Smythson Featherweight

I thought long and hard before deciding to talk about Smythson… I am a fan for sure and my wedding stationery came from this Bond Street mecca but it is almost ubiquitous amongst stationery articles. But this is probably because they cannot be beaten and that should be celebrated.

In 1916, a man named Frank Smythson created a paper that was so thin and light yet still able to take a fountain pen ink that he copyrighted this paper and included it within his stationery.

Since then many have imitated the Smythson style and quality but none have succeeded. As early as 1942 Smythson went as far as the House of Lords to defend itself against counterfeiting.

Featherweight paper is half the thickness and weight (50 grams per square metre) of normal paper so a great many pages can be contained in a very slim, light book. Normally such thin paper is not appropriate for use with a fountain pen but Featherweight paper is tested rigorously to ensure that it is strong and opaque enough to be used with fountain pens without bleed.

Featherweight is made in the trademark Smythson pale blue in colour and watermarked with a distinctive globe and feather design, which appears at least once on each page and can be used to ensure the book is not an imitation. Creating a watermark in a paper this light is difficult, so the paper has to be made at a specialist mill in England that produces international security and bank note paper.

All Smythson books containing Featherweight paper have a distinctive, strong and hardwearing ‘floppy leather’ binding that is virtually unchanged since the 1890s. Called the ‘Panama hat’ of books the Featherweight Panama can be rolled up and squashed and will improve with age. The bindings of traditional grained lambskin are handmade with stitched spines and gilt-edged pages.

For all the above reasons Smythson Featherweight books are internationally popular with many distinguished writers, journalists, travellers and explorers. Used by ‘the great and the good’ over many generations they have been called a ‘secret social passport’. I am always so proud of my Smythson notebooks and almost daren’t use them for day-to-day writing. They have some very cute titles for their books, including the cheeky ‘Little black book’ although I am less fond of the modern colours and titles, so let’s not go there.

The Smythson museum at Bond Street shows some of the Featherweight paper’s rich history as well as archive exhibits belonging to Queen Victoria, Princess Diana, Sigmund Freud and Grace Kelly to name but a few.

Do pop by there and head straight to the back of the shop, towards the bespoke stationery area and turn right to enter the grandest tiny museum and be in awe of stationery porn!