3.75" x 7.25"
Wood, Pigment & Wax
PORTUGAL

Founded in 1907 in Vila do Conde - the factory then known as Portugália - Fábrica Portuguesa de Lápis was reborn as Viarco in 1936 in São João da Madeira. It remains a family business today with around six-and-a-half million pencils produced every year from graphite, clay, and cedar wood, including both lead and colored pencils, and many traditional specialized pencils for industry and trade: the Carpenter, the bi-color Olympic, the Commercial, the Industrial, and the Violet Copy, among others. As it is the last remaining Portuguese pencil factory, the owners had a dilemma several years ago: to either keep the company open, or sell the buildings and land for a good profit. They decided that Viarco must continue, and gave one of their buildings over to an artist residency program. Today, they are developing new products in graphite for artists. Their dedication to both the past (in terms of quality and production, where much of the work is done by hand) and the future (with the creation of new graphite-based products) is impressive. Viarco celebrated its 70 years in association with A Vida Portuguesa, our favorite shop in Libson, by reissuing several products and pencil boxes from its past, Fábrica de Lápis being one of them.