Paper mill founded in 1858 by Jean-Baptiste Bichelberger in Etival-Clairefontaine on the Meurthe river in the Vosges, on a site with papermaking history dating to a 1512-authorized mill. Clairefontaine added envelopes in 1880 and notebooks soon after, and still manufactures there today.
Best for Smooth fountain-pen-friendly school paper from the 1858 mill
Clairefontaine's paper mill was established in 1858 by Jean-Baptiste Bichelberger in Etival-Clairefontaine, in the Vosges department of northeastern France. The site had a much older papermaking lineage: in 1512, a mill was authorized on the nearby Valdange stream, producing handmade paper into the mid-19th century. Bichelberger's operation drew on rags supplied by the region's textile industry and grew quickly into one of the area's most significant factories. The company began manufacturing envelopes in 1880 and expanded into notebooks not long after, building the schoolbook and stationery lines prized among fountain-pen users. More than 165 years later, paper production continues on the same site.
Paris bookshop dating to 1708 near the Palais-Royal; relocated to 155 rue Saint-Honore in 1906 after a fire, owned by Gallimard since 1986. About 25,000 titles across literature, art and history in a 90 sqm space.
Best for Literature, art books, and gifts at a historic bookshop near the Palais
Librairie Delamain traces its origins to 1708, when it was established at the Palais-Royal by Andre Cailleau, making it one of the oldest bookshops in Paris still operating. A fire at the neighboring Comedie-Francaise theater forced a move in 1906 to its current address at 155 rue Saint-Honore. The shop has been owned by publishing house Gallimard since 1986. Within its compact 90-square-meter space, Delamain stocks roughly 25,000 titles spanning literature, art, history, science and the humanities. The shop has literary associations dating back generations: writers including Guy de Maupassant and Michel Foucault are recorded as having frequented it.
Hodges Figgis sells books from its Dawson Street premises in Dublin, with a dedicated Irish range. That range covers Irish fiction and history alongside poetry, travel writing and Irish-language books. The business traces its beginnings to 1768 on Skinner's Row, rather than to the current building.
Best for Irish writing and general books in Dublin
Karakter 1517 is an independent bookshop and café in a glass building behind Debrecen's Reformed Great Church, opened in 2015 above the surviving remains of the medieval András Church. It stocks Christian and independent titles, gifts and board games alongside coffee.
Best for Christian books, board games and coffee above medieval ruins
Kyūkyōdō began in Kyoto in 1663 and specialises in incense and Japanese paper goods. Its range includes writing paper and gift envelopes, alongside supplies for calligraphy. Seasonal paper designs offer a smaller purchase than a complete set of writing equipment.
Best for Incense and Japanese paper stationery
Kyūkyōdō dates to 1663 in Kyoto, where it opened as a pharmacy before turning to incense, brushes, and paper. Its imperial connection is specific and documented: in 1877 the chancellor Prince Sanetomi Sanjō passed the shop his family's incense-blend formulas, secret recipes reportedly kept for nine centuries and favored within the Imperial Household, and Kyūkyōdō has produced them since. From 1891 to 1945 the company held the position of official stationer to the Imperial House of Japan. When the capital moved to Tokyo, Kyūkyōdō followed, opening a Ginza branch around 1880 on a street that leads toward the Imperial Palace; the current flagship building dates to a 1924 renovation. Today the shop still trades in the same three categories it built its name on — incense sticks and raw aromatic wood, calligraphy brushes and ink, and washi stationery — serving both the ceremonial incense-appreciation crowd and anyone buying a box of good writing paper. Few Japanese incense houses can point to a specific, named imperial gift as the source of their formulas rather than a vaguer claim of court patronage; Kyūkyōdō's 1877 transfer from Prince Sanjō is the kind of detail that separates a provable court lineage from marketing.
Trading since 1698, when Johann Hibler founded the shop later renamed for Joseph Lentner, who took it over in 1784, this Munich bookstore was named a royal Bavarian court supplier in 1897 and today occupies the ground floor of the Neues Rathaus at Marienplatz, specializing in Bavarica, art and philosophy.
Best for A historic Munich bookshop and former royal purveyor since 1698
Lentner traces its trading history to 1698, when Johann Hibler opened a bookshop in Munich. Joseph Lentner took over the firm in 1784 and gave it the name it still carries. The business later passed to Ernst Siegfried Stahl, under whose ownership the shop received an appointment in 1897 as königlich-bayerischer Hoflieferant — royal Bavarian court supplier — periodically furnishing the Wittelsbach royal house with new reading material. That court connection makes Lentner one of the oldest continuously trading bookshops in what was the Kingdom of Bavaria, and it is documented as the oldest surviving bookstore in Old Bavaria. The shop today occupies historic rooms on the ground floor of Munich's Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) at Marienplatz 8, on Weinstraße. Its current stock is built around Bavarica — books on Munich and Bavarian history, culture and politics — alongside philosophy, art, theology, and facsimile reproductions of medieval illuminated manuscripts and rare book art, a specialty that connects it to the antiquarian side of its centuries-long trade.
love, Pittsburgh is a women-owned gift shop featuring over 100 local small businesses, with locations at 805 Liberty Ave downtown, 1728 Penn Ave in the Strip District, and 301 Shiloh Street in Mount Washington. The shop carries apparel, home goods, stationery and collectibles from Pittsburgh-area makers.
Pelican Bookstore has served the coastal community of Sunset Beach, North Carolina, for 27 years from its shop at 1780 Chandlers Lane, stocking new and used books, puzzles, and coastal-themed gifts. The store regularly hosts author signings and events, including several scheduled for summer 2026.
Best for New and used books, puzzles, coastal-themed gifts
Florentine stationer since 1774 — Napoleon and Byron ordered here; engraved paper and pens still do the talking. first shop was Piazza della Signoria (1774); left that square in 2011 for Piazza Rucellai, then moved to Lungarno Acciaiuoli in 2022.
Best for Engraved stationery and leather desk goods.
The Booksmith is a general-interest bookshop on Haight Street in San Francisco, serving neighbourhood readers as well as visitors. The store moved to 1727 Haight Street in 2021, continuing a bookselling history that began elsewhere on the street in 1976. Its author programme and broad selection give readers reasons to return beyond buying a particular new release.
Best for General-interest books and author events on Haight Street
The Booksmith combines bookselling with an active San Francisco events programme. Its catalogue includes printed books and audiobooks. Merchandise and services occupy separate parts of the business. Readings and author conversations give the calendar its own editorial role rather than treating events as incidental promotions. Staff recommendations add another layer of selection, and the shop accepts orders by email when a requested title is not already part of the immediate browse. Its distribution policy is unusually explicit. The Booksmith currently excludes consignment titles. It considers books available through standard returnable channels such as Ingram. Authors and publicists use a separate proposal route for events, keeping programming distinct from ordinary customer orders. These systems show how the merchant works behind the shelves. Catalogue, recommendation and public conversation are related but separately managed activities. The Booksmith's identity therefore comes from the combination of a general bookshop, a documented ordering practice and a literary programme that regularly brings writers into direct conversation with San Francisco readers.
The Botanics Shop is the online store for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, selling garden tools, seeds and bulbs, botanical books, stationery, and archive art prints drawn from the garden's collection dating to 1670. Proceeds from every purchase support RBGE's conservation, research, and education work.
Open since 2017 at 1524 North Harrison Street in Davenport, The Brewed Book pairs a used bookstore with a coffee and Italian-soda bar. It hosts weekly role-playing game nights on Thursdays and console game nights on Fridays.
Best for Coffee, used books and tabletop gaming nights since 2017
The Brewed Book is a father-and-son business: Tony Fuhs and his son Trevor bought a vacant building at 1524 North Harrison Street in Davenport's Hilltop Campus Village and spent nearly two years and a considerable amount of their own money bringing it back to life before opening in 2017. The idea, Trevor's originally, was to combine three things in one space rather than choosing between them — a coffee shop, a used bookstore and a spot for tabletop gaming — because the neighborhood didn't have anywhere that functioned as a hangout. That combination still defines the place: an espresso and Italian-soda bar sits alongside shelves of used and new books, with regular role-playing game nights on Thursdays and console game nights on Fridays filling the space after hours. The Fuhs family has also made a point of supporting Quad Cities authors directly — buying local writers' books for the shelves, giving them physical display space, and hosting reading events rather than treating the bookstore side as just inventory to sell through. It's a small, deliberately mixed-use model built by two people fixing up one empty storefront rather than a chain concept dropped into a college neighborhood.
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