Amounts shown in italicised text are for items listed in currency other than Euros and are approximate conversions to Euros based upon Bloomberg's conversion rates. These days, I still use it for ‘heading’ my hand-written invoices [in advance of usage] in duplicate books.

The Charter Stamp Company moved several times in their early years of trading, eventually settling at 57 Southwark Street, London SE1, where the sets were also produced. The John Bull Printing Outfit No 9 is contained in a colourful cardboard box and originates in the 1960s. I don’t remember John Bull … but I had a similar fixation for writing 🙂 And I still have a big old red dictionary that my mum bought me for my 11th birthday.As a child I always dreamed of producing my own newspaper but didn’t follow it through, just printing odds and ends with that John Bull outfit. From 1940 until his death in 1954 he lived with my mother (his daughter Helen) and my late brother and myself at Meopham, Kent. The sets were made by The Charter Stamp Company (makers presumably of those office stampers), the first one coming out in 1922 (though British Letterpress in 100 Objects has located one which seems to have been made prior to the formation of Charter).

The incorporation paperwork for the company is dated 23rd March 1922 and states that the company was founded “to carry on business as manufacturers and dealers in stamps and dies, toys, stationers’ sundries…and articles of any description”. The name of their small enterprise—The Charter Stamp Company—means very little today, but their most famous product—the John Bull Printing Outfits. I still have books that were my Dad’s, he stamped his name and address in them with the John Bull letters……Happy Days! Nowadays there is a core aim running throughout the organisation, which is to elevate the heritage of printing, whilst inspiring the future of design.There was a famous precedent for this, with tea importer and blender Arthur Brooke inventing a non-existent business partner—Mr. Left to Right Brenda Willy, Joy Coots - Joyce Lewington, Joan Sandys, Christine Tanner, Dianne Wheeler, PAMELA TANDY, the one Joy is trying to find, ? Norman Folland, Jill Wakely Behind her Jane Merritt, Sheila Wilton, Candy Whiteman,Michele Laviers, ,Susan Collins , Jenny Went. Bett Butterfield , Miss Crocker or Miss Evening, Harry Harrison, Joyce Pipe, Reg Davis, George Pledger, Miss Curtis, Audrey Wyspianska , Miss Richardson Fred Vince, Peter Sexton, Jill Smith, ?