Vintage Staionery

[poetman]

There have been some threads on vintage office supplies, pens, etc. But I'm wondering if anyone has photos of vintage stationery. When the ballpoint pen came on the market in the early 40's it sold out of Macy's in one hour. Surely everyone wasn't using fountain pens and Crane stationery. Does anyone have an idea what an average person would use for letters, notebooks for journaling, daily pens? What would a university student use? Perhaps those who do reenactments might have ideas from props?

Thanks.

 

[The Wolf]

Fountain pens were the common writing implement in the 1930s and 1940s from the all the letters I've seen.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Suitable]

Fountain pens remained usual for some time to come. The earliest ballpoint pens leaked terribly. I remember how bad they were even in the 1970s.

 

[Randy]

I cannot really add anything to this conversation, but I too would be very interested in knowing what type of paper was used in this period. I use only fountain pens and have had problems at times finding modern blotters (used after writing to absorb any extra ink, for those who are not familiar with the use of fountain pens). Period blotters are actually very easy to find, and I use the more common themed blotters without hesitation (Wampole's Preparation blotters are one of my favorites), but I have not seen anything about the stationary - paper surface, composition, sizes, etc. - that were used before the current period - not that many people still write letters by hand (I do).

- Randy