Paper Clips
In line with an earlier post about barbed wire and its many iterations…here are a couple of sketches of mine (of which a good number of the designs are aggregated from The Early Office Museum) representing just a tiny swath of all the paper clips out there. Did you know that the original Gem paper clip, introduced as early as 1892, and the one most commonly used, was never patented? Ouch. For a little history go here.
SHARE
Sunday 11.25.12 at 3:30 pm
I am very impressed… At first sight I thought these were pages from a vintage catalogue. You did a beautiful job on them!
Friday 11.30.12 at 6:04 pm
Me too! I thought they were from a vintage catalogue until I recognized your pointed pen-manship. Lovely drawings.
Friday 03.29.13 at 6:28 am
Genius
Tuesday 09.17.13 at 6:09 pm
It seems to us that, along with the images of paper clips that you posted last year on your blog, you should have provided a more precise statement of the fact that most of your images were based on images that appear on the Early Office Museum website. You reference the Early Office Museum on the history of the paper clip, but doing that is not quite the same thing.
Tuesday 12.24.13 at 1:59 pm
[…] clips via Mrs. Easton via Early Office […]
Tuesday 01.28.14 at 11:10 am
OMYGOD, these drawings are incredible!!!! i just used a very unusual paper clip this morning, like E. in the first drawing (these are so beautiful!!) and now i have dog clips!
Monday 08.22.16 at 4:04 pm
This is really cool. I’ve been searching for some vintage paper clips like this for a design project I’m working on. I’ve tried etsy.com and a few other sites, but haven’t quite found what I’m looking for yet. Do you happen to have any idea where I could find some like this?
Thursday 09.01.16 at 12:50 pm
Hi Mark, I wish I had a good answer as to where to find older designs. Etsy and Ebay are overall probably your best bet. Although antique stores are always worth a look. Good luck!
Saturday 01.21.17 at 4:52 pm
A neat type, not illustrated here, has apparently just joined the ‘vintage’ club by virtue of being discontinued. It is ACCO KLIX Classic Metal Paper Fasteners, with a good picture on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/classic-fasteners-capacity-silver-a7072615/dp/b004i00u76
It’s marked unavailable there and the only ones I turned up actually for sale were by the case on a remainder selling site, shoplet.com.
The design is different in that it is made from flat spring steel, not wire, and opens by squeezing the slightly domed front section.
I found all this out because I had decided to buy some more, down to my last 2. Too late! The colored ones were especially attractive.
Monday 01.23.17 at 4:20 pm
Oooh, these are quite appealing. And totally unfamiliar. Thanks for the link.