Show us your Vintage Office Supplies.

[Edward Reed]

I've seen a few of these boxes of rubber bands come up occasionally. They are usually described as being from the 1930s. Not certain about the time period but they certainly look the part. I have found a later post war box with a different design from the same company so my opinion is these are probably 1940s at least. This one came with a good compliment of the original rubber bands with a noticeable amount of elasticity remaining but not at all useable. Great display to add to my other desk items.

 

[Edward Reed]

also on my radar of items to add to my vintage desk was a magnifying reading glass/paperweight which is a common item to see in vintage office photos. This particular one isn't the most common type used but caught my eye as it is wrapped in thin leather, and although I prefer not to acquire advertisement promotional items I am quite familiar with the fame of the publishing company Brown & Bigelow which, among other items, published pinup girl material such as calendars, cards and mutoscope cards. so naturally I had to have this one being I own a number of vintage pinups. my guess is early to mid 40's for this item.

 

[Edward Reed]

today's haul for the vintage office:
3 small NOS leatherette notebooks probably from the 1940s (3 for 10¢!)
A set of 7 (with original packing sleeve) Dixon Oriole No. 2 pencils with Paper ferrules. WWII era production. (need 5 more to complete the set!)

 

[Edward Reed]

well, its an office supply, its green, its vintage and it makes weapons!

 

[Edward Reed]

I'm cross posting this from the Scotch Tape thread...
I added this very early stamped metal scotch tape dispenser to my vintage office collection. It came with what was left of a used post war tin reel of tape (hence the red/green plaid on that piece) but these early blue/cream color ones are hard to come by. incidentally it is shown in a WWII army signal corps photo of a soldier's footlocker so it serves double duty for my vintage type of collecting.

 

[Edward Reed]

also replaced my postwar Scotch Whale Tale dispenser with a nice early pre-war/WWII era Whale Tail with the paper Scotch Cellulose Tape tag still on it with the matching patent number.

 

[Edward Reed]

Added what could be 1940s NOS spiral notebooks to my office collection. I say "could be" as this product remained unchanged through the 50s but I found many examples of these used as diaries and author notes dating in the late 1930s to mid 1940s. Nice aging and yellowing vintage paper items on my desktop just the same.

The Western Tablet & Stationery Company (Westab) was founded in 1906 by Henry Dayton and William Albrecht in St. Joseph, MO. They went on to become a dominant company in the consumer paper industry by the mid-1920s. (Second location in Dayton, OH) They continued with this success until they were bought by Meade Company in 1966. Westab mainly focused on manufacturing inexpensive packaged stationery goods and their famous ruled writing tablet. The most familiar products produced by Western Tablet were its "Spiral", "Big Chief" and "Hytone" composition books, an item arguably used by nearly every school student and aspiring author in America from the 1920s through the 1960s. The Hytone and Spiral composition tablets are trademarked items still widely used in America, particularly among American grade school and college students.

(below a clipping from an online posting about a diary dating 1938 thru 1940 using the same Spiral notebook by Westab)

 

[Edward Reed]

I wasn't sure I wanted to add a list finder to my office desk as I don't need one in this App-smartphone age but most of what I have on my desk is just display anyway so I perused the infinite amount of styles and versions made during the 30s and 40s and it was overwhelming. I settled on a late 1930s Bates made of metal. (during the war list finders were made in bakelite) They were a very prolific list finder maker and this one came with the original box. The box is in well worn condition but it still appealed to me especially since I didn't pay much at all for this one. There are a few phone number entries throughout but not overly so. I haven't looked at every page but it appears they are all 3 letter, 4 numbers format so that makes it fun and certainly verifies its era of use.

 

[Edward Reed]

Added a couple more WWII era pencils to the heap. a Dixon Oriole with a paper ferrule and a rather patriotic pencil with a plastic ferrule.

I also added a wood ruler to my vintage 40's office. This one seems to be a war time promotional ruler (very common for companies to have imprinted giveaway rulers) and the wording on this one seems to indicate WWII wartime manufacture. a bit worn and used but that gives it more charm in my opinion.
Happy Memorial Day
I appreciate those that served, serve today, and will serve so that I may live free and enjoy the lifestyle that I am accustomed to.

 

[Edward Reed]

You might roll your eyes on this one...
added a 1930's waste bin to the vintage office. they really don't make them like this anymore! (have I gone too far?)

 

[Edward Reed]

View attachment 237236

always fun to find a period photo with the item you collected!
this photo was taken in 1940 and he has The Spiral Composition Book in hand

 

[Edward Reed]

also found an image from 1942 of a woman using the same Bates List Finder that I have. its a bit hard to see but is most definitely the same model...

 

[Edward Reed]

acquired two very old NOS notebooks that date to the early 1900s and probably, by my research, no newer than the 1920s! the cover on the larger notebook is getting a bit brittle, pages yellowing but intact,unused and look cool in the vintage office.

 

[Edward Reed]

these date to about 1947 thru 1955 (the GMC logo style depicted on the backside indicates this date range as the logo was often redesigned and this particular style was used within those years)
I love the leather case for it! Below I've included an early 1940s photo showing scissors in a leather sheath on the desk and while not the same style or vintage it at least shows this type of item on a vintage desktop. looks like he also added a ruler or letter opener to the sheath.

 

[Edward Reed]

I didn't think there could possibly be anything else to add to my vintage office desk but came across a few photos of a bakelite looseleaf notepad stand.. did some research and found it was a calendar/notepad stand and first patented by Ever Ready Calendar Manufacturing Co. and filed in 1938, granted 12/26/1939

I went to eBay and instantly found an exact match. Its bigger than I thought it would be actually and takes up quite a bit of space on my desk. It takes 5" x 8" sheets and I work at a printshop/mail-house so I can get paper cut down and we have a paper drill press so I can create the holes in the pad to make this thing fully functional!

 

[Edward Reed]

for those still following along this one man show I added two more WWII era green plastic ferrule Dixon Ticonderoga pencils to my growing collection. These particular ones (1395) are much harder to come by. the knife-edge eraser is a pre-war embellishment and its design was patented in 1933. these two, being plastic ferrule, are WWII era versions.
The ferrule has a slot cut into both sides to accommodate the circular blade of the eraser, which must have introduced additional steps in the manufacturing.

I also found two 1930s photos of vintage babes using the 1395 pencil

 

[Edward Reed]

In the above post #195 on Wednesday I mentioned the Ever Ready Loose Leaf Calendar notepad stand and it being larger than I anticipated and taking up a lot of desk space. well, it turns out they made various sizes (and styles).
I was able to locate a NOS mint in box smaller version that is actually seen in the vintage photos I included. Now to get paper cut down and drilled for it!

finally got around to getting a pad of paper cut down to size and drilled for the stand....

 

[Edward Reed]

Added the perfect compliment to my USAAF office today! I have been wanting to get a more appropriate office chair for my vintage 1940s WWII AAF office and I found the perfect one! I believe it to be a Stenographer Posture Chair and it has stenciled numbers and marked USAAF on it. weighs about 32 lbs. could be oak, birch or walnut... not sure. only marking on it is "Chair 315" on a metal plate.
the entire chair is engineered from wood with the only metal being the casters (and a positioning key for height adjustment) so possibly designed during the 1940s phase of metal rationing restrictions and uses a glass marble for the pivot point!

it is missing one original caster but I was able to find a matching replica at 'House of Antique Hardware' so I'll put that in when it arrives....

 

[1930artdeco]

Dad has a wooden chair similar in style and it is very comfortable. Love the office!

Mike

 

[Edward Reed]

Dad has a wooden chair similar in style and it is very comfortable. Love the office!

Mike

thank you! it is indeed a comfy chair! local options were very pricey and finding someone on eBay that was willing to ship such a thing is next to impossible as they all list 'local pick up only.' I understand the complications of shipping such a large and heavy item but they would be better off listing those in the Facebook Market Place as it targets their local buyers and leave ebay to something they will actually ship but I think many people just default to eBay. I was lucky in that this person was happy to ship it ($88.00) and listed it on the lower end and I was the only person to bid so I got it for $150. Very happy about that as it filled both my collection crossover of USAAF and 1940s vintage office. now if I can just get a 1940s teacher's desk... locally... for a decent price!