Pelikan Blotter With Black Kids On It.

[Larry Barrieau]

I ran across this blotter on eBay. 292971452388 It shows a drawing of a black kid riding a pelican while holding a Pelikan pen. Mean while another black kid has a bottle of Pelikan ink ready for them.

 

This is a French ad. Does anyone have an idea what this means? Why are the kids black? Do you know when this might be from? A German pen and ink and a French ad. It's very odd.

[inkstainedruth]

That is very odd, to be sure. There seem, in fact to be two DIFFERENT listings -- from two different sellers -- but both listings are from sellers in Greece, just to add another wrinkle (and a third country) to the enigma.

My French is pretty minimal, so I plugged the text into Google Translate and the blotter says "Pelikan for those who write". I presume that they're hawking the [black] ink as much as the pen(s)....

When you described it, I thought of some old advertising I'd seen on eBay for Carter's Ink. for their mucilage (glue). But looking just now, there is also their "Inky Racer" (i.e., ink eraser) product.

Wondering now if the two sets of advertising are from the same time period (the "Inky Racer" ads seem to be from the 1920s).

Me, I'll stick to the Carter's Albert Staehle artwork ads with the white cat and her ink-colored kittens. Which at least are cute....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Tweel]

Judging by the little village in the background, the scene is supposed to be African. Is that pen a 400NN? Early 1960s? Possibly a topical reference from the time, a UNESCO literacy campaign in Africa or something like that ("Pelikan for those who write")?

[catbert]

Perhaps aimed at the Francophone African market in the mid-50s to 60s?

[Bo Bo Olson]

There is a long history of using 'Moors' in advertising.

My wife has a foot high 'moor' in oriental cloths and a turban carrying a plate with a wrapped chocolate block on it. On the long living room marble widow bank.

My wife sold a 2 foot tall version to a tiny hot chocolate shop shop, at the start of the Main Street in Heidelberg...run by a 85 year old woman who was bored at home.

 

As black soldiers found out after WW2, the Europeans were not so prejudiced as America.(Not to say there wasn't prejudice, but often White Americans faced the same prejudice as black ones....they were Americans.)

There is no Tempest scheduled according to the weather man, so you can safely drink your tea.

[Lamyliz]

Why on earth does it matter what colour they are for goodness sake?!

[Tweel]

I don't know why the OP asked. For myself, since it was brought up, I was trying to divine some context that would place those figures in that illustration.

[catbert]

Likewise.

[Tweel]

There is a long history of using 'Moors' in advertising.

My wife has a foot high 'moor' in oriental cloths and a turban carrying a plate with a wrapped chocolate block on it.

 

I'll add to my original post that the kids aren't serving anyone, and don't seem to be portraying "darkie hi-jinks" or anything gruesome like that. Aside from their caricatured features, they just look happy and are getting ready to write.

 

There is no Tempest scheduled according to the weather man, so you can safely drink your tea.

 

Amen. There needn't be an explosion over this.

[Lamyliz]

No 'explosion' just find this thread extremely distasteful and can't understand why on earth the OP felt the need to even bring it up in the first place

[inkstainedruth]

Because for good or ill, it's history. And pen history at that.

Yes, I also found it somewhat distasteful -- but pushing stuff like this under the rug because it's "distasteful" serves no good.

Shining a light on things like this, and having the discussion of the pros (if any) and cons of advertising such as this can make people think about what the past was like, how the present is (somewhat) better, and possibly illuminate a path to a future where people say "How could this have ever happened?"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[OMASsimo]

I don't know what should be "distasteful" in the OP's question. The add might be bewildering nowadays but it's from between 1956-1965 because it clearly shows a 400NN. I don't see any thing wrong in the question "what the hell is this?"

 

France had several colonies in Africa, several of them till the 1960s. Belgium also had French speaking colonies in Africa till the 1960s. I'd guess that the ads were aimed at that market.

[senzen]

At the time of the ad it probably it was meant as something like "Pelikan used all over the world". The further you go back in time, the more distasteful examples you'll find of what was once foolishly considered "normal fun". Even today in some cultures closed from what little evolution has happened you'll find some strange examples, for instance a recent Chinese washing machine ad: the girl takes her black boyfriend into the machine and out comes... A Chinese boyfriend!

[Larry Barrieau]

My last sentence says why I asked. I find it odd that you didn't find it odd. I asked because I think the cartoon is strange and because I wondered why black kids were used,being that Germany and France are not noted for their black populations. Do you think it's a form of racism or is it a just goofy ad? It may be an ad thought of as cute in the fifties, but today has negative undertones.

Edited March 21, 2019 by Larry Barrieau

[Karmachanic]

Eye of the beholder.

[Tweel]

Eye of the beholder.

It's a meta-inkblot.

[sharonspens]

My last sentence says why I asked. I find it odd that you didn't find it odd. I asked because I think the cartoon is strange and because I wondered why black kids were used,being that Germany and France are not noted for their black populations. Do you think it's a form of racism or is it a just goofy ad? It may be an ad thought of as cute in the fifties, but today has negative undertones.

Larry, I agree it is odd for the time period. I suspect some of the earlier posters here, commenting on the French colonies in Africa, probably are closest to explaining this "exotic" ad. I wonder if there was another version using White kids; that would be interesting to compare them!

 

I am often taken by the oddness of vintage ads for the time period, for lots of different reasons. When they have a racial or ethnic connection, they really make me stop and look.

 

Thanks for sharing this one.

 

Sharon in Indiana

[mana]

That one is a product of it's times, most likely propelled by the colonialist and even racist attitudes of that era, as in, seeing the native people of the colonies as child like, thus the caricaturish presentation. Viewed today it is distasteful and grotesque and the same applies to the waiter stands depicted as moor or black butlers. People who think blackface is still an appropriate thing to do might find those funny. I certainly do not.

[sidthecat]

I’d be inclined to put the thing away when my African-American friends come over. That said, there are a number of prominent African-Americans who collect these things, so we may see some lively bidding. In the early 20th Century, the British used the unpleasant term “golliwogs” for these images, and perhaps Pelikan made these blotters for that market.

[Wahl]

I was just drinking my tea, and I did not spill it.

 

Back then, it was quite normal to have africans and chinese in ads, for whatever reason. Maybe to put an "exotic" touch.

 

That was then, and it´s history, no need to feel offended.