All this remains good advice for buying stationery. Fancy faces and fancy colors and other whimsical attempts at individuality may provoke the sort of gently reproving look Bertolaccini gave my new infatuation, not to mention your own eventual disenchantment. You can loosen your color restraints when picking an envelope lining. Unless you're as sure as my sister is of remaining at one address, you might stick to your name only, which will reduce the cost. Be sure you know where the die will be stored and for how long.
Aristocratic status is just a mouse click and a bank transfer away.
Even though the company had already changed hands several times since it went out of the Pineider family, in 1989, Bertolaccini told me he was confident about its future. Engraved stationery is still a rite of passage open to all. I thought of my pleasure when I opened my first box of Pineider cards, each bundle of twenty-five wrapped by hand in tissue paper, and how much a part of me those gray letters now seem. I thought of my sister's joy at opening our gift to her family. Illustrations by Elvis Swift.