Los Angeles - Pacific Mutual building inkwell

A finely detailed promotional inkwell from Pacific Mutual Life (Insurance) in the shape of the home office building in Los Angeles.

Construction of the new Los Angeles home office building was begun early in 1908 after their original home in San Francisco was lost in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake. It was fully operational by 1910. Built on a steel structure and utilizing hollow tiles, every measure of the then current technology was employed to make it fireproof and quake resistant. In some sense it worked - the building (or at least the internal structure) is still there though far from recognizable.

Not that I'm yearning for a return to the past. I can't imagine wanting to have an inkwell and dipping pen on my desk or one of those refillable leakers in my shirt pocket but I do think that the creations and processes of the past should be remembered.