June 18, 2018

Stationary/Paper Products (for Invitations, Programs, etc.) - Royal Research


A royal letter, invitation, menu, program, etc. is not just a piece of paper with information, but often a beautiful keepsake for people to treasure for a lifetime. Great care is taken to make sure each item is beautifully made.

Resources:
  • Gert's Royal Replies (Blog) - They are a Royal Blog with a lot of great examples of royal stationary. They have written to the Royals for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, births, etc. over the years, and share the replies they have received. Their blog posts tend to be pretty detailed about the replies and the meaning behind this and that. So you can get a good sense of different styles of Royal letters and cards. 
  • "Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace" (two-part article) by Glenn H Morgan and John Holman (2012)
    • Part 1 - This article talks about the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace which is run by the Royal Mail, and includes some of the different Royal Postmarks (as of 2012). 
    • Part 2 - This article looks royal mail for certain events: mournings, weddings, 100th birthdays, milestone anniversaries, etc. It also goes into a bit of about how mail is handled at each royal residence. 
  • Chicago Postcard Museum (Website) - has a helpful page on the history of Postcards. Particularly it has some stuff on the different characteristics of postcards from the 1st postcards in 1870 to the present. So this could be useful for someone writing a historical novel, who wants to make sure their postcard is historically accurate.  
Royal Warrant Holders:
  • Wren Press - They are a luxury stationery company for personal, professional and event use. They sell both ready-to-order & design-your-own stationary. They also create bespoke stationery. 
    • Royal Warrant from the Queen & Prince Charles for "Printers and Stationers."
  • Barnard & Westwood - They are a printer and bookbinding company. They make all of their products bespoke. 
    • Royal Warrant from the Queen & Prince Charles for "Printers and Bookbinders."
    • They made Harry & Meghan's Wedding Invitations.
    • On their website they have a page discussing the different printing processes: die stamping, letterpress, foil blocking, die cutting, etc.
  • Office Depot UK - They are an office supply store. And yes, even the Royals use Office Depot. And no, you don't need to be some fancy, luxury company to get a royal warrant.
    • Royal Warrant from the Queen and Prince Charles for "Stationery, Furniture and Printed Stationery."
  • Papyrus - a Paper, printing, and packaging company... Not to be confused with the American "Papyrus" stationery store with locations in the USA & Canada. 
    • Royal Warrant from Belgium 
Other Popular Stationary Companies:
  • Arjowiggins - Arjowiggins is a paper making company. We often see their paper used for Royal Stationary. 
    • Arjowiggins doesn't officially hold any royal warrants, but it is probably one of the more popular brands used by the European Royals. (I assume the lack of Royal Warrant is because they work more through distributors, instead of selling directly to the Royals.) Their Conqueror range of paper is particularly popular. 
      • Used by the UK, Belgium, Monaco, and Norway Royals. 

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