Review: @BureauDirect Vintage Stationery Gift Bundle

This is Bureau Direct's Vintage Stationery Gift Bundle, which contains a Clairefontaine 1951 Le Carnet Vintage Staplebound  Notebook, a J. Herbin refillable rollerball pen, and a tin of J. Herbin ink cartridges in Vert Pré.

ABOUT

Price: £8.35
Where to buy: Bureau Direct

There are two (very ridiculous) things that appealed to me most about this bundle. Please don't laugh while I share these things with you. One: I don't have any J. Herbin ink cartridge tins. They are utterly adorable and I had to have one. Second: I love that these bundles have been put together to colour match the notebooks to the ink tins. Très cool. If you don't like this olive colour bundle, you can pick from five others!

Clairefontaine 1951 Vintage Notebook

Size: 9 x 14 cm
Sheet Count: 48
Ruling: Lined
Weight: 90 g

The Clairefontaine 1951 vintage notebook is a cute, portable notebook.I mean really cute. I was baffled when I saw it in the packaging. I didn't even know they came in this size. So it's adorable. It's a pocket-sized notebook, just like a Field Notes, but it has fountain pen friendly paper. Did I mention it's adorable?

The cover is thicker than the paper inside, with rounded corners and is cut flush with the paper. The cover is lime-ish green with the criss-cross pattern in cream. There is also a cream patch on the front for your name or subject of the book, whatever floats your boat.

The paper is bright white with faint violet lines. It's very smooth, coated, and glossy. It handles fountain pen ink like a pro - no feathering, minimal show through, and very rarely is there bleed through. Most important to me is that there is no feathering though. Lines are always crisp and precise. Even better is if you're using an ink that has a sheen, this paper will really show it off because the ink can pool and it looks delicious.

Fits into a pocket, though it's a little thick because the paper is heavier than your average pocket notebook (i.e Field Notes).

You can use pencil, ballpoint pens, gel pens, and rollerballs and all that... but why would you want to? Unless it's a J. Herbin refillable rollerball. Because then you still get to use fountain pen ink.

J. Herbin Refillable Rollerball & J. Herbin Vert Pré Ink Cartridges

Popped in an ink cartridge. Flicked the pen to saturate the feed. I didn't flush it. Scribbled a bit to get the ink flowing. Excellent flow. No skipping whatsoever. Smooth, reliable, consistent. Kept up really well as I scribbled, the ink flow didn't sputter out. I was really pleased to see this. If you use an ink that leans to the dry side, you are more likely to encounter skipping, but the J. Herbin Vert Pré flowed effortlessly.

The rollerball itself is very comfortable to use - a simple lightweight plastic body that is a bit small unposted but perfect when posted. I really, really like it, which kind of surprises me because I'm a bit fountain pen crazy, and rather loyal to my fountain pens.

OVERALL

This is an adorable bundle: perfect goodies for someone who isn't quite ready to venture into actual fountain pens (picking nib widths, tweaking them, all that jazz). It's also very useful if you do like fountain pens (because then you have ink that you can refill cartridges with), as having a rollerball is sometimes handy. Sometimes you just can't use a fountain pen. I KNOW. IT'S INSANE. The Clairefontaine 1951 Le Carnet notebook is solid, a great performer, and it won't disappoint. Plus it's cute. The J. Herbin rollerball works really well, is easy to use (just pop in a cartridge and go), and you can pick from several ink cartridge colours.