Typewriters, fountain pens, and staplers, oh my! Vintage office supplies can be useful and fun to collect. While few of us still use typewriters; staplers, pens, envelopes, and paper sorters are still useful items that can be had for a relatively low price.
When I was young, my mother worked in a busy office and some of the items that ended up coming home with her were pens emblazoned with the names of companies she worked with. Those pens, known as click pens, were always colorful and came in two parts, so you could unscrew them and make fun combinations of colors. They were refillable as well and often had a small brass ring around the middle along with a pocket clip at the top. The satisfying click which brought out the ballpoint tip was the icing on top. I played with them for hours.
Before everything was made of plastic, we had heavy duty metal staplers, tape dispensers, and wooden paper trays. Typewriters sat on rolling tables that could be opened up to lay out the many pages to be typed up. If you were in need of a copy, you could slip a piece of carbon paper between two pages before typing. If you made a mistake, a bit of liquid paper would do the trick, but don’t forget to let it dry before typing over it. Hopefully you didn’t run out of ink or you may have to figure out how to change the ribbon. That could get messy if you weren’t sure how to do it. Before electric typewriters came along, they were manual, which meant striking the keys was anything but a light touch. I still remember taking typing class in school. The point was to look at the paper you were copying from and not the keyboard and type as fast and accurately as possible. Needless to say, it was not my best grade.
For those still in school, the pencil sharpener that hung on the wall of every classroom was a great distraction from paying attention in class. You could grind a pencil down to a tiny nub and still write with it. A good pencil back then was essential. The school standard was always the #2 pencils made by Eberhard/Faber Castell, or Dixon Ticonderoga. If you’ve ever wondered why most pencils are yellow, here’s the story.
In 1889, Paris hosted the Exposition Universelle. One company, Hardtmuth Pencil from Czechoslovakia created what it called a “Luxury Pencil.” The highest grade of graphite used to make these pencils came from China. In China, the color yellow was reserved for royalty. As a signal that the company’s new pencils were of the highest quality, the color yellow was chosen. The new line of pencils was named Koh-I-Noor after the world famous diamond, which was part of the British Crown Jewels. The pencils became so popular that the company added Koh-I-Noor to its name. They are still in business today. Yellow pencils stand out similar to the yellow of a school bus, which is why we still use them today.
Fountain pens were used before the invention of the ball point pen. The oldest versions, known as dip pens, required a metal nib dipped into a small pot of ink and then blotted with an ink blotter so the ink wouldn’t smear as it dried. We then moved to pens with an ink cartridge that could be changed out when empty. This meant a pen could now be taken out of the office and used anywhere one needed to jot down a note or sign a document.
Our offices and desk contents have now changed, no more post-it notes stuck up everywhere. It’s all on our phones or computers now. The idea of a handwritten letter or card has become nostalgic and is a welcomed surprise in our mailboxes. With instant communication and less need for reams of paper documents, getting a handwritten note is indeed a lovely surprise.
A few vintage office supplies that caught our eye:
Vintage 1940s WWII advertising pencil collection highlighting local businesses, $28.50, available from Sasparilla Smile.
Oversized brass “at once” clip for holding your urgent papers, $31.75, from Clover Hollow Vintage.
Vintage Swingline 747 stapler in a fetching shade of red, $32, from Rutilated.
