JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post (Part of the “Magnificent Mundane” series) 

The Japan External Trade Recovery Organization’s General Merchandise of Japan was an “effort is made to introduce every category of general merchandise” being made in the country in 1955.  Ten years after the war the country was still of course recovering from its devastating defeat, though the national economy did make tremendous progress back to some sort of normalcy during that time, particularly during the ‘fifties. This is not a Sears catalog, though, as it weighs in at 110 (thick) pages plus 30 pages of advertisements. The merchandise does spread out wide, if not very deep at all, and it makes for an interesting browse to see what sorts of goods were being manufactured and sold overseas so soon after the war.  What caught my eye (following ads for tribal table art, “Japanese-style lanterns”, cigarette lights, reed organs, toys, glasses, shoes, scissors, wooden bowls, eyeglasses (two varieties), and so on were the ads for pencils. There were at least four of them, three of which are visually striking. (And speaking of that, there’s also a great ad for matches.)  On the “Pencils of Japan” page there is also a peep into perfection, showing an office desktop outfitted with goods manufactured in Japan. There’s not much, but the necessaries are there, and it is very tidy in a geo-Spartan way (and nothing like my own desk). In any event, I share the “Pencils of Japan”: