Thanks to the fact that my neighborhood is filled with artists both working and retired, yard sales tend to be a jackpot for vintage office supplies. This little gem is a vintage A.W. Faber Sure-Grip 6803. Its a clutch-style leadholder pencil that takes 2mm leads. These are popular with architects and draftsmen (draftspeople?) as the…
This Film King Dur-O-Lite pencil. It is one of those weird and wonderful pencil goodies that occasionally find their way to me. This one came from my pal Bryan over at Field Notes (much obliged!). It’s branding includes where is was made “Melrose Park, Illinois” (yeah!) and “Film lead D-1”. It appears to be a…
I love vintage staplers. They are good looking and often still work after all these years. Some of my favorite vintage staplers take the difficult-to-find TOT staples. Well, I took a chance and got a packet of Max No. 10 staples in green (of course) and lo and behold they fit and work perfectly in…
Lisa Congdon’s book A Collection A Day has lots of beautifully composed photos and drawings of the many bits of ephemera she collects including vintage office supplies. I thought I’d share a few pages from the book that I found particularly inspiring. The erasers and pencil leads are probably my favorite spreads. I wish there was…
Oh, yes. You read that correctly. The History of the Trapper Keeper. Do you remember these jewels of high school? I sure do. Mental Floss published an exhaustive history of the design and development of the iconic notebook system. There’s details about market research, focus groups and patents. Yep, it was scientifically created to be…
A kind friend found a full box of vintage Dennison Sealing Wax and gave it to me. The sticks are huge at almost 12″ long and only one was broken. Now, I think I need to find a seal. Anyone know of a good source for them? Something unique?
Reader Cliff offered to send me an Esterbrook Falcon nib and I gladly accepted. What I didn’t realize until it arrived is that it is the same number as my favorite Esterbrook nibs — the #2442. It turns out that the #2442 is also called a Falcon nib or a Fine Stub. Needless to say,…
