One wonders how the works of Waugh or Wilde might have changed had Mr. Robert Swaine-Underhay been granted his patent for the Calling Card Blotting Press.

Calling cards, which conveyed a request to visit or communicated a reply, were the currency of polite society, their use governed by the precise and elaborate rules of etiquette. A turned-up corner indicated that a card had been delivered in person, and not by a servant; a card enclosed in an envelope signalled that a personal visit was discouraged. Even the sizes of cards were significant, dictated by a person’s station: ladies and gentlemen carried cards of different sizes and proportions, a reflection of whether a card case was designed for a breast pocket or a purse, while the card of a married couple was larger still. A gentleman without address used a card slightly smaller than a man with residence, and it is here that the story of the blotting press becomes noteworthy.

Observing how often calling cards were beginning to bear hand-written notes, Swaine-Underhay proposed that a small mechanical device, with a felt roller for blotting wet ink, should be on hand in every respectable foyer. In his detailed patent filing, the inventor underscored that because these devices would be visible to callers, they should be designed to accord with the décor of the home and the merit of its furnishings, for which he provided nearly fifty examples. Included in his application were both a 2⅞" press, corresponding with the card of a Miss, and a smaller 2" model that would admit only the narrow card of a Man Without Address — a distinction that might be noted by callers, but was certainly apparent to the examiners of Her Majesty’s Patent Office, who were not inclined to give it their endorsement. Swaine-Underhay’s patent wasn’t rejected, but nor was it fully processed, perhaps attributable to short staffing: that year, the energetic young clerk assigned to the application relocated to Thursk, where Swaine-Underhay himself, coincidentally, had recently moved.

Published December 18, 2022. Copyright © 2022 Jonathan Hoefler.