Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Show us your Vintage Office Supplies.

1930artdeco

Practically Family
Messages
673
Location
oakland
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

Practically Family
Messages
673
Location
oakland
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
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2146.jpg
    IMG_2146.jpg
    475.8 KB · Views: 474
  • IMG_2149.jpg
    IMG_2149.jpg
    982.4 KB · Views: 549
  • IMG_2151.jpg
    IMG_2151.jpg
    455 KB · Views: 496
Last edited:

Hagwood

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,017
Location
Fort Worth, TX
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.



Vintage-1.jpg

Vintage-3.jpg

Vintage-4.jpg
 

Edward Reed

A-List Customer
Messages
494
Location
Aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress
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:
IMG_8575.JPG
IMG_8576.JPG
IMG_8577.JPG


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.
IMG_8584.JPG

wiretray.jpg

erawiretray.jpg

Maj Midleton.jpg

many types of desk trays were used; metal, wood, dovetailed wood, two tiered wired and wood and single trays.
tray4.jpg

tray2.jpg
 

Edward Reed

A-List Customer
Messages
494
Location
Aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress
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 :D
2A1F4G7.jpg
CHAIR18303.jpeg
gallery_medium.jpg
M66P1E.jpg
stampbowl2.jpg
stampbowlupclose.jpg
twostampbowls.jpg
twostampbowlsupclose.jpg

IMG_8583.JPG

te9896d.jpg
 

Bushman

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,138
Location
Joliet
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.
View attachment 215950
View attachment 215955
View attachment 215965
View attachment 215975
many types of desk trays were used; metal, wood, dovetailed wood, two tiered wired and wood and single trays.
View attachment 215978
View attachment 215977
There's an office setup any WWII nut would be PROUD to work at!
 

Edward Reed

A-List Customer
Messages
494
Location
Aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress
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!)

IMG_8434.JPG
IMG_8589.JPG

deskcalendar.jpg
Deskcalendar2.jpg
deskcalendar4.jpg
deskcalendartrenchart.jpg
deskcalendarwwii.jpg
 

Edward Reed

A-List Customer
Messages
494
Location
Aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress
Hamilton Field California Air Corps letter opener metal with celluloid handle.
IMG_5826.JPG
IMG_5827.JPG


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.
IMG_5825.JPG
IMG_5828.jpg

seththomasaaf.jpg
 

Edward Reed

A-List Customer
Messages
494
Location
Aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress
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! :D
IMG_8592.JPG
IMG_8593.jpg
IMG_8594.JPG
 

Edward Reed

A-List Customer
Messages
494
Location
Aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress
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.

IMG_8654.JPG

IMG_8443.JPG

IMG_8656.JPG

IMG_8658.JPG



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.
IMG_8660.JPG



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! :)
PlantersA2.jpeg
PlantersonDesk.jpg
Planterstinscopy.jpg

planters-cocktail-peanuts-for-boys-in-service-poster-3.jpg


IMG_3007.JPG
 

Edward Reed

A-List Customer
Messages
494
Location
Aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress
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."
IMG_9130.JPG
IMG_9131.JPG
scripto1940sblotter.jpg



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

Scripto1943.jpg

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

Scripto1944.jpg


IMG_9168.JPG
scripto-l1600-1.jpg
scripto-l1600-3.jpg
View attachment 224753
Stark-Paint-Gift-Store-Colton-Ca.jpg


1945 clip design change:
SCRIPTO-1945-pencil-airplane-pilot-war-wwii-illustration.jpg
 
Last edited:

Edward Reed

A-List Customer
Messages
494
Location
Aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress
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
IMG_9780.JPG
IMG_9784.JPG


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. :p
Vintage-Industrial-Two-2-Drawer-Metal-12 1:8" Wide by 5 1:4" High and 17" deep .jpg
 

Edward Reed

A-List Customer
Messages
494
Location
Aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress
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....
IMG_9757.jpg
IMG_9817.JPG

FinishNumber.jpg
IMG_9813.jpg
IMG_9814.jpg
IMG_9815.JPG
indexcardPropertyUSAAF.jpg

IMG_9822.JPG
IMG_9820.JPG
IMG_9823.JPG
 

Edward Reed

A-List Customer
Messages
494
Location
Aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress
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.
IMG_9847.JPG
IMG_9848.JPG
IMG_9849.JPG
 

Forum statistics

Threads
109,140
Messages
3,074,932
Members
54,121
Latest member
Yoshi_87
Top