Creating a Vintage Desktop - Suggestions & Advice Wanted

[Shangas]

Hey guys.

In about a month and a half, I will be attending the 2012 Melbourne Pen Show. More about that event in the "Events" board when it comes nearer.

Anyway...

I'm a member of the Melbourne Pen Group. And for the past few years, we've held a table at the yearly pen show, putting on various displays and exhibits for visitors to view and admire. We've done various things, from antiques to ephemera, pen-displays, racks, cases and so-forth. We always seem to focus on the HISTORY of writing.

In keeping with that theme, my prospective table-display for this year is along the line of "The Golden Era of Writing".

I want to show the golden age of writing. What it was like during the 1920s and 30s, when fountain pens and typewriters were in every home, when names like "Royal", "Sheaffer", and "Esterbrook", were household names. When going to the store to buy ink didn't mean that your Hewitt & Packard printer hadn't started churning out bad print and when blotting-paper was sold in huge sheets.

To this end, my display for this year is taking on the look of a vintage desktop. I want it to look like a sort of 1920s/30s timewarp. I want it to show what a typical desk in an office, or in a home study, or a den, might look like back in the Golden Era.

This is what my prospective display looks like at the moment:

Here we have, from left to right...

- Vintage desk-blotter.
- Typewriter manual.
- Typewriter ribbon.
- Rocker-blotter.
- Underwood Standard Portable, from 1926.
- Inkwell.
- Vintage 'SWAN' ink-bottle.
- Glass nib-caddy and pen-rest.
- Copy-paper.
- Fountain pen. 1920s Wahl, gold-filled.
- Advertising-blotters.
- Vintage SKRIP ink-bottle.
- 1928 Parker Duofold.
- 1910s Waterman Ideal; 18kt gold.

I'd appreciate suggestions from other people. What can I add to this to make it look more authentic? For example, is it too clean? Should I spray ink onto the blotting-paper? What other things might be found on a desk or in an office/study of this period?

I was thinking of, for example, adding a simple ash-tray, maybe a cheap print-out of an old newspaper, all folded up. Envelopes, perhaps. A seal, sealing-wax, manilla folders, those old-fashioned yellow wood pencils (I have a few lying around), and so-forth.

V.C. Brunswick suggested stuff like magazines, newspapers, scrunched up, half-finished letters, and things of that nature.

Any suggestions at all would be welcome. I want this to look as if it was just pinched off a desk from 1930 and brought to the 21st century. Just keep in mind that the space I have to work with is a little limited. The desk-blotter, and about six inches around its edges, is all the space I shall have to work with (this will be sitting on a trestle-table at the show, for people to see).

I know that this is a long time in advance, but I'm posting it NOW, so that if anyone has any suggestions that I decide to act on, I'll have time to go out and possibly find some nice vintage bits and pieces at the flea-market, to complete the look that I'm after.

Naturally I'll be decked in vintage-style attire for the event. Or as vintage a style as the November weather in Australia will permit (it being summer at that time of the year).

Let the ideas come!

 

[kiwilrdg]

Should I spray ink onto the blotting-paper?

How about writing with your fountain pen and blotting the paper with a flat blotting paper that you can leave on the desk. use the desk for a little bit to ensure that it is arranged right and so your hands will leave sweat in the right spots. Bon't forget a handkercheif with some ink stains to wipe your nib after you fill your fountain pen.

I do not see a typing eraser and erasing shield. A gummy eraser might be needed as well.

 

[Shangas]

The stuff you see before you are things which I use every day. That desk-blotter is on my desk right now as I type. I recently changed the paper because I made a mess on it (prior to that, I hadn't changed the paper in nearly a year!).

If the gummy erasers are the ones I'm thinking of, I haven't seen those in years! Where do I find them?? I'll try the stationery shops...

I have plenty of old hankies. I can easily sacrifice one as a nib-wipe.

 

[kiwilrdg]

If you are using it daily it sounds like it must be right. The paper should be properly distressed by the time you display it.

I thought about another one, a packet of carbon paper under the typewriter (this one depends on the type of work).

 

[Shangas]

I had thought of carbon-paper, but surely people don't make that stuff anymore, do they? I know there is a carbon-like paper, which is used for tailoring (my grandmother used to have a whole heap of it, she was a dressmaker by profession), but actual, like, typewriter carbon-paper, I haven't seen in years!

I can assure you, by the end of a month, that blotting-paper will look perfectly distressed. I am wondering if I should keep it CLEAN though? Or would that look too 'staged'? Should it be covered with backwards writing that was blotted onto it and so-forth? I do enough writing with fountain pens to fill up a blotting-sheet like that pretty quickly!

I have a friend who is a smoker. I don't smoke, but I may ask him to um...'donate'...some cigarettes. Perhaps pop them in an ash-tray or something. They still sell Lucky Strikes, right?

 

[LizzieMaine]

You can still get carbon paper at most any office supply store, believe it or not. Better, though, to find a vintage box on eBay or some such -- the modern packaging isn't very traditonal looking.

 

[Shangas]

Thanks for the tip, Liz, I'll see what I can rustle up.

I had a check of my local OfficeWorks (Aussie equivalent of 'Staples') and I believe that they do have some in-stock. I have to go out tomorrow on a rather important matter anyway, so I may as well drop by and see what they have. According to the website, my local one (down the street) should have it.

I have a whole heap of old manila folders lying around (those cardboardy things, cream/beige-coloured). A couple of those might be nice.

I had considered a bottle of Liquid Paper or White Out. But then I remembered that stuff didn't show up until the 1950s. As I'm going for a 20s/30s look, I'll strike that off my list.

I'll try and track down the carbon-paper tomorrow.

Keep the suggestions coming.

EDIT - I just thought of another one - Paperknife/letter-opener/page-turner.

My grandmother used to have this lethal paperknife. It was solid brass, and shaped like a dagger. I forget whatever happened to it. I think it got lost when she moved. But I have a couple of these knives myself. One of them should stand in nicely for a vintage article.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Before white-out came along people used typewriter erasers -- round discs with a small bristle brush attached for sweeping the crumbs out of the machine. The rubber part was very hard and gritty, and it was very easy to rub a hole thru the paper if you weren't careful.

I don't think anybody makes these anymore, but they're often found in the back of old desk drawers.

 

[Shangas]

Oh those erasers! Yes I know the kind you mean. I haven't seen them in ages! I don't think you can even buy them anymore. You mean these things, yeah?

Haven't seen one of those in nearly 20 years.

I have a stamp-pad lying around. Maybe one of those old-timey, spring-loaded date-stamps might be a nice touch? Y'know, one of these things?

When I was a kid, they still had them in libraries to stamp books for you. I don't think anyplace really still uses them, do they? I could probably pick one up for a penny at the local flea-market.

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I spoke to a friend of mine who's a smoker. He said he'd be happy to supply things like pipes and such. I told him something like a zippo (1932) or a Ronson table-lighter might be a nice touch. A bit like this:

Would that be considered period-accurate for the 1930s?

 

[dhermann1]

I think many people, especially in offices, would have had a typewriter table, with wheels, at the side of the desk, rather than having the typewriter right in the middle like that. First, it takes up a LOT of real estate there, but second, and more importantly, just like modern keyboards, the ideal ergonomic height for a typewriter keyboard is slightly lower than a desk height. Here is one example out of dozens available on Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-BLa...938?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2571e472ba

 

[Shangas]

Hi Dhermann,

I know what typewriter tables are and what they're designed for. But something like that is outside of my capabilities right now. This is all supposed to be a temporary display for the pen show. It'll be a one-off thing for one day only. So what I want is simple things to dress up the display that I have in mind. Desk-accessories which give that period touch.

If it helps at all, the dimensions of the desk-blotter are 18 inches wide/deep (a foot and a half), and 4ft (48in) long (opened up). The area occupied by the blotting-paper itself is 18in by 23in.

If possible, I wanna keep my display limited to the area afforded by the desk-blotter (I may have some space in front of the blotter on the display-table, where I can put signs and such, for the public to read).

 

[kiwilrdg]

If a typewriter is on the desk the small portable one is the way to go. Looks as though you carried it in and can pack it out when you go on the road...That gives me an idea, a vintage hotel or other travel related matchbook would use less space than a desk lighter.

 

[kiwilrdg]

Depending on what the desk is for, a period map and a typed address list to look like you are preparing to see clients is another idea.

 

[1930artdeco]

How about one those stamp trees? The ones that have about 3-6 stamps that say 'received', 'paid' etc.?

Mike

 

[kiwilrdg]

an address book or card file might also be good. Not a Rolodex because they only date back to 1954

 

[Shangas]

I know where to find old maps, so that might be a possibility, actually. There's a shop I know which sells old bits and pieces of stuff. I believe it also sells vintage maps, of the British Isles, in fact.

@ Mike: You mean something like this, right?

That might be a possibility. I dunno if I'd find enough stamps to fill it, but it I'll keep it on the list, just in case.

A traditional "little black book" sounds like a good idea. I'll try and find one of those. What are the chances a modern LBB could be passed off as a vintage one? It doesn't have to look aged, it just has to look um...'classic'...if you know what I mean. And when I'm done with the show, I can just use it to fill in all my actual contact-information about friends and relations...

 

[Sharpsburg]

How about some smokes and an ash tray? All great writers smoke and drink to excess, i hear!

 

[Shangas]

I'm in discussion with a friend of mine. He said he could supply me with smoking-paraphernalia. I"m thinking of a box of matches, or a Ronson table-lighter, or a ZIPPO, and a smoking-pipe and ash-tray. He said he also has cigars and such things...

A friend of mine suggested a vintage double-edge razor. A bit out of the ordinary, but what's the chances something like that might be found in an office back in the old days?

 

[dhermann1]

Here's a thought: Design your desk top as if the owner was in the middle of doing . . . something . . . and just stepped away. Figure out exactly what it was.
And I figured the typewriter table might be a budget buster. Looks like you're well on your way to a great exhibit.

 

[Shangas]

Others suggested the same thing.

My idea is to make it a "typical" vintage 20s & 30s desk. Full of all the right paraphernalia (either purchased, or borrowed from friends).

I will arrange the items on the desk in such a way that it looks natural. So that it looks used. Like, as you say, the owner just stepped out to post a letter or something.

The event at which this display is being held is the 2012 Melbourne Pen Show. While I'll provide more details about this when the event is nearer at hand (it doesn't happen until mid-November), it will be held at a charming Victorian building. Here at the Malvern Town Hall (which is conveniently, just a few blocks from my house):

The hall as it appeared in the Victorian era.

The same building today.

The cables that you see in the way are for the intersecting streetcar lines that run past the hall.

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I bought some of those custard-yellow, lined "legal pads" at the local stationer's shop. They're A4 size, but I reckon they can pass for legal pads. I'll add one to my display.

The local Officeworks was out of carbon-paper, but they said they'd order some in for me. Yay!!