While searching for what high society calls “social stationery”, I stumbled upon a lovely Atlantic essay on engraved writing paper. Corby Kummer, a food and travel writer, expounds on the distinctly personal touch of acquiring and using stationery designed and engraved just for you. He returns to the Italian stationer where he ordered his block capitals in gray ink twenty years earlier. He also visits Crane’s in Massachusetts where he had ordered stationery for his sister’s new home. He learns that the art of hand-etching engraved dies is fading away as computers and machines have taken over to precisely duplicate the classic fonts. But the process of creating each die still involves much human intervention, with the designs carefully tweaked to perfection before they go to the machines and flaws fixed by hand afterwards. Thermography has taken the place of engraving in most cases now; it is much cheaper. But many discriminating buyers still request engraved papers. It has a definitive look and texture that can not be replaced.