Designer:  Fridolin Polzer (1878 – 1962)

Item: Hotchkiss Juwel Stapler Pliers Model 54

Manufactured by: E. H. Hotchkiss Company

Country of origin: United States

Year made: Ca. 1935

Materials: Chromeplated metal and enamel

Dimensions: 2 ¾” x 5 11/16” x ½” 

Condition: Good plus.  Scratches and some minor losses of enamel as shown, but for its age and everyday use it’s in very nice shape.  

References: Duncan, Alastair, Modernism; Modernist Design 1880 – 1940, The Norwest Collection, 1998

Description:  Here is a rare surviving art deco machine age masterpiece of design for a stapler.  The Juwel was patented by Polzer in 1934, U.S. Patent number 1,983,397, but the patent was not assigned to Hotchkiss, and likely the design was sold to other manufactures.  There were many in this physical form and mechanism produced, but very few survive with this awesome geometric art deco enamel design as introduced by Hotchkiss.  These were also made in three other enamel color combinations; black and white, orange and yellow, and green and black.  These are scarcely found and examples can be found in the permanent collections of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.  This is the only example we have ever seen that retains its original sticker from Hotchkiss Sales Co., which we believe indicates a very early production before the Juwel insignia was stamped into the metal.