STATIONERY

Filofax

The Lefax ring-bound loose-leaf personal organiser was invented in Philadelphia in 1910. However, it proved to be a product that appealed to specialist users. In 1921 Norman & Hill started importing them. At the suggestion of Grace Scurr it was branded as Filofax ( file of facts ).

David Collischon's (1937-2016) working life had been spent in publicity and marketing. He first became aware of Filofax after spotting one in Chisholm s, an old-fashioned stationery shop on Kingsway. He became fascinated by it. It had a strong appeal to his sense of orderliness. In 1976 he and his wife launched Pocketfax, a mail-order business that sold them. Chisholm employed a designer to give the product a more stylish image and some new inserts. Demand grew. In 1980 Chisholm bought control of Norman & Hill for 8577. For the money he secured the name, the stock, and 17 of assets. Two years later they bought Scurr's shares for 1500.

Collischon metamorphosed the perception of the product from it being an item of stationery to being a personal accessory. Paul Smith placed a filofax in the window of his Covent Garden shop alongside a Mont Blanc pen. Department stores, such as Harrods, Liberty s, and Selfridge s, started stocking it. The product became a totem of 1980s yuppiedom. In the space of four years the number of retail outlets grew from 30 to 100,000. The price range was from 12 to 580. The most popular organiser was the Winchester, which cost 50. A range of over 100 accessories was developed. The Financial Times dubbed the Filofax a souped up diary .

In 1987 the Filofax's popularity peaked. Collischon floated the company. The following year a flagship showroom was opened in Mayfair. However, in the years that followed the wisdom of a one product company came to be questioned by investors. In autumn 1989 Filofax declared an annual loss. The following year Collischon sold his remaining shares. In 2001 Filofax was merged with the Charles Letts diary business.

Many of filofax's accessories presaged digital apps.

Location: Chisholm s, 99-107 Kingsway, WC2B 6QX (blue, turquoise)

Paul Smith, 44 Floral Street, WC2E 9DG (orange, purple)

Ink

In 1832 the chemist Dr Henry Stephens (1796-1864) invented his indelible blue-black ink. The Treaty of Versailles was signed with it in 1919.

The Stephens family stayed in liquids . The Cholderton & District Water Company supplies 2500 customers in the Wiltshire villages of Cholderton and Shipton Bellinger. The company was founded in 1904 by Henry Stephens M.P. the ink company owner under an Act of Parliament. Its principal shareholder is a descendant of Stephens.

Location: 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE. The home of Henry Stephens M.P. (1841-1918).

Stephen's Ink Estate, Gillespie Road, N5 1LR

Pens

Walker Bros. Fountain Pen Specialists. Fountain Pens Repaired, Any Make.

Location: 113 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16 0UD

Quills

James Hadfield was a former soldier who suffered from paranoia. He wanted to die. In 1800 he attempted to do so by trying to assassinate King George III, believing that he would himself be consequently executed. The veteran made his attempt at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. However, David Moses Dyte (c.1770-1830) struck him from behind causing him to miss.

Dyte was a Jewish quill merchant. He was rewarded with the monopoly to sell opera tickets and two years later was appointed the Purveyor of Quills and Pens to the Royal Household.

Location: The Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Catherine Street, WC2B 5JF (red, purple)

The Rubber Band Man

Stephen Perry (d.1873) inherited a pen-making business from his father. A technique had been developed that enabled rubber to be stabilised. This had allowed for the creation of rubber tubing. Perry appreciated that rubber tubes could be sliced to create rings that could be stretched out but which if left to themselves would seek to revert to their initial size. This would create a means of securing papers that would be much more convenient than ribbon or string. Thus, in 1845, he and Daft patented the rubber band.

The Smythson Stationery Museum

Location: 40 New Bond Street, W1S 2RX (orange, pink)

Website: www.smythson.com

Typewriters

Henry Mill spent his working life as an engineer for the New River Company. In 1714 he submitted a patent (No. 395) for a machine that was akin to a typewriter.

Location: Strand, WC2R 0AA. His lodgings. (blue, yellow)

Vellum

In 1849 Parliament switched from recording statutes by handwriting on parchment to printing.

In 2000 the Blair government tried to end the practice of printing statutes onto vellum. Brian White (1957-2017), a Labour backbencher whose professional life had been in information technology, led a cross-party backbench revolt against the proposed move. This succeeded. (The U.K.'s only vellum manufacturing business had been located in Newport Pagnell, which was in Mr White's Milton Keynes North East constituency.)

In 2017 it was reported that following the general election in which the Tories Commons majority had been reduced the Queen's Speech had been delayed because the vellum upon which it was due to be written had not dried sufficiently.

Location: The Palace of Westminster, Parliament Square, SW1A 0AA. (purple, blue)

Website: www.williamcowley.co.uk

David Backhouse 2024