Standard Source for Vintage Stationery Etiquette

July 14, 2021

Does anyone know of if there was ever a book in print that served as a kind of reference for stationery etiquette for letters, school reports, and correspondence? I am thinking of something that might describe both the paper dimensions, (maybe even weight), appearance, layout, and details of what should be written. Any thoughts on where to search?

July 14, 2021

Miss Manners has a lot to say about that sort of thing. You might try Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. It's a sort of entertaining mish-mash of advice letters and short essays, but I seem to recall that she talks about traditional approaches to stationery. (And silverware)

People use her name as a joke about needlessly rigid standards, but I should mention that Judith Martin is a witty, sly, clever woman, who writes delightful responses showing that an awareness of manners and etiquette is in no way incompatible with toughness, business professionalism, feminism, and all sorts of nice things.

July 14, 2021

This link should take you to google's "play store" for books, showing free books on letter-writing. Look for the ones that are just black text on a white page - those are the really old ones on the topic and more likely to match what you want. The ones with color are the ones that will convince you AI is not going to take over the world any time soon.

July 15, 2021

Letter writing was an integral part of a number of different disciplines in "vintage" times and considered important coursework not only for etiquette but also English and language studies within at least America and I believe the UK. If you pick up any classic writer's guide or rhetoric guide you are likely to find some information about letters, as well as if you pick up any of the classic tomes on etiquette, which wouldn't even be proper etiquette books without extensive detail about the appropriate letter writing forms. Most of these included information about the appropriate weight of paper, formatting, style, colors, inks, and so forth.

The discipline was so common at the time that I think it unlikely you'll find a specialized reference for the topic, since it was so ubiquitous, but if you do find one, please let me know, as I greatly enjoy such resources when I come across them.