Clairefontaine Mill in Vosges, France

Clairefontaine Mill
Vosges Region, France – Founded 1858

Located in the Vosges in eastern France, the heart of a region with a longstanding paper-making tradition, Clairefontaine was established on the site of a paper mill built in 1512. The Clairefontaine mill has been making paper since 1858 and stationery products since 1890. The company is best known for making the first school notebooks in France.

Clairefontaine is currently the only European manufacturer making paper for its own products The River Meurthe is the source of water supply for the mill. The water is so clean when it leaves the facility, local people can fish, swim and boat downstream within sight of the mill.

Schut Mill

Schut Mill
Veluwe Region, Netherlands – Founded 1618

Founded in 1618, the “De Veentjes” paper mill was located in the Veluwe region of the Netherlands. The rapid currents of the Heelsum brook were used to run the mill. In 1710 the Schut family bought the mill and continued to make quality papers for almost three hundred years.

In 1998, the Schut mill was acquired by Papeteries de Clairefontaine. Papierfabriek Schut currently produces stationery, fine art paper and non-banknote security papers on a hybrid machine, which can produce both mould made and fourdrinier. It produces writing papers for G. Lalo, and fine art paper for Clairefontaine.

Though the machinery is modern, the mill still radiates a traditional atmosphere and applies the same degree of skill and care to every sheet of paper as it did in historic times. The mill still uses pure local water from the nearby Heelsum brook for a fine, acid-free paper, while rag content is supplied by the best cotton linters for a perfect finish.