Description

A vintage advertising pencil from Reno’s Mapes Hotel Casino, one of downtown Reno’s most recognizable mid-century gaming landmarks. Branded “Reno’s Mapes” with promotional prize text and graphics, this piece was most likely produced for casino floor use as a gaming or keno pencil. The simple wood form and bold printed graphics give it the kind of small-scale character that makes vintage casino ephemera so collectible. It is an easy piece for a desk, bar, shelf, or Nevada memorabilia collection, with the kind of specificity collectors always want and almost never find in perfect condition.

The Mapes Hotel opened in Reno in 1947 and remained one of the city’s best-known hotel-casinos until it closed in 1982, which gives this pencil real historical context within mid-century Nevada gaming culture. 

Details