(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
When I ordered some loose leaf paper sets from Vanness Pens awhile back, they kindly included two stationery sets from San Lorenzo Design. San Lorenzo Design is an Italian company that sells leather goods, art, notebooks, stationery, and a wide variety of other products (including Pinocchio marionettes!) Their stationery is made in Florence and comes in a variety of designs with gold powder printing and embossing.
Maps Card Portfolio (Large)
The Maps Card Portfolio is comprised of a collage of maps printed on cream-colored card stock. Enclosed in the portfolio are ten cards and ten matching envelopes. Neither the San Lorenzo Design website nor Vanness identifies the weight of the cards or envelopes, but the cards are at least the thickness of manila folders.
A design is printed along the bottom of the cards and the insides of the envelopes.
The cards are smooth (though not slippery) and handle fountain pen ink beautifully. I used a Scribo Feel flex nib fountain pen inked with Bungubox 4B ink. This nib is quite wet and the ink is saturated. The ink did not bleed into the paper and there's little show through and no bleed through on the reverse side. In fact, you can write on both sides of the card without any difficulty.
These cards are 6.6 x 4.4 inches, which is large enough for a short note (if you use just one side) or a lengthier one if you write on both sides.
The envelopes are made of cream paper with the map design on the inside.
Scriptorium Writing Sheet Portfolio
Sheet Portfolio
The Scriptorium portfolio is a large envelope containing ten sheets of paper and ten matching envelopes. The design is a collage of Latin manuscripts with illuminated letters and Latin texts in various fonts.
The ivory paper is decorated with a flower-like embellishment in red and a gold-powder line around the page.
Although the stationery paper is thinner than the card stock, it too handles fountain pen ink admirably. The paper is a joy to write on, and although there is slight show through there's no bleed through. (Note: I realized after I wrote my letter that I had the page upside down with the embellishment on top, but it looks good either way!)
The paper is 6.61 x 8.97 inches. I chose not to write on both sides because of show through, but in all honesty you could probably write on both sides without the show through being too distracting. I have a pad of cream-colored Tomoe River paper that I use for subsequent pages so that I don't run out of this beautiful stationery too quickly.
The envelopes are blank on the outside but the Scriptorium design (with lots of gold powder) covers the inside.
I am absolutely thrilled with these two stationery sets. Both are elegant and both are fountain pen friendly. This is the kind of stationery that makes you want to write more letters, and your recipients will undoubtedly be impressed.
The Map Card Portfolio (Large) and the Scriptorium Writing Sheet Portfolio are $13.50 each. Both are currently in stock at Vanness Pens.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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