Yesterday I managed to finally get to have a look around the new Paperchase store that has just opened in Glasgow. It's two floors of all the stationary and crafts one could desire. I don't whether it was the well laid out store or the fact that my baby actually went to sleep for half and hour that made it a really lovely experience. In reality it was probably the latter but for the purposes of this post lets say it was the former!
I emerged from the shop with a set of thank you cards that I really have no use for at the moment but I always manage to get sucked in by a pretty shop! I have always loved stationary since I was kid. I always looked forward to going back to school after the summer break because I knew there would be a new pencil case and backpack in it for me.
When I looked into the origins of stationary I found that cards, notebooks, pencils etc were all grouped as 'stationary' quite simply because they had to be purchased from a stationers. I remember there being very few places when I was growing up that could be classed as just a stationers, most were sections within a larger store which really doesn't have the same appeal.
The Victorian era was a time when stationary really came into its own. Stationary was an important tool in social etiquette. Good manners equalled a higher social class and thank you notes/letters were a huge part of that. Beautiful handwriting was also a part of social etiquette that is rarely seen these days. My great granny has beautiful hand writing, its so decorative that it borders on illegible.
In celebration of good manners and a lost tradition here are some stationary picks- just in case you wanted to revive the tradition...
1. Naturalist, Hello Lucky 2. Pony Express, Rifle Paper 3. Bordered Correspondance,
Smythson 4. Royal Elephant, Alexa Pulitzer 5. Bee Vomit Card, Wit & Whistle
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