Show us your Vintage Office Supplies.

Calendar Stand c. 1928 (patent expiration 1945)
This one came with a partial 1936 calendar attached but I replaced it with a full 1944 calendar.
This one still has the original protective paper wrap around the back legs that I was going to remove until I found a vintage photo of one still with the same packing wrappers! lol!

added a 40s era fluorescent lamp to my desk. very commonly seen on vintage office photos. This has a nice design on the sides and quite similar to the one shown in the vintage photo....

I have a small collection of early vintage "The Spiral" notebooks and added another this week. The spiral notebook is said to have made its debut in 1924.
This particular No. 40 by Westab is a smaller handheld notebook and at least dates to the 40s as the first dated entry is for January 9, 1942 for a series of automotive maintenance notes written on 4 pages of this 33 page notebook. The last entry being 3-20-1966. everything from oil changes, grease, transmission and differential fluids and spark plug changes are listed here. An entry for a new Carburetor September 1957.... probably kept in the automobile glove compartment. I wish I knew what kind of car it was!

Warren Telechron Co. commercial electric wall clock with metal surround case...
Model 1H512 was made from 1939-1942

In 1942 consumer clock production was halted at the Ashland, Massachusetts Telechron factory as the shop was put to work making defense-related goods.

I'm thrilled to add this electric commercial war era clock to my 1940s office. Runs perfectly and keeps perfect time. It would have been used in schools, large offices and some factories.

If there is a temporary power outage while the owner is out, the running clock will display the incorrect time when he returns. Founder Henry Ellis Warren, foreseeing this difficulty, provided his clocks with an "indicating device": a red dot that would appear on the dial whenever the power failed. This red dot alerted the consumer the need to reset the clock. Setting the clock would reset the indicator. The electric clock market grew rapidly in the 1930s, and Telechron's patented power interruption indicator gave his clocks an advantage over competing synchronous clocks.

No. 19 "Champion" self inking date stamper. very large... Had to have it because the dates are the years 1941 thru 1949 and my scope of collecting is WWII era. Its complete, intact and functional but a bit of surface rust. Changing the dates is a bit risky as the old rubber stamps, although still very pliable are only attached to a ribbon of cloth and can become detached so for now I carefully set it to August 17 1942. No particular reason other than I wanted an early WWII date and once I got to August I was afraid of breaking the fragile date ribbon so I stopped there. the ribbon of dates are now difficult to rotate but can still be done albeit ever so slowly.
The original ink pad was petrified so I replaced it with a modern one into the removable tray.

Incidentally August 17 1942 Heavy bombers of the U.S. Eighth Air Force based in England, conducted their first raid against occupied France....



Looks like I'll need to turn the adjustment screws to level up the year portion of the stamp with the other parts of the date.... very easily accessible.

I thought I was finished with collecting 1930s/1940s office supplies but I was able to locate an elusive and rare Ace Pilot 402-V “Wartime Standard Model“ Victory stapler with a wood base! (circa 1943)

Like many manufacturers a slight alteration to their offerings needed to be made due to war time rationing.
This stapler has All steel parts (no aluminum, chromium, or other rationed metals) on a wood base. Still functions properly and is in pretty decent shape.

While the Ace pilot 402 model is extremely common the war time model is very difficult to come by. (There is also the Ace Scout Model 202-V with a wood base but haven’t seen one in the wild yet. )


Incidentally have a theory about the stain on the wood… At close inspection it is ink so my theory is someone toppled a bottle of fountain pen ink on their desk! lol!

Edward Reed said:

I thought I was finished with collecting 1930s/1940s office supplies but I was able to locate an elusive and rare Ace Pilot 402-V “Wartime Standard Model“ Victory stapler with a wood base! (circa 1943)

Like many manufacturers a slight alteration to their offerings needed to be made due to war time rationing.
This stapler has All steel parts (no aluminum, chromium, or other rationed metals) on a wood base. Still functions properly and is in pretty decent shape.

While the Ace pilot 402 model is extremely common the war time model is very difficult to come by. (There is also the Ace Scout Model 202-V with a wood base but haven’t seen one in the wild yet. )
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Incidentally have a theory about the stain on the wood… At close inspection it is ink so my theory is someone toppled a bottle of fountain pen ink on their desk! lol!
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Here is an interesting feature; the stapler has a flip plate to create a different shape of staple but I can’t figure out why you would need a staple like this…

Any idea when this one was made? I’ve had it for quite a while, long enough that I’ve forgotten where and when.

tonyb said:

Any idea when this one was made? I’ve had it for quite a while, long enough that I’ve forgotten where and when.

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Not familiar really but here is some info I found about that type… The first known advertisement was in 1935 and the latest mention was from a Bostitch pamphlet released in 1986.
Steel construction with black crackle.
As the style of the B5 stapler did not change over the years, it can be difficult to date one. Look for the following tells:

• The earliest B5’s had an anvil that was as wide as the base (see figure 1), by 1940 it was reduced to the smaller size seen in the pictures here.
• Look on the bottom of the base, if it has “Boston Wire Stitcher Co” inscribed it will have been manufactured between 1935 and 1948 (see figure 2). If it states “Bostitch” then it will have been 1948 or later (see figure 3).
• Towards the end of production Bostitch stopped inscribing patent numbers on the bottom of the base.
• Earlier produced models through at least the 1950’s had two screws in the rear of the base holding on the two rubber feet on the bottom. Later models did not have these screws attached from the top to the rubber feet.
• Earlier produced models used crackle paint on all surfaces except for the bottom of the base. The base bottom was painted in a smooth enamel. Later manufactured models used crackle paint on all surfaces including the base bottom.
• Around the 1940’s on the top of the base the words TRADE MARK BOSTITCH REG U.S. PAT. OFF. were painted in high-contrast yellow paint.

There were a number of variant models of the B5 available that were released over the years:

• B5
• B5B
• B5D
• B5J
• B5T (tacker)
• B5P (plier type)
• B5-12 (long reach with 12 inch throat)
• B5-18 (long reach with 18 inch throat)

Very nice material. I was thinking of furnishing an office for myself - if I had the space and the furniture. So far just my two typewriters and several vintage telephones (all of which still work perfectly - as do the typewriters) wait for a decent place: