I'm not sure this counts as ephemera but a friend recently gifted me a bunch of photographic equipment that belonged to his late father and aunt. One of the items that caught my eye was this robustly made SLICK tripod that is in excellent condition. A little investigation revealed that it is an original SLICK "Master" tripod manufactured by the SLICK Elevator Tripod Co. Ltd. which was formed in 1956 and began manufacture of the "Master" model the same year. The low serial number (527) indicates this tripod is probably a first year edition. Note that the company changed its name to SLIK in 1974.
My friend's dad was stationed in Japan in the 1950s so I'm fairly certain he purchased the tripod there.