120 x 165 mm 

Journal with lined pages, 240 sides of 110 gsm smooth ivory paper. (Olive spine)

Covers are a  layered hand decorated paper made using a technique inspired by découpage, on a base of vintage printed paper from A Pictorial Tour of the World, published in 1890. The paper was and created by Magalie Briand, of Brilliant Magpie Bookbinding. 

Note that the book will be similar to the one shown, but may not be exactly the same, as the pages of decoupage are all one-off and slightly different. 

Commonplace Books are a very purposeful way of using a journal, or giving one as a gift. They have been used since the Fifteenth Century, the idea being to record passages of text, poems, quotations, recipes, reading lists, drawings, sayings, family turns of phrase, calligraphy, aspirations  - any words of perceived wisdom or personal significance -  all making up a memoir of the author’s interests over a number of years. All sorts of famous people have kept Commonplace Books including John Milton, Napoleon Bonaparte, Lewis Carroll and Virginia Woolf.  A brief note about the history and use of Commonplace Books is enclosed with the book.