A stationery shop with a legacy dating back to the time of King Rama V

For those seeking vintage stationery, this is the shop to go to.

Currently the third-generation heir, Priya Morasiri, has taken over the business. Priya cherishes the legacy her grandfather and father have built since 1923. The new location is still being set up and will take a few more months to be fully operational.

Before delving into the 100-year history of Mohammad, we asked why she continues to keep these old stationery items. Priya said that she had seen these items since childhood and loves them because her father and grandfather created them.

“We love everything in the shop. These items are like our relatives. I grew up with them and absorbed this passion from my father. We had to leave our old home in 2016 and moved around until settling in the Phutthamonthon Sai 2 area,” she says.

Mohammad's beginnings

Priya's grandfather Hassan Ali, an Indian Muslim who settled down in Siam during the reign of King Rama V, started “Mohammad” towards the end of the king’s reign, initially as a printing shop. The business did not start by importing stationery from England and Germany by ship.

“Initially, my grandfather was an employee, earning a salary of 20 baht a month, working in a printing shop on Ratchabophit Road during King Rama V's reign. He learned the craft of bookbinding and used this knowledge to establish the Mohammad Printing Shop,” she says.

Priya’s grandfather, much like many Chinese immigrants to Siam, arrived with nothing but a mat and a pillow to establish himself in the neighbourhood, near Tithong Road.

At that time, her grandfather occupied an abandoned building and began binding books by hand, eventually establishing Mohammad near the Chalermkrung intersection, not far from Sala Chalermkrung on Charoen Krung Road.

“My grandfather travelled by boat for months to reach Siam. Once he was established here, he brought his wife and children to Siam. Unfortunately, due to rampant epidemics, they passed away, after which he married a Mon woman from Pathum Thani,” Priya recounts. 

“My grandfather used to walk to work, passing by an old printing shop owned by a lord who no longer wished to continue the business as his children had grown up. The lord wanted to sell the business to my grandfather,” she says.

“My grandfather mentioned he had no money. The lord wanted to sell a two-storey building for 5,000 baht, recognising my grandfather’s printing experience and possession of the necessary equipment for bookbinding.”

Despite having no money, Hassan Ali gradually paid for the building, eventually owning Mohammad Printing Shop and expanding the business to include stationery items such as notebooks, pencils, pens, ink and rulers, imported from Germany and England.

“At that time, my grandfather had a typist order products to be shipped by boat, which took several months to arrive. We still have some original stationery items, relocated to Phutthamonthon,” says Priya.

Imported stationery

The stories of Priya's grandfather establishing the Mohammad stationery shop have now become a legend. Priya recounts that when her grandfather started selling stationery, he would go door-to-door to stores and ministries, much like a modern-day salesperson, until customers became familiar and came to buy from Mohammad, which served as both a stationery shop and a printing house.

“In the past, it was a beautiful two-story neo-classical building. Eventually, it was converted into a four-story building. The stationery business thrived during my grandfather and father’s times, while the printing business ceased operations 50-60 years ago,” says Priya.

"In the third generation, the business initially managed to survive. We rarely get new stationery items, but we continue to sell old ones because no other place offers the same vintage items.

“When I was a child, people would come to buy hand-bound accounting books from our shop. We also had both plain wooden and rainbow-coloured pens and penholders,” Priya reminisces.

“If it was a pen for drawing cartoons, my father ordered new metal nibs from Japan and traditional quill nibs from England and Germany, available for both Thai and English writing,” Priya adds.

Though the sale of vintage stationery is not as rewarding a business as during the times of her grandfather and father, Priya says that there are still customers ranging from 8-year-old children to art students.

“We have both German and Thai wooden rulers. Thai-made rulers are thinner than the German ones, and the numbers on the rulers are still visible, unlike the newer ones. We also have the original Pelikan ink from Germany, still in its box. Westerners keep ink bottles in their original packaging,” Priya explains.

“The original Pelikan ink bottle from the past was designed to hold quill pens after writing. We have an ink bottle from the King Rama IV era that my grandfather has kept. Though the ink is gone, the bottle has two grooves for placing quill pens on both sides, with a cork in the middle, though the cork is missing,” says Priya.

Besides pens and ink from her grandfather’s era, Mohammad Stationery Shop also has vintage paper clips made from raw iron from England and coated iron from Scotland, as well as Pelikan crayons. The latter is no longer seen today; they are pure colour sticks without wooden casings.

The German-brand Othello pencils have also vanished, and the brushes for watercolour and oil paints are made from animal hair, not synthetic fibres. The stationery shop houses many other old items, including lac for sealing parcels by melting and dripping it on tied strings.

“Even though our era is not as prosperous as my grandfather and father's, we continue because of the love and attachment. We are happy to keep selling these stationery items,” says Priya, recalling the memories of the expensive quill pens used for writing in English.

Contact Mohammad Stationery Shop at Priya: 089 689 6445

By Pomyam