Here’s another trip down memory lane with a Filofax from my collection of refillable notebooks. This Filofax must have been bought before the two Pocket Chelsea models I wrote about recently. At first, I thought it might be more recent, because it is in such good condition, but it only has 4 rings, a configuration that Filofax phased out. It is stamped “Made in England,” but no model name is identified. (Shown below with a pocket Moleskine for size comparison.)

I really loved this Filofax, and I think I used it quite a lot for several years though it’s still in excellent shape and looks almost new. It’s made of a sturdy, smooth leather, which doesn’t feel especially soft or luxurious but I prefer its slightly stiffer structure to the floppiness of my Guildford Extra slim. It also still has a wonderful leather smell. I love the minimal, straightforward interior pockets. The interior has a fabric lining to it, like my older kid leather Filofax— I think it looks nice, but I wonder why they sometimes show more of the fabric and sometimes less. On the Pocket Chelseas, there is fabric inside the pockets but it’s not visible around the rings.

With no snap closure or pen loop, the overall shape is close to perfect, but it is a teeny bit too square and wide for me. The problem is that it has larger rings, which are great in terms of being able to fit more pages in, but they force the whole notebook to be a bit wider because the paper sits further from the spine, even if you don’t use tabbed dividers. My Pocket Chelsea with the larger rings is about the same width, but it’s slightly taller, and I think because the leather is softer and more broken in, the edges have bent a bit, making it feel a little narrower even though it really isn’t. What would really be great, maybe even “perfect,” would be a version of this notebook with small rings and the extra slim dimensions of the Guildford. Sigh.

I primarily used this as a straight-up notebook, I think– or at least, that is how I used it most recently, perhaps while using one of my other Filofaxes as more of a wallet and planner. This one is loaded mostly with unlined paper, though there are a few pages of lined paper and telephone number sheets at the end, as well as a pad of sticky notes.

There were some fun jottings and sketches, particularly some notes on a trip to Coney Island– phrases from a sign promoting a sideshow act called Tiny Tasha (“$10,000 reward if not alive!”), and an overheard conversation between a rather mis-matched couple. At least one note in this Filofax was a transcription of a voicemail that I remember receiving on 9/12/01, so I must have been using the notebook in the late 1990s and into the very early 2000s.

So the mystery was why this Filofax has no name. And when exactly did I buy it? My earlier kid leather Filofax didn’t have a name either, but it had three letters stamped inside a pocket, which would have been some indication of its model. I was curious as to when Filofax started naming the models, so I took a deep dive into the archive of old Filofax catalogs at Philofaxy— an incredible resource! It was fascinating to research the history of the pocket Filofax.

At first, I didn’t think I was seeing anything like this model, but after scouring many catalogs, I think I identified it! It actually does have a name: the Lincoln. Everything about the Pocket Lincoln matches, except that I could never find a listing for a “slim” version without the fastener. However, it seems they would sometimes offer variations in different markets, so it’s possible this slim pocket Lincoln was only sold in the US, so wasn’t shown in the UK catalogs. The Lincoln was only listed in UK catalogs in 1992 (as “new”) and 1993. 1994 was when Filofax switched all their pocket models to having 6 rings, so 1992-1993 is the likely time-frame for this model, though I could have bought it from stock that remained in a store at a later date. I’m not sure how rare these “slim” Lincolns are, but I saw some listed on eBay for a great price back in 2019… the kind of new old stock sale that haunts my dreams!

I have a vague memory that I might have had a second one of these that was in a bag I had stolen on a trip to France in 2000… I didn’t keep a very detailed diary back then, and I suppose if I had, it might have been in that stolen Filofax anyway! I guess at this point I’ll never know, but I’m glad I have this pocket Lincoln in my collection, as it’s a lovely example of Filofax’s made-in-England quality from back in the day.