapper now type 6, color name now ABOVE OVAL... ...box C introduced... ...change 3: BRILLIANT ROSE retired, replaced by GOLD... ...box D introduced... ...change 4: FLESH temporarily renamed PINK BEIGE... DATES: unfortunately, 40's and 50's boxes are not dated...according to a crayola "creative crafts" booklet, box A and wrapper 5 were still in use in 1953...in 1955, the corporate name was changed from "Co." to "Inc.", suggesting box C and wrapper 6 debuted soon thereafter...in fact, a school catalog dated 1/55 mentions GOLD, so the above order of change 2, box C, and change 3 may be different... GOLD & SILVER...what i remember as a child is the new-48...gold & silver together, copper in the "bigger box"...as my research progressed, it became clear that the 48 box began with silver only, gold being added no earlier than 1955, and before 1958...according to the above chronology, gold does not exist with a type 5 wrapper (color name within the oval)...does anyone have one?...IT ONLY TAKES ONE!...and while it does appear GOLD replaced BRILLIANT ROSE, which on paper was barely distinguishable from MAGENTA, BRILLIANT ROSE returned in place of MAGENTA in the earliest 64-counts, to then be renamed MAGENTA after-all... *************************** the exact fate of the old-48?...here is a preliminary report plus 2 observations... CLASSIC COLORS CONTINUED: blue... brown... burnt sienna... black... flesh... gold... gray... green... indian red... mahogany... olive green... orange... raw umber... red... red orange... red violet... silver... turquoise blue... white... yellow... yellow green... yellow orange... CLASSIC COLORS RENAMED: ...blue violet renamed VIOLET BLUE... ...prussian blue renamed MIDNIGHT BLUE... ...violet renamed BLUE VIOLET... ...middle blue green renamed BLUE GREEN CLASSIC COLORS RETIRED: [magenta]... [lavender]... [salmon]...[blue green]... LOST COLORS RENAMED: ...light yellow renamed LEMON YELLOW... ...medium yellow renamed GOLDENROD... ...rose pink renamed CARNATION PINK... ...brilliant rose renamed MAGENTA... ...dark red renamed MAROON... ...gold ochre renamed MAIZE... ...light green renamed SEA GREEN... ...dark green renamed FOREST GREEN... LOST COLORS RETIRED (pending further study): cobalt blue... light magenta... medium orange... medium red violet...medium rose... LOST COLORS MERGED (these appear so close in true color to other old-48 crayons that the best we can say is the names were retired, while the true color continued on...again, pending further study): carmine red(=red)... light turquoise blue(=turquoise blue)... medium blue(=blue)... medium violet(=violet, renamed BLUE VIOLET)...azure blue & cerulean blue (=merged as GREEN BLUE)... those of you paying close attention no doubt count 49 colors...that's the old-48 plus gold...but way to stay on your toes!... 2 observations... ROSE/CARNATION PINK...when the controversial retirement and replacement of 8 crayons took place in 1990, i bought some other crayon brands and checked their color names...they followed Crayola quite closely, with a few interesting exceptions (gamboge, coral, cocoa brown, marine blue, raw amber [sic])... but except for Sargent (PINK), all had ROSE PINK instead of CARNATION PINK: Whitman, A-OK, Futura, Roseart, Lovett, Alco, Prang...so it was with much satisfaction that i eventually discovered that Crayola too used to call its pink "rose pink"...that is, until 1958... INDIAN RED, RAW UMBER, LAVENDER...the first 2 are 2 of Crayola's oldest colors, going back to the early Rubens...and along with lavender, Crayola's bogus color chronology claims they were NOT available in the 1949 48-count, only appearing with the 64-count in 1958...this is incorrect...but it is interesting to note that indian red & raw umber were "graduated" from the old-48 to the 64...what i mean is, they were no longer part of the new-48, but only in the 64...why this was done, we may never know...is there anyone alive today, at Binney & Smith or retired, who was in on the decision?...and of course, lavender also "graduated", but as a different color entirely... <><><><><> COMING SOON...the birth of the 64-count...new color names, new true colors, and several curious false-starts... <><><><><> |
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