I recently bought a notebook in a museum shop in NYC. I almost didn’t buy it at first, for the usual reasons– it’s a little expensive, it’s not 100% perfect for me, I have too many notebooks, etc. etc. But something kept me lingering in the store thinking about it and the friends I was with kept saying “oh, just buy it already!” So finally, I caved, and ended up being very happy that I did!

I’m not ready yet to do a full review on this notebook, so in the meantime, I thought it would be fun to try something a little different. I’ll tell you some key things about the notebook, and you’ll see if you can guess what brand it is!

It has a clothbound hard cover, in a light blue color. The corners are rounded.

It is 3.5 x 5.5″ and about 5/8″ thick.

There is no ribbon marker, elastic closure, or back pocket.

It has a bit of cover overhang– more than I prefer (because I prefer the page edges to come as close as possible to the cover edges) but not the worst I’ve seen. The overhang seems bigger on the edge where the book opens because the spine is rounded and the page edges are concave following the spine curve, rather than trimmed to a straight edge. There are 12 sewn signatures, and the notebook opens quite flat.

The only branding on the notebook is a debossed logo on the inside back cover. As packaged in the store, it is shrinkwrapped, with some brand info on a vellum band, and a small brochure tucked inside.

The version I bought has 192 pages of a 90 GSM cream-colored dot-grid paper with a slight tooth to it, which does not bleed or feather with fountain pens. Up close, the paper has visible laid lines, giving it an almost ribbed texture. Fountain pen ink looks great on this paper, though the tooth gives some feedback and can make fine nibs feel a little scratchy compared to writing on something super smooth.

The notebook is said to be handmade made in Europe. (If everyone’s stumped, maybe I’ll tell you which country to narrow it down a bit.)

I have not seen the exact version I bought for sale anywhere except for a couple of online retailers (where it was misleadingly described as having a “flex” or softcover.) I have seen a slightly shorter and thicker 3.5 x 5″, 240p version for sale in at least one other physical store in NYC, with lined and plain pages. Several cover colors were available. A larger A5 size was also available, and is currently listed on Amazon. The 3.5 x 5″ version is what is shown on the manufacturer’s website, though the images seem to show it with squared corners.

I have one other notebook from this brand in my collection. I bought it on a trip.

I really love the one I bought– the size is perfect, the quality is great and the simplicity of it is very alluring. It’s not my perfect grail notebook but I can’t help playing with it a lot and doodling in it with fountain pens.

Can anyone guess what brand this notebook is?

[Updated: see this post for the answer!]