(derekbaker)

Chapter 2 of Our Quest to Put the Good Back in Tangible Goods, in which We Discover the Joys of Stationery

From my earlier discussion of Pens I Have Known, we move to Paper I Have Loved. And I have to say: much as I love pens, stationery is even better. I know, I know: this is bizarre. This is bordering on fetish material, you're thinking. You're just going to have to trust me on this one. Avert your eyes if it gets too kinky.

By far the best paper for notes and letters is by an Italian company called Pineider. Their paper is nearly impossible to find outside of Italy, I've discovered -- there was a store in New York I just happened upon that stocked several very cool "wallets" of hand-bordered correspondence cards with matching lined envelopes a few years ago, and I was hooked. Unfortunately, that store no longer carries Pineider, last I checked, and nearly nobody else in this country seems to, either. Except for a guy on eBay -- who happens to operate out of New York, by coincidence. Pineider does have some stores themselves in Italy, but now even their Web site seems to be out of business -- not that you could order from that, anyway, but it was nice too look at.

All their paper is extremely smooth -- not glossy, of course, but really, really smooth. It's almost always got a thin border in a contrasting color, and the envelopes and enveloper liner match the stationery colors. And, of all the kinds of stationery they make, the best is the correspondence card, which is of a heavier stock than the note paper stationery and measures 3 1/2" by 7 1/8". But really, any Pineider stationery will easily be the best in your desk drawer.

In my view, second to Pineider -- or, really, equal to them, but for different kinds of paper -- would probably have to be Dempsey & Carroll. They also have great correspondence cards (these vary in size, but are generally around 5 1/8" by 3 3/4") which are also hand-bordered, but their real claim to fame is their engraving.

After Pineider and Dempsey & Carroll are some smaller companies that put out some very good correspondence cards. (As you may have guessed, this is my favorite format for stationery, because it's just enough space to write a good note to someone, without it turning into -- or feeling like it ought to be -- a letter. Plus, since they're just a flat card, instead of something folded, it feels somewhat unique in the realm of notecards.)

The Grosvenor Stationery Company in London has a small line of hand-bordered correpondence cards, in a size similar to Dempsey & Carroll's, but with a finish closer to Pineider's. The Wren Press also does correspondence cards with engraved motifs, contrasting borders, etc.

Then there's the whole world of letterpress stationery, which has become completely revitalized as a printing method for cutting edge design in recent years. One of the very best in this area is a company out of California called "Little Oranges" -- they do flat cards, folded cards, greeting cards, and seem to be expanding, both in terms of designs and availability. Another leader -- not as big, it seems, but with some of the best greeting cards in letterpress -- is a Chicago company called "Snow & Graham."

You'll notice a very prominent American stationery name that I haven't yet put on the list; that would be Crane & Co. Crane's is an excellent stationer, and I have some of their engraved cards I use for some kinds of notes. While they still handle high-end stationery business, they've gone a little more middle-of-the-road with a huge number of products and business lines of late, including interactive kiosks for customer-designed paper and ink-jet ready stationery and printing templates for use on your computer. They even have a whole division that does industrial projects for things like cars and satellites that need paper-like materials.

However, exacty because Crane's is so all-over-the-map now, and seem to have at least some of their products carried in just about every paper and stationery store in the U.S., they're almost too ubiquitous to be considered very "special" anymore. But don't turn up your nose at a gift of Crane stationery -- they do know their stuff. For one thing, the company also makes the 100 percent cotton paper for our U.S. currency, thanks to their contract with the Federal Reserve that dates back to 1879. Today, they recycle old jeans, among other things, to get that rag content.

Labels: personal

---