Crane's

I haven’t succeeded thus far in obtaining any of the wares of the notable US stationery manufacturers, which don’t seem to have been sold in any significant quanitites in the UK: it probably just wasn’t economically worth their while to export it transatlantically. I have, however, admired some of the advertising I’ve found on-line produced by the likes of the Eaton, Crane & Pike Company.

Above is a prime example from 1925 featuring a lady with a practically tubular silhouette admiring the box of Crane’s Cordilinear she received as a gift: “in writing paper, the very finest obtainable can be bought for as little as five dollars”, the copy maintains. The following 1924 ad, meanwhile, tries to persuade its readers there would be ghastly social repercussions if they were to use poor-quality stationery. Much as I admire a really nice sheet of paper, the appeal to snobbery here is enough to drive anyone to scribble on something cheap & nasty instead.