Show us your Vintage Office Supplies.

[Stearmen]

Fast Office Suupplies

Here is my vintage office supply. Not sure if it helps me get much work done, but it is vintage and it is in my office!

 

[wahine]

I don't know anything about motor bikes but I love the radio in the back!

When I got this calender / desk tidy from my aunt, I thought it was from the seventies. But my web research told me it's much more likely from the twenties (it's a "Maul" product). The strange arrow letter-holder clip was used by my grandparents to hold the important to-do's. I have no clue if it's a self-made device or if you could actually buy this..?

(sorry for the dust )

This pencil holder and letter opener are from my grandparents. I'm not sure, but I think they are pre-war (or in-between-wars). Any information is welcome. The pencil holder is from cardboard, the letter opener seems to be some sort of bone - looks art nouveau to me.

 

[St. Louis]

Wahine, that desk tidy is beautiful, and the letter holder is exquisite.

Here's my desk top.


Everything works, and I use everything. From left to right, my gold-rimmed reading glasses (very proud of those), a 1930s stamp, a Dutch blotter, a repop radio (sorry!), then next to that is my Automatic Electric Company Monophone (I have 2 of those and a 302); then the Smith-Corona silent portable; behind that a quiet little alarm clock that works but loses an hour out of every 24 (like its owner); lamp; magnifying glass; 1930s Bostitch stapler, which takes modern staples; 2-hole punch, and a funeral home mechanical pencil.

 

[Shangas]

Everything looks stunning, Louis. You remind me of my grandmother like that. She had a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles, too.

Never figured out what happened to them, though. She only wore them on special occasions.

Here's the latest photo of my desk, which I've posted here and there around the Lounge:

Here we have a vintage desk-blotter with fresh blotting-paper. A desktop magniying glass with a brass frame (a souvenier from London), my 1920s Underwood Standard Portable typewriter, my letter-holder (handy for loose papers), a rocker-blotter (behind the lamp), my green and brass banker's lamp, and a small glass box (which I put loose change in).

Not shown is my collection of vintage fountain pens. My current writer is my 1928 Parker Duofld, which is sitting on my keyboard as I type this.

This is the same view in daytime:

Here you can see the rocker-blotter and the letter-stand more clearly. Also pictured is the little red ribbon-tin for my typewriter-ribbons (yes, there is a ribbon stored in there). Next to the magnifying glass is my 1pt pewter tankard

 

[Shangas]

In a bout of extreme boredom, and, I admit, frustration at the state of my bedroom, I rearranged the furniture in my little domicile. This is what my "vintage desktop" looks like now:

I have an identical desk (if you can call it a 'desk') against another wall, with all my computing stuff on it.

 

[Shangas]

In my ongoing quest to vintagify my bedroom and my desktop, I found this little number at a junk-shop in town. No idea how old it is, but it reminded me of those art deco staplers from the 1930s...

You load it by pressing a button at the back of the stapler, and the staple-drawer pops out. You pull it open, slot in the staples (regular size), then just slam the thing shut again, and it's ready to go.

Best of all, it's all solid steel. Nothing to crack or break off.

It's a REXEL Jaguar 567, if that means anything to anyone.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Wow, some very creative forces at work on making vintage looking office spaces. I will have to clear my work desk and take a picture of it for here. My desk is an old metal desk, perhaps from the 1940's. It once belonged to a drafter but is not a drafting table. On the corner is a clamped on twin bulb florescence lamp. The desk pad on it has a mechanical drawing pad insert with vintage advertisements on it. Aside from using it for business issues, I have loved the size of the drawers for storing things I want to keep handy, from shoe polish and brushes, pens, pencils, camera equipment, batteries, scissors, measuring tap, medicine,some small tools, eye glass repair kits, current bills due and at times, cash for heading to the casino!

I would be lost without my desk. Oh yes, my computer sits on it also.

 

[Zemke Fan]

Phone, Globe, Postage Scale:

 

[Late to the Party]

This was my grandmother's correspondence folder. It zips closed. It is getting a little fragile so I don't use it anymore.

My grandfather was a civil engineer, my father an electric/automotive engineer, and my mother went to college for architecture. They all had various drafting/drawing equipment and they were not inclined to throw things away.
So, tonight I finally went through the bin of random pen-stuff and weeded out the hopelessly corroded nibs and broken things and combined the handful of modern fountain pens, nibs, and inks I had lying around, finishing with this assortment:

My favorite vintage nib (Esterbrook 555 'accountant') still works well enough, and I decided that two of the three Sheaffer fountain pens I've had since the 80s are beyond help. My Lamy Safari extra fine is wonderful, as usual.

I cleaned up the two surviving fountain pens and popped a cartridge in the Sheaffer and filled the Lamy with a nice forest green. I'm either going to look for a refillable vintage-looking new fountain pen or an relatively inexpensive vintage one.

The nifty embossing thing has a patent date 1912, and is loaded with EY, my grandfather's initials, and mine too, if I leave out the middle initial.

The only items I can't identify are these.

The square object with all the knobs I suspect may have come from something like a pantograph, anyway - it is designed to clamp on something and, before Michigan humidity had its way for decades , the steel pointer was adjustable/removable.
I've no clue about the double ended wire gadget, and the flat scraping? thing has been well used, whatever it is.

 

[JonnyO]

I've no clue about the double ended wire gadget, and the flat scraping? thing has been well used, whatever it is.

These two look to be for clay sculpting. The one on the right I used often in grade school art class.

 

[Shangas]

I agree with Johnny. They look like clay-sculpting tools. I also used similar ones in school.

 

[MikeBravo]

The thing in the middle with the blade looks like knives used for leatherwork

 

[Late to the Party]

These two look to be for clay sculpting. The one on the right I used often in grade school art class.

I agree with Johnny. They look like clay-sculpting tools. I also used similar ones in school.

Ok. That kind of makes sense. I wonder why mom stuck them in with the rest of the pens.

Now for the utterly unfounded and absurd speculation. I do wonder if the clay sculpting tools could also have been used in testing concrete mixes for construction. That's a total leap on my part. G-pa the civil engineer made bridge-strong concrete even if he didn't have to. The folks who had to dig up the well head he made on the farm were not pleased.

 

[JonnyO]

Ok. That kind of makes sense. I wonder why mom stuck them in with the rest of the pens.

Now for the utterly unfounded and absurd speculation. I do wonder if the clay sculpting tools could also have been used in testing concrete mixes for construction. That's a total leap on my part. G-pa the civil engineer made bridge-strong concrete even if he didn't have to. The folks who had to dig up the well head he made on the farm were not pleased.

Definitely could have been, maybe he even dabbled in concrete sculpting that no one knew about. People are very resourceful with what they use to do their job.

 

[jskeen]

The clamp with the point is either half of a set of trammel points, which are mounted on a ruler or other long object to draw circles or lay out multiples of a set distance, or it's an adjustable pivot point for a compass extension, to allow it to draw larger circles. Depends if it originally came with a twin or as a part of a compass set.

James

 

[GE-Man]

Mechanical pocket-calculator:

The Curta was invented in 1948:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta

 

[MikeBravo]

Wow, some very creative forces at work on making vintage looking office spaces. I will have to clear my work desk and take a picture of it for here. My desk is an old metal desk, perhaps from the 1940's. It once belonged to a drafter but is not a drafting table. On the corner is a clamped on twin bulb florescence lamp. The desk pad on it has a mechanical drawing pad insert with vintage advertisements on it. Aside from using it for business issues, I have loved the size of the drawers for storing things I want to keep handy, from shoe polish and brushes, pens, pencils, camera equipment, batteries, scissors, measuring tap, medicine,some small tools, eye glass repair kits, current bills due and at times, cash for heading to the casino!

I would be lost without my desk. Oh yes, my computer sits on it also.

Still waiting ...

 

[1930artdeco]

Now that my desk is clean-finally, I am going to start accessorizing it. I have the lamp, clock, stapler and phone. I just bought a Bates address/phone number flip up organizer and I have a bead on some repo cards that go inside. My next goal is to get a desk set. Where does one get blotter paper for the roller blotters? Also, what are the large square fiber board things called that people write on? The ones with leather at each corner. Just tying to find one.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[csmorris]

If you mean the rocker blotters, try gouletpens.com

 

[LizzieMaine]

Also, what are the large square fiber board things called that people write on? The ones with leather at each corner. Just tying to find one.

Thanks,

Mike

That's called a desk pad or a desk blotter. A large sheet of blotting paper, usually green, would fit into the leather corners.