Donald Art Co. School Tablets

In honor of this festive back-to-school time of year (well, for parents anyway), I present to you this group of school tablets by the Donald Art Co. These are about the size of a steno pad and contain that big lined paper those of us who went to elementary school in the 1960s and 1970s remember, sorta tan colored, really cheap, wide lines, so coarse you can almost see wood grain. Now all I need is that big round blue pencil and I'm all set. These come in a variety of sizes, what appears to be 50, 100, and 150 sheet tablets or thereabouts.

Recognize the art on these? You should, I spent almost two weeks in the Vira greeting card series, where all this art comes from. This yellow pad's art is taken from this birthday card and this get well card.

This red pad's art of Alice and Dinah is taken from this birthday card and this get well card.

This blue pad's art of the Mad Hatter and the March Hare is taken from this birthday card (the one I don't have).

Oddly, this pad of the Mad Hatter pouring tea for Alice uses interior art from the same two cards as the yellow pad above.

And last but not least, the red pad's art of Alice is taken from this birthday card and this get well card.

I don't know if this is the complete set of tablets, since obviously there are six different card styles, and one of these pads uses interior art, there could be as many as twelve different styles.

Plastic Novelties Pencil Sharpener - a Page from the Character Merchandising Division catalog

Second in the series of 'Matt is apparently blind and can't see the back side of pages' comes this page from the Character Merchandising Division catalog featuring the Alice pencil sharpener from this post.

The sharpener in my previous post had a smooth edge, but this particular ad shows the scalloped edge version, as below


Also interesting to note is that this sharpener and those pictured in the page do not have a © WDP on them, the but the sharpener in my previous post does...could these scalloped ones be earlier, and then Disney complained about the lack of a copyright?

Hassenfeld Brothers Pencil Boxes

Continuing with my Back-to-School theme (I only just realized tonight that I had a theme), Hassenfeld Brothers (later known by the contraction Hasbro) produced a number of items for the original release, most notably a series of playsets that were advertised in Playthings Magazine as well as the National Screen Service campaign book. These were the makeup kit, sewing kit and nurse kit (stay tuned for future posts on those items). But they also produced a pencil box that I have not as of yet found any advertising for.

I have found this pencil box in three sizes to date (small, medium and large) and two colors (red and blue). The contents of the various boxes is similar and pretty standard school supply fare. The illustration on the cover is taken from the makeup kit, if you look closely you can see that Alice is holding a powder puff and wearing nail polish.

The small box has a ruler, some pencils (custom printed with Alice in Wonderland on them), a nib pen (minus nib), a protractor, crayons, and an eraser.

The medium pencil box has the same as above, but also has a strange little drawer for holding bits of paper I imagine. I have found them with a weird poster of university pennants, and maps. The medium size also appears to be the most common of the three sizes, and blue is far and away the most common color as I have only ever seen one in red.

The largest box is essentially the same as the medium box, except that the drawer is deeper than on the medium box.

The upper tray has a different configuration than on the medium box, and does not have space for the protractor, so it probably didn't come with one.

Oddly, it is not really functionally deeper as there is a cardboard filler in the drawer making it shallower. I have no idea why they would go to the trouble to make a bigger pencil box only to remove the extra space.

Pencil Sharpener

Back in the days before mechanical pencils with refillable lead cartridges and erasable ink, people used good old fashioned wood pencils, #2 of course. To keep a sharp point on those wooden pencils you needed a sharpener. Most schools had those wall-mounted monsters that could grind a pencil into dust in mere seconds. But there were are wide variety of personal sharpeners about, and Disney licensed a couple of manufacturers, but most were made by Plastic Novelties Inc. Here we see the Alice sharpener from Plastic Novelties Inc. It comes in several colors, and both smooth edges or scalloped edges. Alice is probably the most uncommon of the Disney sharpeners, it was not that long ago that I even knew of its existence! I don't know if this is plastic or bakelite as I have not attempted the bakelite test, but I assume it is plastic.

Italian School Exercise Books - Quaderno #8

And finally, #8 in the series, the last one. Wonder why the title banner changed from yellow to pink? And Alice is sporting some pretty fancy shoes, where are we , Wonderland or Oz?

Italian School Exercise Books - Quaderno #7

Getting close now, this is #7 in the series featuring the hapless Card Painters who just can't seem to get anything right.

Italian School Exercise Books - Quaderno #6

Next is #6, with Alice joining the Mad Hatter and March Hare in a nice cup of tea. Wonder why the title changed from red to green?

Interestingly, while the characters and story snippet are in film sequence, this particular image is not. It is from the very end of the film when Wonderland is getting particularly weird as Alice flees the courtroom just before she wakes up.


This item is available in the Wonderland Bazaar.

Italian School Exercise Books - Quaderno #5

And #5 in the series, with Alice being very nosy indeed, and eating things she shouldn't.

I don't understand why then chose to do two from so close together in the film when there are other segments and characters to choose from (Caterpillar, Live Flowers, Cheshire Cat, etc). I'm always personally affronted when the Caterpillar gets left out.

Italian School Exercise Books - Quaderno #4

Continuing on, this is #4 in the series, featuring a very noisy White Rabbit bellowing for Mary Ann.

Italian School Exercise Books - Quaderno #3

Continuing with the Italian Quaderno series, this is #3, featuring the Walrus partaking of a little snack of oysters on the half shell.

Italian School Exercise Books - Quaderno #2

Continuing with the Italian Quaderno series, this is #2, featuring Alice's encounter with the Tweedles.

Italian School Exercise Books - Quaderno #1

A few years ago I came across a series of school exercise books from Italy (Quaderno) with fantastic illustrated covers based on the film. Covers also display the RKO logo which dates them to the original release. I have found several variations of these exercise books including differing number of pages, regular lined paper, graph paper, ledger paper, square corners, and rounded corners.

There are eight different quaderno in the set, each is numbered on the back, and the illustrations follow the storyline of the film (pretty much). This is number 1, with a very nice illustration from the opening sequence with Alice's sister reciting the history lesson and Alice making the daisy chain for Dinah.

The back covers also have a synopsis of the segment of the film illustrated on the front. The art on the back cover is the same for each of the eight quaderno in the series.

I do find it odd that the font on the cover used for 'Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie' looks like it belongs on a Chinese restaurant menu rather than an Italian school book.