Bookmarks

A bookmark is the least complicated thing in this catalogue, which makes it the easiest one to do badly. Most are printed card that curls, or thin leather with a raw edge that sheds fibres onto the page.

Ours are cut from the same full-grain hides as the wallets, sanded and burnished along every edge and stitched where two layers meet. It costs more than card. It also outlives every book you put it in.

Thickness is the whole design problem. Too thin and the bookmark slides out in a bag. Too thick and it splays the spine of a paperback and leaves a permanent crease.

These are cut at a weight that grips between pages without pushing them apart, and they are long enough to stay put in a hardback while still showing above the top edge so you can find the page one handed.

One fair worry about leather in a book is transfer. Vegetable tanned leather that has been finished properly does not mark paper, and these are finished on both faces rather than only the side you see.

The one thing to avoid is leaving a conditioned bookmark pressed in a book for months. Cream and paper are a bad pairing. If you condition it, wipe it dry and give it a day before it goes back between pages.

Bookmarks are cut from the offcuts left over from bags and wallets, which is why the colour range shifts through the year rather than staying fixed.

It also means a bookmark bought alongside a wallet in the same shade will usually match closely, since both are likely to come from the same hide. If you want a set for gifts, ordering them together is the way to get them consistent.

A bookmark is the piece people buy when they want to give something made by hand without guessing a size or a taste. It works for a reader at any age and it does not need to match anything they already own.

Initials can be engraved on most of them. Paired with a book the recipient has been meaning to read, it is a better gift than its price suggests.

Will it fit a paperback? Yes, and a hardback, and a notebook. The width is cut to sit inside a standard page without overhanging the fore edge.

Does the leather smell? For the first week, yes, of leather rather than chemicals. It fades.

Can it be engraved? On most of them. Initials read better than a full name at this width.