The Stationers Guild

Last weekend, a woman walked into Thérèse Saint Clair looking for ecru sheets that matched the engraved, double hand-bordered sheets of her personalized stationery.   It isn’t often that you see engraved stationery of this quality and I commented on its elegance.  She explained that her husband had bought the stationery for her some years ago in London and that sadly all she had left were a few envelopes.

Her husband arrived shortly thereafter after parking the car in snow-challenged Greenwich and brought with him the matching envelope.  As I suspected, it was engraved stationery from Smythson of Bond Street.   In recent years, Smythson has been a playtoy for investment bankers, but was acquired last year by the Italian group Tivoli.    I tend to think of Smythson more for their leather products than their stationery, but Smythson craftsmanship and paper quality remains high.

Unfortunately, we were not able to match Smythson’s paper (color and size were a bit off), but I did suggest that Crane had some beautiful hand-bordered papers and could certainly match the color palatte of her existing stationery.  For those not familiar with hand-bordering, the video clip below shows Crane’s experienced and talented artisans demonstrating how card stock is hand-bordered.  This demo took place at the 2010 National Stationery Show:

In a world of flat-printed Photoshop cards, it is a breath of fresh air to see skilled artisans practice their trade and produced hand-bordered stationery of exquisite beauty. To see examples of Crane’s elegant stationery, visit a stationery store located in your neighborhood.

Richard W. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

The legendary Smythson of Bond Street has been sold once again to Greenwill SA, the holding company for the Tivoli group, an Italian leather goods manufacturer.  Now, better known for its luxury leather goods than its stationery, Smythson has undergone several ownership changes in recent years, the latest being the 2005 acquisition by Mike Sherwood, a Goldman Sachs banker.

Smythson was granted a Royal Warrant to Her Majesty the Queen in 1964 and other Royal warrants have followed.  Presumably, this Royal blessing allows you to price your products at levels which gives nose bleed to even the most intrepid shopper.

I do recall visiting Smythson’s Bond Street store many years ago and marvelled at their beautiful papers, exquisite designs and bold colors.  In the back of the store, there was a small room which had samples of “Royal” stationery, old engraving dies and a few photographs which traced the history of this esteemed stationer.  Like many others, I have hopeful that the new Italian owners will keep the paper presses and designers producing Smythson’s elegant stationery.  We would all be royally blessed.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair