In 1794, while under siege from European troops, Paris suffered a severe economic blockade. Lazare Carnot commissioned Nicolas Jacques (N.J.) CONTE, a self-taught painter, chemist, physician and inventor to create a pencil lead made from raw material found in France. Eight days later, CONTE invented the modern pencil lead by mixing graphite with clay.

In January 1795, N.J. CONTE obtained the French patent n°32 and started the production of the CONTE pencil. Today, his method remains the only one used in the wood-cased pencil industry.

The present CONTE Company is the result of successive mergers of prestigious French pencil and pen manufacturers. The Company has been present at every stage in the history of writing by launching among others, the "SERGENT MAJOR™" nib in 1881, the automatic pencil, "CRITERIUM®" in 1939 and in 1988, the "7 DE CONTE™", which today is called the “BIC Matic Mechanical Pencil.”

In 1993, technological research allowed the creation of a pencil without wood, the CONTE EVOLUTION® pencil.

BIC Group acquired CONTE® in December 1979. CONTE® became the BIC trademark for its drawing and coloring products. In 2004, BIC Group renamed CONTE® coloring products BIC® KIDS.