Yellow Pencil Lore

From the internet:

In late 1800s, pencil makers wanted their products to stand out as premium and reliable. Around that time, some of the world’s finest graphite was coming from China, and manufacturers looked for ways to connect their pencils with that reputation. Yellow already carried strong ciations in Chinese culture, so companies began painting pencils yellow to suggest luxury, quality, and sophistication. One of the most influential examples came in 1890 when the Austrian company L&C Hardtmuth introduced its famous Koh-I-Noor pencils. The bright yellow design helped market them as high-end writing tools made with superior graphite. The branding worked so well that other manufacturers soon copied the color, and yellow gradually became the standard look people associated with pencils. (Not every pencil became yellow, but the color became deeply tied to the idea of a dependable, high-quality pencil. More than a century later, many pencils around the world are still painted yellow because of a marketing strategy rooted in trade, symbolism, and the global reputation of graphite from Asia.)