Articles & Features

Crayola No 64s – A chronological history

Part 1 – The originals

When Binney & Smith introduced their largest box of crayons to date, the No 64 box, in February of 1958 they clearly had a winning package on their hands. They took their newly classic 1948 No 48 box with the flip-back lid design and expanded that into the wider box we are still using today. In addition, they created a first among crayon boxes: the built in sharpener in the back. It was an ingeniously simple idea that they quickly patented. It is through this patent that we can begin to put together the earliest sequence of boxes too. Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions is what the original box looked like. The one used to replicate for the 40^th anniversary of the product back in 1998 was actually the second design of the box.

The white arrow banner used to direct the consumer to the back of the box and to their nifty sharpener is clearly the large difference between the first two boxes. This particular design, for whatever reason, didn’t last very long at all, perhaps only a couple of months. This can be validated because on the back of the box, it indicated “Patent pending”. There are no examples of this box with anything other whereas, the more commonly recognized red arrow banner box can be found not only with “Patent pending” but also with the actual Patent number once it had been approved.

The color line up for this original box is: BLACK, ORANGE, APRICOT, AQUAMARINE, BITTERSWEET, BLUE, BLUE GRAY, BLUE GREEN, BLUE VIOLET, BRICK RED, BRILLIANT ROSE, BROWN, BURNT ORANGE, BURNT SIENNA, CADET BLUE, CARNATION PINK, COPPER, CORNFLOWER, FLESH, FOREST GREEN, GOLD, GOLDENROD, GRAY, GREEN, GREEN BLUE, GREEN YELLOW, INDIAN RED, LAVENDER, LEMON YELLOW, LIGHT BLUE, MAHOGANY, MAIZE, MAROON, MAUVELOUS, MELON, MIDNIGHT BLUE, MULBERRY, NAVY BLUE, OLIVE GREEN, ORANGE-RED, ORANGE-YELLOW, ORCHID, PERIWINKLE, PINE GREEN, PLUM, RAW SIENNA, RAW UMBER, RED, RED ORANGE, RED VIOLET, SALMON, SEA GREEN, SEPIA, SKY BLUE, SILVER, SPRING GREEN, TAN, THISTLE, VIOLET, VIOLET BLUE, VIOLET RED, WHITE, YELLOW, YELLOW GREEN, YELLOW ORANGE

It was recently discovered that not only is the classic original box just the second design, but that there are also two variations of this original. The one on the left has the normal chevrons with the yellow background for the striping. The one on the right, however, uses a white striping background. In addition, the left one carries the pricing amount right on the front of the box, where the right one carries it on the top of the box. Which came first? Currently, we don’t have enough data to be able to draw a definitive conclusion on that question so I’ll just point out the variations and talk more from the point of this general design when compared to the initial.

The color line up for the box with the white lines is: APRICOT, AQUAMARINE, BITTERSWEET, BLACK, BLUE, BLUE GRAY, BLUE GREEN, BLUE VIOLET, BRICK RED, BROWN, BURNT ORANGE, BURNT SIENNA, CADET BLUE, CARNATION PINK, COPPER, CORNFLOWER, FOREST GREEN, GOLD, GOLDENROD, GRAY, GREEN, GREEN BLUE, GREEN YELLOW, INDIAN RED, LAVENDER, LEMON YELLOW, MAGENTA, MAHOGANY, MAIZE, MAROON, MAUVELOUS, MELON, MIDNIGHT BLUE, MULBERRY, NAVY BLUE, OLIVE GREEN, ORANGE, ORANGE-RED, ORANGE-YELLOW, ORCHID, PEACH, PERIWINKLE, PINE GREEN, PLUM, RAW SIENNA, RAW UMBER, RED, RED ORANGE, RED VIOLET, SALMON, SEA GREEN, SEPIA, SKY BLUE, SILVER, SPRING GREEN, TAN, THISTLE, TURQUOISE BLUE, VIOLET, VIOLET BLUE, VIOLET RED, WHITE, YELLOW, YELLOW GREEN, YELLOW ORANGE.

Ok, before we jump into a color analysis, let’s take a closer look at what I am talking about with the Patent numbers:

Notice the Pending from the original box on the left and the Patent from the classic on the right. Ok, just to complicate this slightly, you can find the red banner box with a Patent pending on the back but you will not find one with the white banner. That puts the order at:

1. White banner box (Patent Pending)

2. Red banner box (Patent Pending)

3. Red banner box (Patent)

Finally, the common design of this era was the “Arched lettering” design they did with the Crayola brand name as shown below. This was a common design used on virtually their entire line during the years from 1956 clear up to the mid 1960s:

As far as the crayons inside these boxes go, there were differences there too. First off, what any one person may find in their box could be slightly different. The colors will not be, but the wrapper type used could. Since wrapper designs follow an independent timeline to the box designs and they frequently used up the stockpile of the older designs, the wrapper types you see may vary. That said, the original box carries both type 5 and type 6 wrapper types:

Notice the color name inside the oval in the Type 5 wrapper and the color name outside in the Type 6. Also, type 6 moves to the company Incorporated name…a change from 1955 that clearly indicated by 1958 they should be through virtually all of their stockpile of Type 5 crayons. Indeed, my own example of the original white banner box contained only BLACK and ORANGE as Type 5s.

As to the color lineup, the single biggest significance with these is that the color “LIGHT BLUE” can only be found in a box with Patent Pending. This color was dropped in favor of TURQUOISE BLUE after that. It is easy to see why as the color was only slightly darker than “SKY BLUE” anyway. This makes that particular crayon color a must-have among color collectors due to its relatively short run. Other changes include dropping FLESH in favor of PEACH. Also BRILLIANT ROSE is replaced by MAGENTA.

Continued in Part 2…