The Grand Tour - illustrated books in collaboration with Stationery Stories

“Art owes its origin to Nature herself.” -Vasari, 16th Century

The 150-year period of Neo-Classical revival, during which every self-respecting English and European aristocrat would travel through Europe for their Classical education, is perhaps our favourite in modern history. The Grand Tours, which took place from the 17th- to the mid 19th Century, with mandatory stops in Paris, Venice, Rome, Florence, Naples and Sicily, were a time of enlightenment, historical quests and the start of enthusiasm for collecting. Today, historical revisionists view this more as plundering - Grand Tourists would happily help themselves to statues ("marbles"), paintings and all sorts of artefacts, filling their coffers as they travelled along. Items evoking scenes from Greek and Roman Antiquity were of particular interest.

Stationery Stories have helped us create our own little Neo-Classical revival by illustrating boks with typical Grand Tour mementos - obelisks, intaglios, alabaster busts and botanical illustrations. All of this on a patterned back drop.  The inside covers are "marbled" to produce a gorgeous deep green malachite look. 

The cover consists of thick textured paper in an elegant shade of cream; the inside pages (72 sheets, ie 144 pages), are cream coloured with a dot grid pattern and gold edges.

Laid and printed at our partners, a family-owned paper mill in Florence (Italy).

The books in our Stationery Stories collaboration are covered in textured paper with a gouache artwork printed on the inside and outside, front and back.   

DIMENSIONS: 21.5cm x 14.5cm

Ships from England or the Netherlands (for European customers)

This book pairs perfectly with our Notebook 'New York, Paris, London'.