Every once in a while an antique diary catches my eye on eBay. Most of the time I don’t buy them because they are similar to things I already have in my collection. Sometimes they are more tempting but too expensive, usually because the contents might have some historical interest, such as a soldier’s memoirs of one of the world wars. But every once in a while there is something that looks a little different and seems worth a try if I can get it for a low bid. That was the case with this diary.
I paid $0.99 for this diary, plus a couple of bucks for shipping. I’m glad I didn’t pay more. It’s a bit musty and the spine was broken and re-glued in a wonky way that makes it all crooked and impossible to open fully.
So often these old diaries are a smaller 2.5 x 4″ format but this one is about 3.5 x 6″. As is typical, it has frontmatter with populations of cities, distances between cities, and a list of holidays. Somewhat more unusual are the 3 pages of detailed information about postal rates. Then you have a page per day diary, and a few pages in the back for recording cash received and spent, and telephone numbers and addresses. The endpapers have yearly calendars for 1940 (in the front) and 1939 and 1941 (in the back). Whoever owned this diary made note of a couple of birthdays in pencil, but it is otherwise completely empty.
The coolest thing about it was this old telegram tucked inside. Nowadays it boggles them mind to think of arranging a visit via snail mail and telegrams, then arriving in a new city with a plan as vague as “meet me at this hotel on this day.” But I guess people made it work!
This is not the most exciting vintage diary in my collection, but I guess it’s nice that it didn’t end up in the garbage. Whenever I go to estate sales or yard sales or antique shops, I’m surprised in a way that there are so few diaries and notebooks on offer. Maybe avid collectors snap them up. Or maybe the original owners’ families destroy them because they are seen as private and of no value to others. But I always enjoy these links to the past– every notebook has a story, even if it’s blank.
Tina was a Notebook Addict of the Week back in 2014, when she showed us her collection of hand-bound sketchbooks. She is still a dedicated Urban Sketcher, and has also done quite a bit of traveling. This time, Tina shares her collection of travel journals:
[Above] is a photo of the whole collection: several Moleskines (including one City notebook that was nice in concept but didn’t have enough freeform space for writing), a few Field Notes for shorter trips, and several Rhodia Rhodiarama notebooks. The latter is probably still my favorite, although the slightly larger format of the Field Notes Signature is very nice (I just wish it had a few more pages). The Hello Kitty notebook was my first travel journal, used on my first trip to Japan (and my first time outside the US). Disappointingly, it’s the least interesting of all my travel journals. I guess I was so overwhelmed with being in a new country that I hardly wrote anything! Since then, however, I have been to many other countries and cities, and I learn more about how to be a better travel journal keeper each time I travel.
“When I ran out of pages toward the end, I started sketching on ticket stubs and receipts.” “My travel journal in Brazil was a Rhodia Rhodiarama notebook.”
A year ago, I had just embarked on my epic cross-country road trip, so this season’s Field Notes special edition struck a chord and makes me want to hit the highway all over again!
This edition even comes with a map of the US interstate highway system (free if you’re an annual subscriber, otherwise a separate purchase). More details at the Field Notes website.
There is currently an art exhibition on view in Australia featuring a work called “Chinese Bible” by Yang Zhichao. It is a “monumental installation of 3000 notebooks and diaries inscribed between 1949 and 1999. These small books were collected by the artist from Beijing markets from 2005 to 2008 and ritually washed before presentation. Once owned by people of all ages and backgrounds, they reveal handwritten notes ranging from the experience of falling in love to the ideological slogans of the Cultural Revolution.”
A view of the installation is below, and in the video you can see more about the project.
Yang Zhichao’s Chinese Bible installation view
You can also see the covers and scanned pages of all the notebooks on the website of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. (I couldn’t help wondering if I would spot one that looked like the 1980 Chinese Diary from my own collection!)
Yang Zhichao’s Chinese Bible notebook coversSelected interior pages from Yang Zhichao’s Chinese Bible notebooks
It’s the perfect time of year for this article from Delaware’s Cape Gazette about a workshop on garden journaling:
Kelly Sverduk, a teacher and an artist, says “I used to only keep nice sketchbooks when I went on a trip somewhere, but eventually I realized that I wanted to treat my day-to-day life with the same level of appreciation.â€Â The process of studying a plant or object and carefully re-creating it feels especially therapeutic in our fast-paced world, she says. This type of journal usually incorporates text as well as pictures or sometimes bits and pieces, like a scrapbook, such as seed packets or pressed plant material. Whether the content is observations on temperature, bloom time, seed types, or planting notes for next year – or more personal reflections on your own life, remember that your journal or sketchbook is for you.Â
I discovered the Printfresh brand when I was doing my Christmas shopping several months ago. I was in a lovely gift shop in Mt. Kisco, NY called Porch, and among their many nice things, I saw a beautiful chunky journal with a velvet cover. My usual tastes in notebooks tend to run towards minimal designs, but this one was an eye-catching exception. I contacted the manufacturer and they were kind enough to send me not only a sample of the velvet notebook, but a big box of other products for me to review and share with some lucky winners!
Velvet Journal
The Velvet journal has a beautiful indigo tie-dye pattern. This one is called Shibori Stripe, inspired by Japanese textiles. This small size measures about 4 x 6″, but it’s quite thick so will fit better in a bag than a pocket. There is a pretty big cover overhang but it kind of goes with the thickness and square corners.
When you open the journal, the binding feels quite stiff. This would be the main downside to this notebook– it is difficult to open flat due to the square spine. Repeated flexing helps, but I did worry the spine would break or tear. Inside, the endpapers are made of a lovely paper with bits of flowers throughout. There is a ribbon marker (an unusual metallic braid with a knot at the end) but no back pocket.
The 360 pages are lined, with the lines ending within the page, and larger margins at the top and bottom. The paper feels smooth and medium weight. I expected it to have a lot of bleed-through, but was pleasantly surprised to see that it actually performs quite well with most fountain pens. A few were a bit feathery, but there was almost no bleed-through.
Overall, this journal is lovely and will please most fountain pen users except for the difficulty in opening the pages flat. The list price for this small journal is $20, which is a little on the high side but it really is a beautiful, gifty object. Various designs are available on Amazon for $18.
Leather Marbled Sketchbook & Journal
The larger version of the leather sketchbooks made me say “Wow.” At 8.75×12.25″, it is a generously sized and substantial book, and I’ve never encountered a marbleized painted leather cover like this. The cover is really beautiful. There is a line of stitching on the back cover, perhaps just because it is easier for them to use two separate pieces of leather to bind such a large sketchbook– the smaller leather journals don’t have the stitching (I didn’t unwrap or test the smaller journal).
When you open it up, you are greeted by beautiful endpapers too, as well as a black ribbon marker (but no back pocket).
The paper inside is a creamy white, fairly smooth. The weight is not specified but it is not very thick. Here again fountain pens work fairly well with no bleedthrough but some feathering. I did not test watercolor paints but this paper is probably better for dry media.
At $38, this is more expensive than a hardcover sketchbook from Stillman & Birn or Moleskine, but those brands don’t have the luxurious leather cover. Many leather covered sketchbooks in this size are at least this price or more. Again, this sketchbook from PrintFresh offers a distinctive and gifty package that sets it apart. Available for purchase on Amazon.
Wire-O Bound Notebook
I love wire-o bindings for work notebooks, where I want to have the option of folding the cover back. These have a fun pattern on the cover, stamped in gold to match the wire. The pages within are lined and perforated for easy removal. I did not do pen tests on the wire-o notebook. The list price of this notebook is $13. Similar designs are available on Amazon.
Conclusion
Printfresh notebooks are indeed fresh! Their designs are lovely and make these journals and sketchbooks special gifts for notebook collectors who already have all the run of the mill brands, or for anyone whose creativity is inspired by a colorful, attractive design. Be sure to check out the Printfresh website for their full line of products.
Giveaway!
Thanks to the generosity of the folks at Printfresh, I have quite a few samples to give away to some lucky readers!
Five winners will each get one Printfresh notebook. Please note that prizes can be mailed to US addresses only. Winners will be randomly selected from entries received in any of these ways:
On Twitter, tweet something containing “Printfresh Notebook @NotebookStoriesâ€, and follow @NotebookStories .
On your blog, post something containing the words “Printfresh Notebook†and “Notebook Stories†and link back to this post, also leaving a comment below with the link in case the trackback doesn’t work.
On Instagram, follow @Notebook.Stories and @Printfresh, and comment on my Printfresh post, tagging a friend and adding a hashtag of your favorite adjective describing the Printfresh notebook, journal or sketchbook. (Example: “@myfriendsally #velvetcoverâ€)
The deadline for entry is Friday March 29, 2019 at 11:59PM, EST. Good luck everyone!
I received free samples to review but no other compensation. All opinions are my own.
I found this week’s addict on Instagram. Ironbark Journals is an Etsy seller of hand-stitched travelers notebook covers, but the photo below is her personal collection.
What a mess the whole Brexit thing is… but I have to admit reading this headline made me feel a little excited.
“WHSMITH IS STOCKPILING NOTEBOOKS, DIARIES AND PENS FOR NO-DEAL BREXIT”
The retailer has reportedly said it would hold a six month supply of stationery that it imports from Asia, rather than three-to-four months worth in case of delays at ports, the Times reported.
THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF WORLD War II’s most iconic prisoner-of-war escape is less than two weeks away, on March 24, 2019. Just in time, Hansons Auctioneers in England is offering a rare relic of the daring feat: a diary that takes us inside the mind of one of the prisoners who planned it.
I was at work when I received a very strange text message. “Hi Sarah, my name is Will and I work for a company that sorts through donated and discarded books and came across a stack of your lovely notebooks. I am not sure if you would be interested in having them returned, but I at least would like to inquire about the pecan pie.â€
The message was followed by a picture of the interior of a Moleskine sketchbook of mine. The first page of a Moleskine has a place for you to write your name, address, phone number and a designated reward “in case of loss.†I have about two dozen Moleskines from the past 13 years, and in them I have offered various rewards — a painting, $20 plus a painting plus a kiss, a hot-air balloon and, in this particular book, a pecan pie.
It is an almost incomprehensible number: 46 million. That is how many items the New York Public Library says it has in its collection, and not all of them are books….
Starting next year, many of these items will be displayed in a new gallery at the library. I’d like to see this one:
The gallery will have Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s notebook. Amid drafts of poems is a page with a sketch of her dog Flush.
