This is an update of a much older Photo ID Guide, which means that while the majority of these classic film star ink blotters have long since sold, quite a few of them are brand new stock which may be found in my eBay Store at this time.
Collecting ink blotters is an entire hobby in and of itself, this page only professes to show off some examples depicting film stars, actually all actresses, from the late 1910’s through the early 1920’s. Ink blotters were at their height of use back when pens were still commonly dipped in ink wells to write, especially about 1880-1920, though the ephemeral items continued to be made through the 1950’s or so. Writing was a messy activity as you might imagine and the paper based blotters were used to soak up, or blot, the excess ink from the page being written upon.
Most of these were produced by the same company, in fact, all but the Myrtle Stedman shown in the final image were manufactured by the same source. The 1917, 1923, and 1924 blotters shown here came through Immortal Ephemera several years back and are long gone. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear as though I saved all of the original images, but just a handful from each of those sets. The 1922 Movie Star Ink Blotters are a more recent acquisition and thus all 12 from that set are shown and some may even still be available through the link given above.
Below the gallery is a checklist naming everybody shown in the gallery.
In 2004 iGuide Media published a 416-page book, Advertising Ink Blotters
1910s-1920s Movie Star Ink Blotters Gallery
Just click on any image to open to full size and from there you can scroll through them all.
Checklist of Movie Star Ink Blotters Depicted Above
Any linked name leads to either a full scale biography or other related article elsewhere on this site.
1917
Blanche Sweet
Mary Pickford
Ruth Roland
Theda Bara
1922
Bessie Barriscale
Billie Rhodes
Cleo Madison
Colleen Moore
Dorothy Gish
Dorothy Phillips
Edith Johnson
Ethel Clayton
Lillian Walker
Mabel Trunnelle
Marguerite Snow
Muriel Ostriche
1923
Bessie Love
Dorothy Gish
Muriel Ostriche
Priscilla Dean
1924
Colleen Moore
Eileen Sedgewick
Lillian Gish
Mildred Harris Chaplin
Unknown
Myrtle Stedman
