The Old School Way: A place for vintage stationery lovers

PETALING JAYA, Feb 26 — Relive those olden days with vintage stationery finds from The Old School Way. Set up by May Ling, 32, it is essentially a collection of odds and ends; all items that she has taken a shine to.

This includes message pads with old fonts, Waverly calligraphy nibs from the 1950s and old school teacher grading stamps. Each item oozes character and has a story to tell. Most importantly, the items are also functional.

The Old School Way’s May Ling loves to collect stationery as it helps her chill out and connect with people.

May Ling has been collecting stationery since her primary school days. Her earliest memory, she recalls, was when she entered Standard One. “My mother bought me a pencil box with multiple buttons. Each item will pop up when you press it.”

She has always collected things. In her earlier days when she was growing up, she was drawn to items like paper bags and umbrellas. Nowadays it’s vintage enamelware and furniture that she’s eyeing to furnish her soon-to-be-ready home. “The fun part about collecting is you don’t know what you will find.”

Vintage erasers with all kinds of alphabets and old school lettering.

Even though it’s been a lifelong love for stationery, May Ling only started The Old School Way about six months ago. Taking a break from work, she had started digging through her drawers and realised she had hoarded a lot of stuff.

She got organised and started selling her collection on Etsy. This included flat erasers emblazoned with alphabets that she had bought by the boxes.

Long before the age of technology, people were using dry transfer lettering sheets to create customised letters.

May Ling also has a small collection of dry transfer letter sheets. Nowadays people have printers, typewriters and scanners that do the lettering work quickly but she prefers these old school types, as they’re imperfect and there’s a texture to it.

Most importantly, it takes time to perfect each letter; rubbing it down to carefully to transfer it over. As May Ling adds, “It is good to have a chance to slow down the process to use this stationery.”

She is also good at noticing details, like how in the old days, the message pads were only designed for males, since they only addressed Mister. Later, one can see that the pads were updated as they included the feminine address. Even Austrian-made teaching grade stamps have interesting phrases to encourage children for their work.

These Austrian-made teacher’s grading stamps have various designs including unique phrases (left). Keep those old chops as you can now reutilise them for your journal or even to decorate your letters (right).


Vintage luggage tags for your travelling needs.

A clinical psychologist by profession, she works with children with autism and learning disabilities. She likes to chill out by collecting stationery and believes it’s very different from the scientific and analytic type of work she has to do. “This hobby of selling and collecting lets me use my other side of the brain... the creative side.”

As she works with many children, she’s also of the opinion that with technology, most children are too glued to the iPad that they are no longer fascinated by simpler things such as stationery. “It reminds me of the days when life was simple and it was easier to get joy from small things and life was slower.”

Message pads with old fashioned fonts (left). The vintage finds like this stapler are still functional (right).

What May Ling also enjoys with The Old School Way is meeting the same kind of people who love stationery just like her. Since she joined Etsy, she’s met many online. “It’s introduced me to a different world.”

When she joined the stationery market at Battery Acid Club, she managed to connect with many people who were keen to hear the stories behind her old stationery finds. She adds, “That’s the thing, I am excited to share about vintage stationery and it’s special as it can connect people of all ages.” Even through her Instagram account, she received an appreciative message from a follower who thanked her for not letting school stationery be forgotten.

These wax seal sticks keep all your letters confidential with a wax seal on the envelopes (left). These Waverly calligraphy nibs have been out of production since the 1950s (right).

Each step is a new experience for her. “I have started to learn new skills and think about photography and how to market it with social media.” On her part, there’s also a commitment to this venture which is driven by her own passion. “It’s not easy to start a small business as you need a bit of dedication but because you like it, it is okay.” Usually she reserves weekends for her hobby.

In her search for vintage finds, it’s taken her to old towns where she’ll spend time browsing through dusty shelves of stationery shops. These shops that time has forgotten will yield interesting finds for her.

“The exciting part is finding them; going from shop to shop and going through their stuff. By doing this, I’ve met many old uncles and aunties.” For her honeymoon in Sandakan, she planned it around a trip to an old stationery shop that was about 40 years old. She was extremely touched when the owner dug through his own office materials to produce an old rubber stamp for her collection.

So next time when you spy an office notepad emblazoned with old fashioned fonts or even stumble upon a telephone index from those bygone days, think about The Old School Way and send it over to May Ling who will cherish these vintage items.

Shop The Old School Way’s vintage stationery on Etsy (www.etsy.com/shop/TheOldSchoolWay) or follow May Ling on her Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mayslife13/)