Rare Books on a Printer's Ink Blotter

A relic now of the pen and ink era, ink blotters fell by the wayside as ballpoint pens gained popularity in the 1950s and all but erased the need for an ink blotter. The ballpoint pen has suffered to some extent a similar fate in the digital world of today where much of our communication is done via texting, messaging, or emailing. 

Ink blotters existed to do just that - blot ink on a handwritten piece to keep it from smearing, courtesy of an absorbent paper. For heavier stock paper blotters, such as this one printed on Wrenn's Porcelain Blotting--120-lb Light Buff, one side blotted while the other side advertised. Advertising blotters came about in late 1800s and had a good run to about mid-twentieth century.

Union City, New Jersey printer, Herbert Grossman, used this ink blotter for advertising his business in 1932. They were giveaways to anyone who walked in the doors or ordered products through the mail. It seems a rather appropriate medium for a tradesman who dealt with ink on a regular basis in his work. The back of the blotter did the actual work while the illustrated advertisement on the front hopefully brought in more work.

The interesting thing about this blotter's front side is the creative style of advertising that reads like a serial publication titled One Column, this installment being Volume 5, No. 2, February 1932. The subject for this "first in a series of odd facts about interesting things" is Rare Books. Ironically, Grossman's printing work was not in the book field. Examples of his products indicated near the bottom of the Rare Books piece are broadsides and calling cards. He was a job printer.

Today, these once functional advertising pieces are viewed as quaint, collectible pieces of local businesses and advertising history. Admittedly, I acquired this blotter solely for the mention of rare books, a tenuous connection to the subjects usually presented in this blog. Herbert Grossman had nothing to do with rare books or any printed books in his work, but this design, whether his or a generic one with his name added by the manufacturer, uses rare books, with a twist, to illustrate the quality of his work. By pointing out how mistakes in a book's first printing can, over time, create rarity and collectability with subsequent, corrected printings, Grossman draws a contrast to his own work. Mistakes are not what you'll find with his work, he goes on to say. 

So I guess he didn't expect his ink blotters to achieve the level of rare and collectible. Except they did. You're looking at the only known one, as of this writing, that has survived and been collected.