Vintage Garage Sale Finds

It is garage sale season around here and although I am trying to get rid of things, not accumulate more, I love to check them out just in case I find something I need. Recently I came upon one that seemed to be clearing out a lifetime of stuff, including a box that looked like they had just dumped the contents of a junk drawer into it. I rummaged through and found a few vintage stationery items I got for 50 cents (CDN).

1. Eagle pencil

This unsharpened pencil is the grandparent of the Berol Turquoise pencil I have written about before. It has a nice art deco style eagle logo and the words Eagle “Chemi*Sealed” Turquoise Drawing HB Pencil written on one side and Made in Canada “Electronic” Lead – Super Bonded Patented 1951 on the other. I love the idiosyncratic use of quotation marks. Are they quotes? Are they being ironic? It harkens back to another time where getting something “chemi-sealed” and “electronic” were real selling points.

2. Promotional pencil

This very skinny promotional pencil has Western International Hotels written on it in brown. Western International Hotels was name for the Westin Hotel chain from 1963 to 1981. I am guessing this pencil is from the 1970’s with its gold and brown colour scheme but I don’t know for sure. I could have used this pencil when I was writing about promotional stationery items or hotel stationery.

3. Two boxes of labels

 

I liked the old-timey look of these boxes of labels but I only opened one of them. When I got home and opened the second box I realized it was just round white circles like the one on the cover that says “1000 A81”. I’ll be hard pressed to come up with a use for these ones.

Both boxes of labels are from the Dennison Manufacturing Company. The Dennison family business began in 1844 manufacturing paper jewelry boxes in Maine. By 1863 they added tag making to their growing enterprise. I am not sure exactly when labels were added to the product line but in the 1920’s, the Drummondville, Quebec factory, where these labels originated, was built. Drummondville was also where Eagle pencils were manufactured so it seems to have been a hub of Canadian stationery supplies manufacturing. In 1990 Dennison merged with another big name in the label industry to become the Avery Dennison Corporation. Then in 1996, Advantag Canada took over the factory and is still manufacturing tags there but not labels.

4. Gummed paper shapes

These Butterfly Brand London gummed paper shapes were a trip down memory lane for me. I was in hospital for a long time with broken legs when I was a child and was given something like this along with a little scrapbook to keep me entertained. What is really amazing to me is I discovered you can still buy them today. It makes me wonder how a modern child would react when given these tiny little shapes and told to lick them to make them stick. Probably about as thrilled as the child who had been given this box as it appears to be almost full. Unfortunately, it must have been exposed to some humidity as many of the shapes are stuck together.

5. Notebook

 

I really don’t need another little notebook but this one had such a sweet retro floral design on the cover I just couldn’t resist. I almost always carry around a small notebook (this one is 10.2 cm x 7.5 cm or 4″ x 3″) so I will replace a boring old one I have that has become a bit tatty with this one. The inside pages are blank and quite nice quality. It was made by John Dickinson Stationery Limited, a British firm that goes back to when John Dickinson himself founded it in 1804.

6. Sheaffer pen cartridges

These ink-filled Skrip cartridges are the type used in Sheaffer calligraphy pens. The cartridges seem to be sealed quite well as I have used old ones before without any problems. I currently only have black ink so I’m glad to expand my colour selection.

If these vintage garage sale finds were people they would be a group of oldsters reminiscing about the good old days. They still enjoy being useful, or in the case of the gummed shapes a bit fun, but they find themselves called upon less and less.