Beth's Ruler Collection

Golden Rule

This past weekend was the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, where I spent most of the book fair hours at the information table for the Ephemera Society of America. Book fair dealers and visitors seemed to like hearing about ephemera, including those that hadn't heard the word before. To illustrate the concept of ephemera I had on display--on each of the fair days--a small sample of paper rulers in three different topics: foods and beverages, shoes and clothing, and health and medicine.

This is my best acquisition from the weekend: a paper ruler, hand-stitched, and published by the Bible Study Pub. Company of Boston in 1893. The card was originally issued with an instruction leaflet (not present), apparently with directions for the stitching.

Detail:

Gift - Diane DeBlois, aGatherin', West Sand Lake, New York - 15 November 2019

 

World Diabetes Day

That would be TODAY. I hope none of you ever develop this disease, and for those of us who have it, I wish you good health and the resources to take care of yourself.

A manly ruler

This ruler/bookmark was a promotional piece for Ferrari Testarosa in 1990. All sorts of useful conversion charts on the back.

Purchase (ebay) - "benningtonbargains," Newtown, CT - received 12 November 2019

Good advice

DRUGS Just Say No!! This new bookmark/ruler was a public service announcement by the North Arlington [New Jersey] Community Awareness Program Against Drugs and Alcohol, dated 1988.

Purchase (ebay) - "pattyann" = Robert Gray, Beach Haven, NJ - received 16 October 2019

WayV

I had to look these guys up. Turns out these ruler/bookmarks show two of the seven members of WayV, according to their Wikipedia article "the fourth sub-unit and the China-based unit of the Hallyu localization project group, NCT. The unit is composed of seven members: Kun, Ten Winwin, Lucas, Xiaojun, Hendery, and Yangyang. (I have Hendery, and Ten; both are nicknames/stage names.)

C-pop. Who knew?

Purchase (ebay) - "whynonah" = Wynona Lam, Carol Stream, IL - received 21 October 2019

Boo

I went a little overboard this year?

Batteries and more

I have a lot of what I call "favorites" in my ruler collection; this is the latest acquisition to fall definitely in that category. It's a promotional piece for the Waterbury [Connecticut] Battery Company, and it combines advertising, rulers in two units of measure, a 1935 calendar, and the best part: if you pull on the woven tab a small tablet of graph paper slides out.

This came as a gift from a colleague, who is helping her father clean out his stuff. I just love it.

Gift - Judith Carlstrom - received 29 October 2019

Moving on from cats to dogs

Two more 4" blotter/trade cards from my ebay treasure trove of last month. This time: dogs. I need to figure out who the artist in this series is, as well as the name of the trade card manufacturer. No clues that I can find except for the "Style" number printed on each one.

Suggestions welcome!

Purchase (ebay) - "honeym845" = Arleen Willis, Suffern, NY - received 13 September 2019

Our neon tubes are guaranteed

Another kitten, this time on a blotter/trade card advertising the General Sign Company in Kansas City, Kansas. It's one of fourteen I acquired last month from Arleen Willis of Suffern, NY. Looks like they all came out of some sort of scrapbook, or salesman's sample book. 

More kittens to come.

Purchase (ebay) - "honeym845" = Arleen Willis, Suffern, NY - received 13 September 2019

U.S. Customary System vs Metric System

Staples was selling these laminated paper 3-ring binder inserts today; one side has a map of the United States and a ruler marked in inches, and the other side has a map of the world and a ruler marked in centimeters. I'm embarrassed to admit that I thought there were two separate sheets for sale (one each for the two different units of measure), and I bought two. My only consolation: they were cheap. And I love stationery supplies.

Purchase - Staples, Harvard Square - 6 October 2019