Cretacolor

The origin of Cretacolor dates back to Joseph Hardtmuth, an Austrian entrepreneur and inventor, who produced ceramic products at the end of the 18th century. In 1792 he founded a pencil factory, producing the first pencils with burnt graphite leads, the "modern leads". Since then and for over two centuries the company has been manufacturing high quality pencils and other drawing materials.      After the Second World War, the company concentrated on the development and production of high quality art pencils. In recent years, high lightfastness has become an issue of increasing importance to artists, and Cretacolor has been one of the first manufacturers launching ranges of lightfast color pencils with its AquaStick line. Cretacolor also provides a wide choice of artist-quality pastels, sketching and traditional pencils, woodless pencils (Aquamonolith), sticks...