Show us your Vintage Office Supplies.

[1930artdeco]

Thanks again Lizzie. I am looking at buying a dip pen and was wondering if there are any internal baffles to regulate the inks flow. Or do you just turn the bottle upside down in the reservoir?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[1930artdeco]

Well I now have most of everything I need for a desk set. Wooohoooo! I just got my ink blotter, Morriset dip pen, and Bates listfinder. Can anyone tell me what the little round thing with two holes is? And what it does. I think it is to regulate ink flow out of the bottle but not sure.

Mike

 

[Hagwood]

Man, I'm just reviving all kinds of old threads......

I was writing with my 1940's Esterbrook Fountain Pen today, so I thought I would send some pics. I found this one at a thrift store and did a little restoration, and it writes like a dream.

Of course the Noodler's Dragon's Napalm ink isn't vintage, but that's my trademark color at the office, LOL.

 

[Nobert]

Today's mail brought the clamshell shade for this gooseneck lamp I picked up a few months ago (for less than the cost of the shade).

 

[Edward Reed]

my vintage 1940s office is a mix of WWII era Home Front / U.S. Army Air Forces "Somewhere in England" themed. I'll try to post a few items here and there from time to time... here is a few items I want to highlight in the following posts... here is an overview:

the latest acquisitions are the in/out boxes... or rather one wood letter box and one vintage wire cage. the wood one is stamped on the underside with Property Air Force US Army so perfect for my collection. often in photos of the era you will see the wire cage style. for a true vintage desk be sure to get one where the wire is bent wrapped around the frame.

many types of desk trays were used; metal, wood, dovetailed wood, two tiered wired and wood and single trays.

 

[Edward Reed]

in my search to add items to my 1940s desk and specifically an Army Air Forces desk I searched over army office photos and kept seeing this tiny bowl usually filled with paperclips. I searched for a paper clip holder with no luck then finally came across the correct shape and sized bowl accidentally on ebay searching for vintage desk items. turns out the item is actually a stamp moistener bowl. one would have a sponge in it with water and you could wet the stamp to apply instead of licking it. made sense but the ones I saw were filled with paper clips... then it occurred to me, during the war any mail to and from the military was free! all you had to do was write the word free in the upper corner so no need for stamps. General public office items were supplied to the thousands of offices used by the military and the moistener cup just ended up being repurposed to hold their paperclips instead!
mine is marked I.D. L. Mfg. & Sales Corp., New York - U.S.A.
Marked: No. 3 - IDL - NY - U.S.A. (1940s vintage)
Size: 1-7/8 inches height, 3-1/4 inches across rim, 1-3/4 inches across base
This company made postal scales and office supplies so I feel confident this one to be the same as it is a perfect match to the photos I have found... naturally I filled mine with GEM paper clips

 

[Bushman]

my vintage 1940s office is a mix of WWII era Home Front / U.S. Army Air Forces "Somewhere in England" themed. I'll try to post a few items here and there from time to time... here is a few items I want to highlight in the following posts... here is an overview:
View attachment 215947 View attachment 215948 View attachment 215949

the latest acquisitions are the in/out boxes... or rather one wood letter box and one vintage wire cage. the wood one is stamped on the underside with Property Air Force US Army so perfect for my collection. often in photos of the era you will see the wire cage style. for a true vintage desk be sure to get one where the wire is bent wrapped around the frame.
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many types of desk trays were used; metal, wood, dovetailed wood, two tiered wired and wood and single trays.
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There's an office setup any WWII nut would be PROUD to work at!

 

[Edward Reed]

There's an office setup any WWII nut would be PROUD to work at!

Thank you good sir! its a fun hobby to hunt and find (and win) items for this office.

 

[Edward Reed]

The Ever Ready Desk Calendar was a standard desktop item. This Ever Ready Desk Calendar in my collection was Army Col. Howard Ayers SR Personal Property since at least 1937 as calendar cover cards attached date back that far.
Col Ayers was a then Major in the U.S. Army and a member of General Douglas MacArthur's staff. He equipped and trained troops in tank warfare. In 1944, he became chief of the Prisoner of War Branch. He was then assigned to Gen. MacArthur in Manila and remained with him during the occupation of Japan. Many Handwritten notes throughout this 1945 calendar insert and this entry on the page shown is when he was notified of VE Day (Victory in England) “Notice Received 1019” He died Saturday morning April, 19, 1986 at the age of 86.
(***He entered Purdue University in 1917, but his studies were interrupted for a time in 1918 when he served in World War I!)

 

[Edward Reed]

Hamilton Field California Air Corps letter opener metal with celluloid handle.

The clipboard is also period. dating 1940s and you can see a similar one hanging on the wall to the left low of the clock in the image posted below.
interestingly mine has a stenciled series number on the reverse side which makes me wonder if it was military or government used.

 

[Edward Reed]

my Markwell RX Whippet isn't in the best of condition but I found a great box full of staples for it actually dated 1942! so it doubled as a WWII Home Front piece as well as vintage office supplies! Uncle Sam is imploring me to repair it!

 

[Edward Reed]

gotta throw a bottle of Parker Quink on the desk... WWII era. not the best example but I got it cheap and it displays well enough.

 

[Edward Reed]

Picked up these vintage tacks today. I don't know what these would date but they certainly have a 30's/40's feel to the graphics on the box and the price seems consistent with that era....

 

[Edward Reed]

I'm not really a pencil collector but have acquired a good handful of vintage pencils lately to add to my vintage office specifically WWII era pencils. During the war there was a shortage of metals due to the war effort so the ferrule ends holding the eraser were made of plastic and sometimes wrapped paper board.
While many in the military used mechanical pencils I have seen a number of photographs of the average yellow pencil being used. Of course prewar metal ferrule pencils were still widely available.

In my collection I have a set of unused Venus Velvet 3557 with plastic ferrules,
A boxed set of unused Dixon Ticonderoga 1386 with plastic ferrules,
1 WWII era factory sharpened Dixon Ticonderoga that has a paper cardboard ferrule which is particularly rare for this brand and was most likely an interim product to keep production flowing while plastic was being sourced or machining equipment for production was acquired and set.
An unused Made in U.S.A. L & C Hardtmuth Inc. MEPHISTO Writing 465 x no.3 with a plastic ferrule,
and a factory sharpened Red Rock Cola advertising pencil with a Victory Buy War Bonds ad with a paper ferrule.

Also in the Planter's Peanut tin are two vintage Blaisdell Cellophane 973-T
"nick and pull" china marker grease pencils commonly used to mark up weather maps during the war. These came in many colors.

speaking of Planter's Peanut tins, this is an item that I like to throw into my WWII era Army Air Forces office items as one of those repurposed items. During the war peanuts were sent to soldiers (and in some cases cigarettes were vacuum sealed into them as well!) I have many photos of USAAF using these to hold pencils and as customized trench art to be ashtrays. so naturally I ha to have a few. look for tins dated 1938 with two martini glasses and a tumbler to be completely accurate!

 

[Edward Reed]

Added a nice WWII era mechanical pencil to my vintage office supplies. The Scripto!
Variations in the clip design typically designate what years it was manufactured. These came in a variety of colors both transparent and opaque. The 1930s versions are aluminum but they used plastic during the war. This particular yellow one I own has a rolled end on the tapered clip that gives this a manufacture date during 1943/44 . By 1945 the the clip design was changed to a folded/ flared spade design of which I have one in green and are the most common "early versions". The 1930s versions are also common to find and have a shovel/scoop design to the clip. The leads were "made in 10 degrees of black and 17 colors."

1943 ad showing the rounded rolled clip end....

1944 ad showing the rounded rolled clip end....

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1945 clip design change:

 

[Edward Reed]

Just added this opaque blue early 40's Scripto "No. 70" to match my blotter card showing the same mechanical pencil! It should frame up nicely in a small shadowbox.

 

[Edward Reed]

added this early to mid 40's index file card metal cabinet to my collection.its painted a dark OD "army green" so fits in nicely with my WWII vintage office. it makes for a nice piece of Objet d'art

still has the locking latch mechanism as these were stackable and the latch stabilized them. hmmmm may have to keep an eye out for another one.

 

[Edward Reed]

my office and desk are getting smaller! time to re-arrange yet again as I found a great piece to add to my 1940s vintage USAAF office! An index card file cabinet... and not just any... this one is marked on the bottom (albeit a bit faded and worn) Property Air Force United States Army so it fits right in with my decor perfectly! Dove tail oak construction, bakelite handles and its a match to one in a photo I've had for a while....

 

[Edward Reed]

I've been wanting to add a hand held bakelite pencil sharpener to my desktop and finally found a really cool one that spoke to me... this is a "Hurst" USA Sharpener with a metal lid to hold the shavings until you can get to a trash bin. pretty clever. I don't keep up with these so I don't know if any are still made like this today but its got that vintage oddity detailing that I look for. a bit used but charming and still functional.

 

[Edward Reed]

I do not know when these date to but I added a NOS vintage box of Dixon 855 "ERASIT" erasers to my vintage desk collection. a nice heavy box at that!