There are records in the Nuremberg city annals of Friedrich
Staedtler’s activities as a pencil-making craftsman as far back
as 1662. Generations later, his descendant would create one of
today’s most useful artist’s tools. J.S. Staedtler invented the
first colored pencil in 1834. It was a colored oil pastel pencil
which could be "sharpened to a point just like a pencil". In
1835, the city council granted him a manufacturing license, with
permission to produce black lead, red chalk, and pastel pencils.
Staedtler had gained expertise from working with his father,
Paulus Staedtler, at his workshop. He transferred this expertise
to his industrial efforts. By the year 1840, his company was
already making 63 different types of pencils. Staedtler is now
Europe’s largest manufacturer of black lead and colored pencils,
but its original headquarters have always remained in Nuremberg,
Germany. More than two thirds of all the writing instruments
Staedtler produces are made there. The quality seal of "Made in
Germany" has