Vintage Sanford Prismacolors

 

Sanford Prismacolor set of 120

Since I’ve shown my oldest Eagle and Berol Prismacolors and Canada-made Berols, the remaining notable vintage Prismacolors in my collection are a set of Sanford from 1999. From my research, the name Sanford (“a Newell Company”) was used from about 1996 through the early 2000s. By 2005, still USA-made, Sanford pencils began using the current Prismacolor Premier name. Eventually production was moved to Mexico (the date I have seen is 2010), when quality began to decline. So I consider Sanford sets made during the era between the mid-‘90s and early ‘00s as the freshest of the good-production years.

Not counting colors that were discontinued at various times, I believe this Sanford set of 120 was the largest Prismacolor range available at the time. Reasonably priced used sets are readily available on eBay (though often incomplete), and even sealed sets come up occasionally. Though it didn’t have to be unused, my only requirement was that the set include all 120 colors. Early last year, this one appeared on eBay for a great price. Technically used, the set included only one pencil that was sharpened – all others were unsharpened. I was thrilled to grab it.

A few pencils have barcodes, which could mean they were open-stock replacements and did not come with the original set, but the logo and other imprinting are identical on all pencils, so they are all from the same era. It’s possible that the box was assembled during the transition to pencils printed with barcodes, so it contains a mix. (Aside: Printed barcodes make all pencils so ugly . . . at least Prismacolor has the decency to put it on the end that will be sharpened off quickly.)

As the seller described, only one pencil had been sharpened – Scarlet Lake 923. It looked unused. I know that at some point, maybe when production moved to Mexico (I have no facts on this – I’m speculating), Prismacolor began selling the pencils pre-sharpened. The point on this one did not look factory-sharpened, and I’ve never seen any other Sanford Prismacolors with factory points.

Here’s where it gets funny (funny about me, anyway): If a bunch of them had been sharpened, I would not have thought twice, and I would have still been happy to have a complete set. But that only one was sharpened filled me with curiosity: Who in the world would buy the largest set of Prismacolors, sharpen only one pencil but not use it – and then the set ends up on eBay (the seller was not the original owner)?

I’d like to believe that I’m not a “completionist” or an otherwise obsessive collector, so let’s just call it a fun, focused hunt: One unsharpened Sanford Scarlet Lake. How hard could it be?

I began by researching which Sanford sets had included Scarlet Lake. If it came in a small set, I wouldn’t have had a problem buying 12 or 24. But of course, it’s a Murphy’s Law of Prismacolor collecting: Scarlet Lake came only in the set of 120! The aggravating part about this research was that the standard box design for all set sizes shows Scarlet Lake in the illustration, so I had to examine the full color list to see whether Scarlet Lake was actually included. Even worse, the color list sometimes showed swatches without color names or numbers! (Somewhere during this research, it did occur to me that the colors included in various sets were probably documented and easily available if I just looked on the Internet, but what’s the fun in that? I prefer to squint at dark, blurry eBay images.)

The image at right of 3 pencils, including Scarlet Lake, was a standard part of the box design for all set sizes, whether the set included Scarlet Lake or not!

With no intention of buying another full set of 120, the hunt suddenly got more interesting. A couple of times when I saw incomplete sets with “some unsharpened” pencils, I contacted the sellers to inquire if the unsharpened happened to include Scarlet Lake. If they had, I thought I’d offer to buy just the single, since the set was incomplete anyway. Sellers were always kind enough to check for me, but no luck.

If I got desperate, I considered buying a bulk box of 12 Scarlet Lakes, since bulk boxes come up frequently enough on eBay. More than one Berol box of Scarlet Lakes showed up, but not Sanford.

Whenever random lots came up, I expanded images as large as I could to examine logos and colors. Nope.

Occasionally I brought it up in casual conversation with fellow vintage Prismacolor collectors. “You don’t happen to have a spare, unsharpened Sanford Scarlet Lake, do you?”

As these things happen, the grail suddenly appeared one day: A lot of maybe six or seven unsharpened vintage Prismacolors was for sale, and the buyer could select no more than three colors from the lot. It seemed an odd selling requirement, but I didn’t care – there was my Sanford Scarlet Lake!

Above: sharpened Scarlet Lake that came with my set; below: the grail

More than a year and half after purchasing the set, it was finally complete with all 120 unsharpened. In case you’re wondering – no, I haven’t sharpened and used them (yet). I may eventually, but after all that work, I’m gloating for a while.

10/11/23 Sketched with Sanford Prismacolors. . .  but not the ones that came in the set of 120.
(Earthsworld reference photo)