Before computers were invented there was a short-lived office product called copy paste. I never heard of this until I visted the MARMALADE* down town Montreal last week. It was on a special display of old office equipment that included things like the "
bubble chair", and the "stapler-tooth brush" which I will have to blog about one day. What made copy paste special was that you could squeeze it out onto a document, smooth it out using a
fork-knife, and once it dried into a gelatinous resin, it peeled off leaving the original text intact. By applying the resinous mold onto a blank piece of paper it recreated the image. This of course pre-dated the xerox machine which ultimately made copy paste obsolete. The other problem was that copy paste fumes made office workers giddy, to the point of wanting to play musical chairs and dance the rhumba on top of desks, and it had a small risk of causing the hiccups. It was also excellent for copying currency, movie tickets, postage stamps, and just about any other valuable item, making it a tool for criminal forgers. At least I got to see it at the MARMALADE, and the staff allowed me make a painting of it. Actually, the original painting is still at the museum, they let me copy my painting using the copy paste, which is what you see on the blog. I felt giddy.
Curio Folio: Copy Paste, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025
*MARMALADE stands for the Museum of Art Relics Mementos Absurd and Legendary Artifacts Definitely Excellent
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