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Boxed set of "Crane" (仙鶴牌) coloured pencils, 12-color, model 520
Object/Artifact
Children's coloured-pencil set in a printed paperboard slide box with a cotton string loop at the top for retail display hanging. The front panel carries an "animal band" cartoon — a rabbit, a trumpet-playing cat, a flute-playing fox on a cloud, an accordion-playing lion, and a drum — above the English brand block and below the Chinese brand line. The tray holds a set of twelve round wood-cased pencils in assorted colors, each barrel printed "Crane" in cursive. The set appears complete.
2025.19.1
Elaine Acosta collection
2025.19
Elaine Acosta
Gift
People's Republic of China
Asia
Maker: "Crane" brand (Chinese: 仙鶴牌, "Crane Brand"), a Chinese stationery export brand identified by name and crane-in-circle trademark. The specific manufacturing factory is not identified in available sources — recorded as brand-only. (Brand and origin verified from the object; web search did not resolve the maker.) Date: Undated. Cannot be confirmed within 1959–1990 and may fall outside it; a 1970s–80s date is plausible but unconfirmed (tentative).
Front (English): "COLOURED PENCILS / Crane / 12 / 520" Crane-in-circle trademark with ® registered mark Chinese: "仙鶴牌 12色铅笔" ("Crane Brand, 12-color pencils") Box edge: "MADE IN CHINA" with accompanying Chinese characters Pencil barrels imprinted "Crane" (cursive)
Materials: Printed paperboard (box sleeve and tray); cotton string hanging loop; twelve wood-cased pencils with colored pigment cores and lacquered, printed barrels. Technique: Offset-lithographed paperboard packaging; lacquered and imprinted wood-cased pencils.
Good
Elaine Acosta
owner
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
use
The mixed orthography on the box (traditional 鶴 with simplified 铅) and English-language labeling indicate export-market packaging rather than a purely domestic Chinese product. A firmer date would require a dated retail context or comparison with dated examples of the 520 series.