Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana COTM -Jan 2010 - Gas /Oil ink and paper

2010. A new year for our hobby, and I am excited! I wonder what new discoveries each of us will have this next year.
This month's collectible of the month (drum roll please)...i]
ink/advertising blotters./i]
A great collectible and an inexpense one. Most blotters are in the $5 - $15 range . Of course like in any collectible the rare ones can be $50+. Always great graghic and colors. easy to display. I display and store mine in a binder and they look fantastic in a frame.

Before we start here's a little info on them...

Back in the days when everyone used quill pens and fountain pens the one thing that could be found on every office or writing desk was an ink blotter. Ink blotters were usually made of a soft absorbent paper formed into a card and were used to dry up excess ink. With the invention of ballpoint pen in the 1950s, ink blotters disappeared from the average office desk. Today, these vintage blotters, made in the 1930s and 1940s, are very highly prized and sought after collectibles. Ink Blotters were a very popular from of advertising that were often given away by fountain pen manufacturers, banks, merchants and especially Insurance Companies. Antique Ink blotters were as common as business cards are today. Written references to ink blotting paper in America have been found beginning in the late 1700s. It was not until the 1850s that blotting paper came into common use in America, when Joseph Parker and Son started manufacturing blotting paper. In the late 1800s, a patent was issued for improved blotting paper which featured a smooth surface on one side and a blotting surface on the other. Rocker blotters were an important piece of desk equipment from the late 1880s until the 1950s. This type of blotter had a handle 2 to 5 inches long and a rounded surface 2 to 3 inches wide where the blotting paper was attached. Some of these rocker blotters were very ornate and made of wood, glass, silver or brass and are also sought after by collectors. (tjsales-collectibles)

SO lets see some Gas, Oil, Auto related blotters and let the show begin.

I'll kick it off with a few of mine.

Paddy, Great choice for COTM! There should be a lot of participation on this one. Come on guys, post those blotters!! Here's some of mine.

A Texaco Blotter from Montana

Shot with HP pstc3100 at 2010-01-03


Shot with HP pstc3100 at 2010-01-03


Shot with HP pstc3100 at 2010-01-03


Shot with HP pstc3100 at 2010-01-03


Shot with HP pstc3100 at 2010-01-03

Wow, that Sinclair aircraft is awesome! And it's from the city where my parents grew up. If you ever decide to let that one know, please let me know!

WOW GREAT GRAPHICS ON THESE...PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING!
THANKS!

Wow!!
Very cool eye catching advertising there.
Never paid that much attention to these before.

Thanks for sharing!

Here is a few Hi-Speed ones.

I would love to have a Hi-Speed battery!!!

Randy

Paddy;
My wife and I just bought a house built in 1890. I found a Columbia Dry Cell battery exactly like the one on your blotter, in the crawl space under part of the house. Had a stamped date of 1903.

Dave;
Some nice Marathon ones I have not seen before.

Chuck

This is cool. Thanks for sharing.
John

The folks who worked in marketing were genius. Designing products to give away as a thank you but were of the purpose that you were reminded of the product everytime you used the give away. Blotters, ashtrays, S&P shakers, drinking glasses, toys, etc. They were then what "pop-ups" are on computers today. But much more fun to collect.