They were used to promote anything from butter to salt to gasoline, auto repair stations, soda, banks, and every other consumer product and service that the public uses. These advertising ink blotters became universally familiar in the office and at home throughout America as well as other parts of the world by the early 1900s. The blotter paper was invented, which quickly replaced the pounce as a better and less messy tool of choice for drying fresh scribed ink.īy 1885, Charles Murch patented a way to adhere printable paper to the blotting paper paving the way for publishers and companies to create desktop advertisements. When someone at the mill attempted to write on that paper, the ink absorbed and spread wildly into the paper, making it useless for writing but perfect for blotting ink. (5) That lousy batch of paper was discarded as scrap. Sizing is a substance introduced to the paper pulp that adds a filler and glaze “to change the absorption and wear characteristics” of the paper making it less absorbent and a smoother surface for writing. A worker at a paper mill in England had forgotten to add sizing to a batch of paper during the papermaking process. (4) But the most common form was the use of blotting paper, which is a highly absorbent paper that was first made, by accident, in the 15th century. Ink blotting was initially done by using a delicate, sand-like powder known as ‘pounce’ made from cuttlefish bone, which was sprinkled onto the wet ink to facilitate quicker drying. Hence the invention of an ink blotting powder and eventually blotter paper as a way to hasten ink drying to prevent mishaps. Yet, throughout the centuries, there was a persistent problem of smearing words or signatures before the ink dried. (3) By the mid-1800s, the fountain pen became a conventional writing implement.

(2) In May 1809 to Frederick Fölsch received the first patent for a fountain pen while John Scheffer’s patent of 1819 was the first design to see commercial success. (1) Fountain pens began to appear in Europe by the 17th century, but they were still known to be unreliable as they stained hands and clothing with ink. The earliest known split-nib metal dip pen dates back to the 4th century A.D.

Documents, letters, and other forms of writing have been written with dip pens for centuries. A dip pen uses a split nib, usually metal, which is then dipped into ink and used to write on paper or parchment. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, the Magna Carta, and other historical documents throughout the world were written using modest dip pens. This ink blotter was created using the offset lithography printing process. The visual of the character’s romance is playing off the advertising slogan “there’s only one,” which is referring to the Blue Sunoco fuel brand, the point of the advertisement. The blotter, which measures 4” X 7 ½,” uses the “pupil-eyed” Mickey Mouse design developed by animator Fred Moore, who did not do this drawing. The “There’s Only One” Sunoco ink blotter featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse from 1939.

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