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Only the older ones of you will know what this is. Check it out.

Advertising was big when this thing was published just as it is today. We might even pass these things out as ad gifts if times hadn't changed.

Hotels were featured here. In Little Rock, Arkansas check out the Grady Manning, The Marion, The Albert Pike and The Lafayette.

Hotel advertisement

You youngsters give up? I found this in a stack of old stuff and it brought back memories. On the back of this advertisement, which is slick and attractive on the front, there is a very porous paper which was used to blot ink!!

I hate to admit that I can remember when ball point pens were "discovered." Before that you either used a pencil or an ink pen. The ink pen could be the kind you dipped in an ink bottle or it could be a fountain pen. Either way it had to be blotted. These little conveniences were found everywhere. Not too many are found today so perhaps this is a collectible!

Posted by Barbara S. Duncan ABR, CRS, GRI, e-PRO Searcy AR on 11/08/2009 08:58 PM

Comments (33)

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ink blotters, advertising, little rock arkansas, searcy ar, fountain pens, barbara s duncan, real estate

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33 Comments on Only the older ones of you will know what this is. Check it out.

NOV

Barbara....what a choice piece and I'm sure a collector's item for someone! If nothing else, it would look great framed and hanging on the wall!

Thanks for sharing...it's fun to think of how things use to be. Altho I really cannot remember what I did before computers and the Internet...I guess I was really glued to the TV! Ha Ha!

I would say it is a huge collectable. When I was growing up my Dad owned an office supply store and use to sell fountain pens. I loved them and thought they were the most eloquent thing to write with. They were quite beautiful too. Ahhh... sweet memories for sure

I still use a fountain pen for important documents and I love using a wax seal on the envelope when I deliver offers, etc It makes things that much more special.

Barbara, how would you like to be the person that invented the pall point pen?:)

NOV

Thom, that's a good idea. It would frame as nicely as post cards from the past.

Martha, fountain pens were nice even if messy. Some are worth a fortune now. Wish I could find one of those in a drawer!

Susan, what class! Where do you get wax seals?

Charles, that might be a good wikipedia search to see who did invent the pen.

I LOVE fountain pens, too, and have two that I keep with blue ink and black ink. I'm with Susan, think it provides a touch of elegance to letters and special cards. Having said that, not all writing paper these days is compatible with "ink" pens: too porous.

In the late l950's, the latest thing was a pen with an ink cartridge. Of course, when the cartridge ran out of ink, one threw it away and had to buy another one. I and my classmates in nursing school thought we were so clever: we got needles and syringes, drew up ink from a bottle into our syringe, then injected said ink into the cartridges. It really worked. Wonder how much money we saved ourselves?

I've always loved the Marion Hotel in L.R. and was crushed when it was emploded. That's where I first saw my favorite movie star, June Allyson. All those hotels in L.R. were the height of elegance, or so I thought....lots of "movin and shakin' went on there I'm told.

Anita Fuller

Barbara - I use the Stuart Houghton Personal Seal Set with a big beautiful E pressed into Gold, Silver or Copper coloured wax. I wish someone would deliver something to me that looks so elegant :0)

Long ago, I was told that my 'writing instrument' would speak volumes about me and who I was. I celebrated my first BIG account by purchasing my first Mont Blanc pen - I love how they describe it:

"The Montblanc brand is synonymous with a sophisticated culture of writing and refined living - and has been for 100 years. It is a commitment to manufacture writing instruments which go beyond their functional purpose and timeless beauty to include something special: A soul. Writing with a special instrument is a celebration of your own thoughts and denotes a unique, personal writing culture."

When I see a professional with a Bic or other ballpoint pen, I have to be honest, I wonder what else they 'settle' for? My name is Susan Emo and I'm a pen snob!

Hey Barbara, I can remember when you had to crank up a car to start it. No, not really; I just made that up. But I do remember when there was no such thing as an automatic transmission. The shift was on the column, and back seats could only accommodate 2 people. Well, unless somebody wanted to sit on the hump.

Hi, Susan Emo: we are soul mates. I and my husband love fountain pens: the two I mentioned are Pelican, both German made pens but bought in a specialty pen shop in Vienna, Austria. His is a Mont Blanc...

I would LOVE to use my fountain pens exclusively but, as you know, when signing documents that have carbon paper one needs a ball point. Having said that, I guess one could just sign each paper....think I'll do that the next time.

Anita Fuller

Anita - carbon paper? Really?? I can't remember the last time I saw that . . . it has to be a least 20 years ago if not longer.

I "figured" when I wrote carbon paper, someone would call me on it. The reason I had it on my mind, my mother has recently died: she was l00 yrs. old and in going through her things, I found a whole box of 8x10 sheets of carbon paper. When she retired as director of food service at Harding College, Searcy, she asked to be given her electric typewriter. Anything she wrote on it, she made a "carbon copy"...

Anita Fuller

Dear Godmother,

I think that Mr Charles took me to one of those places once. Are they also marked by having red lights over the doors. The photo below was taken at such a place when Mr Charles was elsewhere.

Nutsy

Anita, was that ink pen that you injected a ball point or real ink? You always loved needles, didn't you? LOL I need to go to youtube and see that hotel emplode or find the web site you suggested.

Susan, you are a pen expert. That wax seal kit looked fancy and was expensive. I'll bet you only do high-end houses!! Check your pen....it may be worth a fortune.

Elizabeth, I learned to drive on one of those old straight shift cars with a clutch. I still get scared when I think of sitting on a hill at a stop light and hoping I go forward and not roll backward instead!

Anita again. I'm glad you two pen snobs have met!!

Nutsy! Are you suggesting we have "red light" houses in Arkansas! Heaven forbid that my godson even know of such places. Uhhh.....what is a red light house????

When my dad was in the state legislature in the late '40s and early '50s, he always stayed at the Marion Hotel. I loved to go down and spend time with him. It was the place in Little Rock where the legislators stayed and, in fact, held many of their night committee meetings. That was where I learned that the important things didn't happen on the floor of the legislature but in committee meetings. Things were pretty well decided before it ever came up on the floor for a vote.

It was just a block from the Robinson Auditorium and, as a legislator, dad got free passes to all the events there. I still remember going to boxing matches with him. Being a peaceful guy, my sons could never figure out why I liked boxing so much, but I guess it came from those times with my dad.

Barbara, the pens wrote as a fountain pen, with a nib, etc. but instead of filling the bladder inside with ink, there was a plastic cartridge inside, that had the ink in it. You follow? We would just inject the cartridges with ink from our ink bottles and voila. I"m betting Don can find us a picture of a cartridge pen...

Harold Gene: was it called The Gar Hole - the basement of the Marion where all the "important" legislative decisions were made?

Anita Fuller

I've just Googled 'cartridge fountain pen' and find that they are still being made. Not such an oddity, after all.

And my apologies to Susan: I guess I showed my ignorance, my Pelican as I spelled it, is PELIKAN.

Anita Fuller.....over and out for today.

It is fun looking back at old pictures and cards. Things have changed quite a bit over the years. I have sepia pictures that I was looking at the other day they weren't colorful, but the images generally were pretty good. Cameras were much more expensive too. To make a card like this was probably quite an investment and I wonder how many of these cards went out.

Theodora, you're showing your youth! This is not a card. It is a blotter. I love sepia photos and black and white ones better than the ones in color. These blotters may have been in each of these hotels for people to use when writing anything, letter, check, etc.

Barbara ...I give up.....no not really I would love to have some of these that Texaco and other gas stations gave out in the in the 40"s and 50's .... this is a very cool find you have here ....do I count as a youngster ?....peace zane

I remember my first fountain pen. My great grandpa gave it to me and I was the proudest kid in school. Then the nun told me I couldn't use it because they run out of ink too fast and make a terrible mess when re-filling.

Harold Gene, you learned the "ropes" of being a legislator. I believe our current governor, Mike Beebe, was an expert at doing all the preliminaries in getting things accomplished. Sounds as if you had a great dad who let you take part in his life and learn things.

Anita, you and Susan may become great friends.

Zane, did you really know what this was? You're too young to have experienced an ink pen!

Suesan, what a bad experience. Was this an ink filled fountain pen? What did she make you use, a boring old #2 pencil?

At the post office, they used to have the ink wells and the straight pens that you dip in the ink well and write with, then use the provided ink blotters to finish the job. The tips of the pens would be pushed down too hard and spread, being ruined to write with.

Remember the desk sets that always included an ink blotter, curved on the blotter side and a handle on the back. One would just rock it back and forth over the wet ink to dry.

NOV

Ludean, you know what? I think the post office is where I'd see these things. I certainly didn't see them in fancy hotels or banks. I walked to the post office everyday to see if we had any mail.

Harold Gene, you're describing something I don't remember. You may have to send us an old photo of one of those sets.

Barbara,

Isn't it amazing the things you forget? Do folks even use fountain pens anymore? I can remember the ink stains on my shirt pockets because of the leaking pens both fountain and ball point.

Yes, Barbara, I stopped by the post office on my way home from school to check the mail. We didn't have mail delivery, unless it was a special delivery or something. We got our mail with our name and Searcy, Ark. No zip code.

Barbara grandpa had given me ink filled and taught me how to use it without making a mess, but the nun didn't want to hear it and I was forced to use a ballpoint. 2 days later he gave me a Parker fountain pen with cartridges. Needless to say sister was pretty ticked off at me after that. LOL

Barbara as a matter of fact I did know what it was .....when i was younger (10-11 years old) my aunt gave me and my cousin some calligraphy pens ..... wish I knew then what I know now and I may have still had them....I never seen the blotter paper you have ....but yes I knew...did you forget I love the old things from the past.......peace zane...

Don Rogers, they should have made the pens so that they were upright in your pocket to avoid the ink stains! Now there are so many freebie ball point pens that we never have to buy one at all! I did buy some with my name and picture on them, however, and gave some away.

Suesan, those nuns must have been fierce! What they did may not have always been right or just but they made believers out of the kids, didn't they. We probably need more of that discipline today.

Zane, I used to teach a little caligraphy in my art classes. I never became real good at it myself but I still have the pens. I'm sorry that I forgot you're a history lover even if you are young! I wish I were young and had never seen these old things except in a history book!

NOV

I'm a little late posting but here goes anyway.

Paula has a Windsor pen (her maiden name was Windsor) that is interesting for the color. Not that boring black. The nib has the printing Warranted W NO-FLOW.

Paula's Winsor Pen

I have some drafting pens that have no nibs. There is a slot in the point and the ink just sits in the slot until applied to paper. It's done that way to work from different angles.

Great pictures. You can just use these and put that pen on ebay and sell it! Assuming you want to. Your drafting pens are like my drawing pens. Just dip and dip and draw and draw.

NOV

When in grade school (1949 and after) we still had inkwells in our desks where we actually dipped our nibs in to write. Kinda miss those days as writing had more character when using fountain pens. Ballpoints all have that boring single narrow line.

David, the lettering was much better. Perhaps that is why caligraphy made a big comeback.

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