Earlier this week I was contacted by Billie, who sent me the photos you see in this post. What a find!
Given the details on some of the inserts in the box we believe that this filing box dates back to the 1930's. The filing box appears in my 1937 catalogue and the 1979 one as well.
Sadly we don't have any catalogues between those two dates, if any were produced. However, as you can see from comparing the two catalogues, not a lot changed in terms of organisers, the range of inserts did change.
From the 1937 catalogue:
This is in the 1979 catalogue:
The one that Billie bought at an auction is an enamel metal one which is mentioned in the 1937 catalogue but not in the 1979 one.
And here are some photos of the inserts found inside the filing box.
Note on this first one the year is indicated as 193n = 1930-1939
Sadly sections 2 and 3 are missing in the maps included, may be they got over used by the original owner.
Note the retailers sticker on this page, Chisholms Limited in Kingsway London is a shop I used to visit in the 1980's for their massive range of Filofax organisers and inserts that they had on display in the shop.
Thank you Billie for sharing this with us. Billie has mentioned to me that they are interested in selling the item.
If you are interested in buying it along with the inserts please email me philofaxy at gmail dot com and I will forward your email on to Billie, so you can negotiate the price and get more details of the box and inserts etc.
Personally I think Filofax UK should purchase it for some sort of museum display!
That genuinely can be called ‘vintage’.
ReplyDeleteAgree that there should be a Filofax museum!
ReplyDeleteFilofax might think differently, as it might show up the poor quality of their current offerings .. Though the Ref 323 expenses form shown here has very poor registration of the dates... It's as odd fault, as the offset isn't fixed, but reduces down the page.
DeleteA fascinating collection. I had previously noted how little had changed between 1937 and 1979 catalogues, including pictures and product codes. It all changed dramatically in 1980.
Another obstacle could be the apparent very patchy awareness within the Filofax company of its own history!
DeleteYes, for a company that relies on their 'heritage' for their product image (even naming one of their 'high end' binders with that word), they do seem to have a poor understanding of that heritage.
DeleteFascinating. I love to look back on historical paperwork like this.
ReplyDeleteThere are some gems here. I love the look of older stationary, the typescript, the simple layouts. I sometimes wonder, given how much cheaper it is to print runs of smaller stationery, why Filofax don't raid the archives and introduce some heritage lines.
ReplyDeleteI haven't gone back to the very early versions, but I have reproduced just about all the inserts from around 1980-1987 (barring the maps, Data Sets and 'books'). Not _perfect_ reproductions, because I don't have access to the exact font used for the insert titles, but pretty close. I can supply print-ready PostScript or PDF for 3-up double-sided printing for Personal, or 4-up printing for Pocket, for single, double, treble & quad sheets. Not all inserts were originally available for the Pocket (introduced in 1989), but my generation scripts mean I can make any size I want...
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