I recently picked up a folding, portable writing case and found some treasures tucked away in it’s pockets. I’ve been going through each item methodically and trying to date them because they seem to have been prized mementos from adventures abroad in England, France, Germany, and Canada.

There is a stamp booklet (unlike the ones we get from the USPS nowadays) which helped me date the writing case itself. The domestic postage rate is listed as 2 cents. I researched the history of US postage rates and found out that the 2 cent rate was reintroduced on July 1, 1919 after the price-hike of the war years.

The contents of the writing case are from post-WWI era Europe. There is even a French promotional calendar from 1935. Between the contents of the case and the history of postage rates, I think that this writing case is from the 1920s.

folding writing set from the 1920s with 1930s ephemera.