This Antique Relic Has a Secret History You Never Knew About!
September 16, 2024
Source: Flickr
The HMSO (His or Her Majesty’s Stationery Office) rolling ruler is a piece of history of the British civil service. Set up in 1786, HMSO was an organisation that offered office products to the UK government departments and among the items supplied included this ebony ruler. Stating ‘S.O.’ (Stationery Office) and a crown, these rulers were employed by the civil servants for the work of drafting and precision.
Made with precision the rolling ruler is one of the many high quality materials that the British government officials are equipped with. HMSO ran for more than two hundred years thus making a point of providing the right office equipment to the government departments. This is evidenced even after the privatization of HMSO in 1996, whereby items such as these are now considered as valuable commodities in the market due to their historical value and rarity.
The nice thing about the HMSO rolling ruler is that it combines precision, craftsmanship, and an official government stamp, thus giving a rather interesting insight into how officials of the British government worked in their day-to-day duties. This is evident in this piece of work in that it symbolizes the period when items used in the civil service were manufactured with a view of withstanding test of time and this was in line with the high principles of civil service.