Paper Samples ☜

Here are several highlights from my small (but growing) collection of vintage paper-company samples. Produced primarily for the offset printing and design trades, these promos were designed to showcase new paper lines and were rarely made available to the public. Most appear as booklets, though they sometimes take the form of posters, calendars, or even elaborate boxed sets. Created to demonstrate a paper’s range of colors, textures, and weights, they’re almost always beautifully designed and frequently feature inventive die-cuts, folds, embossing, specialty inks, tipped-in elements, and other fancy embellishments.

If you have interesting paper samples from the 1950s–80s you’d like to donate, sell, or trade, please get in touch. I’m especially interested in items from Strathmore, Hammermill, Linweave, Mohawk, and Springhill (to name just a few).