The Scriptum Blog / Scriptum

If you have ever payed our Turl Street shop a visit, you will likely be more than aware of our affinity for opera. Come rain or shine, morning, noon, or night, a sparkling aria is never far away on our shop playlist! In honour of our new Opera Librettos Journal, I felt it would be opportune to talk to our resident opera aficionados, Azeem and Kirsty, about their (current) favourite arias. Lo facciamo?

We hardly need to be reminded how much pleasure can be obtained from writing with a fountain pen, but nonetheless we’re very happy to read of their recent resurgence.

The BBC reports that many fountain pen stockists have seen sales increase this year - some up to double 2011’s figures for the same period. But this “is not part of a wider handwriting boom” - sales of ballpoint pens have remained stable. The fountain pen seems to hold a special place in our hearts, not simply for providing a superior writing experience to the ballpoint, but also because of its connection with tradition and its status as a beautiful object in its own right.

Stephen Bayley, writing in the Telegraph, thinks there’s “something touchingly humane about this resurgence. Given the choice, we prefer warm, wet smudginess to glacial perfection.” 

In fact, the Telegraph has recently received a deluge of letters on the joys of fountain pens - providing even more reassurance that they’re here to stay (although some correspondents apparently still prefer to write with quills!).

And whilst every fountain pen devotee has his or her own brand of choice, at Scriptum we’d have to side with author Neil Gaiman, who tells the BBC that his current favourite is a Visconti.

 We’ve been selling their products in our shop on The Turl for a little while and now we’re very pleased to be introducing a wide selection of Bomo Art stationery to our website.

Bomo Art are based in Budapest, where they design and make all their beautiful items - from the conception of their unique printed papers, to the handbinding of their journals.

A couple of weeks ago, in the midst of a Hungarian heatwave, we were lucky enough to have lunch with the business's founder at a leafy Budapest cafe and discover for ourselves the passion and workmanship that goes into everything the company produces. Bomo Art say they aim to entice us to write… with stationery this wonderful, how could one resist?

There are cards, photograph albums, address books, boxfiles and a handful of different journals to choose from. To see everything click here.

Scriptum had a mention in Monday's Telegraph! Tim Walker very kindly describes us as one of the most gloriously idiosyncratic shops in the land.