Venus Pencils were a brand name of pencils made by the American Lead Pencil Company starting in 1905. The production of Venus pencils gave the company an early start on other major companies in the move to high-end pencils that were mainly aimed at artists and architects. During World War I Germany's supply of pencils lost its domination in the US market and allowed US companies to take over. Venus pencils were already being produced before the war and had become very popular during its time.
Venus Pencils were produced in a total of seventeen degrees under the categories of very soft, soft, medium, hard, and very hard. They were made with either no eraser, a tip and eraser, or an over sized tip and eraser.
In 1956, the American Lead Pencil Company officially changed their name to the Venus Pen and Pencil Corporation, thus turning their fifty-one-year-old product into the company name. After some acquirements the company name was changed to Venus-Esterbrook in 1967. In 1973, the company was bought out by Faber-Castell and their name was changed for the last time to the Faber-Castell Corporation. This ended use of the Venus name and trademark.