Collection: Vintage Tin Travel Palette

Vintage tins have a unique rustic charm to them. Personally, using vintage typewriter tins as watercolor palettes recalls the same kind of playful nostalgia as seeing toy wagons made out of plastic baby powder bottles, or fetching little earrings of sappy santan leaves. I am from that generation that still experienced a good deal of typewriter use (I used to own a beautiful, teal Remington!) and saw the transition of home computers from massive 5-piece assemblies to the sleek little laptops of today. These old, charming typewriter ribbon tins are a reminiscence of the manual, often arduous yet utterly satisfying process of typing out 50 pages of a term paper - alike in many ways to the process of creating art in today's digital world.

Be inspired by these little items of history! Each vintage tin is unique from the logo designs and the retro typography, down to its patina, nicks, dents and closure quirks. These tins were sourced from the US, from shops that say some of these are as old as circa 1920s. I cleaned them to remove loose rust, then sprayed them with clear acrylic to stop further rusting, preserve the patina and make it more hygienic to use.

If you have not bought vintage items before, please note that the tins listed here are actual vintage with reference to their age, i.e. not just 'vintage-style' or 'retro' with reference to their design. Most vintage items cannot be expected to look flawless, on the contrary, the patina that can only be achieved with age - that wear and tear, that's their exact appeal. I do my best to be honest with descriptions and take photos that best show their condition, so please do check all photos and read the descriptions.