BACKGROUND:
Velos is the tradename, the designer and manufacturer was Rees, Pitchford & Co. Ltd based in the London area and operating from the 1930's until the late 1950's. The Velos name could be found in the majority of British offices as the company specialised in "Office Products". Velos were probably more well known for their earlier Bakelite based products and eventually moving to glass in the late 1950's period.
I would have loved to gaze upon one of their Red Bakelite desk sets on my home office desk but alas all I could eventually find was this heavy glass model. More of a show piece than anything, not a lot of folks using nib pens which were dipped into an inkwell these days! Although I can remember having these in my early school days, nice messy Aqua Blue ink which usually created "splotches" of Blue all around the inkwell! At least we didn't use sharpened feathers!
Actually our daughter used this desk set for a while to help her out with her Indian ink sketch drawings but once that phase was done with she plonked it back on my office desk, and I mean plonked because this is no lightweight. Until recently it just used to hold mundane things such as paper clips, rubber bands and it is a really good paperweight!
REES PITCHFORD & CO. LTD - Office Desk Pen Stand
Designed & made in England
Circa mid ~ late 1950's
Tradename: VELOS
Material: Clear Glass, pressed
Design: Double inkwell with pen wells and pen rest areas
When I was originally looking for one these (for me it's all about obtaining things with a bit of history) I found a few but without any indications of who made them, this one is the exception in that it has clearly stamped into the glass ...
MADE IN ENGLAND (reading right side up when viewed from above)
VELOS (V) trademark (right hand inkwell, showing as a mirror image as it is stamped on the underside of the glass)
This pen desk set is a "dominator" on the desk, meaning that it is large AND heavy
DIMENSIONS:
180mm wide x 135mm deep x 40mm height
WEIGHT:
750g
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Clean
NO scratches to the surfaces
NO discolouration to the clear glass (I did see a couple of these with a Yellowish looking glass when I was hunting one of these down 20 years ago)
NO chips
NO added stickers or personal writing to the glass
This desk pen stand would have to be considered as being in very good condition, very nice for a lump of 70+ year old glass!
