Metal Specialties Manufacturing Company

Metal Specialties Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1905 in Chicago, IL. Lauren Semler purchased Metal Specialties Manufacturing Co in 1933 and in 1939 launched the Presto brand of office products. In 1940 the company stopped all domestic production and contracted with the US Government making only war materiel. At the end of the war the company again started making the Presto line of products including paper punches. In 1953 the company built a new plant in Melrose Park, IL. In 1962 the Presto line of products was sold. The buyer was a company called Mutual Products Company based in Worcester, Massachusetts. For a short time after the acquisition Mutual Products produced some of the Presto branded consumable office supplies such as staples. They do not seem to have produced any of the other durable office items except for paper punches. These were rebranded as the Mutual Paper Punch and were released in a number of different models. Based on some circumstantial evidence, Mutual Products seem to have been acquired by ACCO in the 1970’s or 1980’s.

From American Stationer: A Journal of Antique, Vintage, & Modern Office Equipment - americanstationer.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/presto-53-b-all-purpose-paper-punch/. Dates & info need to be confirmed.

SG 1/15/19