Our New Graduated Stacking Tray Designs

A set of octagonal stacking trays made with one of our beautiful new Japanese papers. In the top tray you can see my very favorite antique netsuke and a stack of our fun new miniature desk blotter business cards. Custom made to order trays are available at
The Parvum Opus Shop.

I adore exploring antique shops both close to home and when I travel, and among my favorite finds are small trays. The best ones have beautiful scale and personality, and are always the perfect thing to finish off a desk or table corner. I've designed our new range of trays with my charming antiques in mind, paying extra attention to proportion and scale. 

A set of rectangular trays in graduated sizes. This set was made with our second new paper, a beautiful Japanese Chiyogami paper with a shagreen-like pattern of
gold dots on a rich green ground.

Our new trays are available in rectangular and octagonal formats, in graduating sizes, with or without brass ball feet, and it's been great fun to design these latest additions to our collection. At the bindery, we're known for our meticulous craftsmanship, and it's been particularly enjoyable (I hope it's not too nerdy to say) to design a set of proprietary techniques to ensure that the corners on our octagonal trays are as sharp and crisp as those in our other trays and boxes.

The octagonal trays, with the larger one reversed. I fell in love with this pattern as soon as I saw it. It's a hand silk-screened Chiyogami paper, still made in small batches in the traditional Japanese way, and reminds me of the intricate silk patterns found in kimono fabrics.

The introduction of our new trays coincides with the addition of two new papers for our palette. We stock eighteen papers, which we invite you to see on our website's palette pages. Beyond these, we work with hundreds of fine papers from around the world via special order on behalf of our clients, and it's hard not to fall in love with each one. The Japanese Chiyogami papers in particular come in more than a thousand patterns, each one special in its own way. It was a challenge to settle on our two new patterns, but I think you'll agree that both the interlocking circle design and shagreen-like dotted green design are especially beautiful. 

This is the smaller of our rectangular trays, shown with one of my tiniest antique books, one of our small jacketed Moleskine journals, and an antique English salt cellar, pressed into service as a paper clip container.

I do hope you've enjoyed seeing our new arrivals, just in time for the spring. If you'd like to collaborate on your own perfectly scaled and patterned trays, or if you have a special project in mind, we are cheerfully at your service.