The Stationers Guild

Several years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to tour Crane & Co.’s impressive printing and paper manufacturing plants in western Massachusetts.  Crane’s facilities are spread throughout a number of plants and buildings in and around Dalton and North Adams in the Berkshires along the Appalachian Trail.  The rich traditions of this 200 year-old company are literally everywhere.  While most towns have a Main Street, Dalton has Crane Avenue.  For a delightful two hours of American history and fascinating insights into the art of making paper, we certainly recommend a visit to Crane’s Museum of Papermaking.

One of the more interesting aspects of our visit was seeing how engraving dies are made and watching Crane’s skilled craftsmen hand-feed paper through the printing press.  Together with letterpress, engraving is one of the oldest and most traditional forms of printing.  It is often used for wedding invitations, baby announcements and for both business and social stationery.  The raising printing, opaque colors and bruising on the back of the paper are signs that the paper has been engraved.

In this excellent video, Peter Hopkins, who writes the Crane Insider Blog, describes the process of engraving in exceptional detail.  Short of visiting the plant, Peter’s video illustrates the care, craftmanship and labor-intensive process of creating fine engraved papers.

To see the rich colors and beautiful samples of Crane’s engraved papers, contact a Guild member store in your neighborhood for more information.

Richard May
Founding Member