Benneton

By the early 19th century, the emergence of a Bourgeois class, a taste for fine craftsmanship and an intense social life created the need for "Job Printing," i.e., paper products (personal announcements, calling cards, greeting cards, stationery products, etc) so necessary to high society. They were made from hand engraved tools and dies by master artisans. In 1880, Emile Benneton, a French carver and engraver set up shop in Paris and founded the Benneton House in the Madeleine church quarter. Benneton's taste for beautiful thing and his love of delicate workmanship made him a success, and soon he was supplying products by appointment to the courts of many European countries. The intellectual and artistic elite were frequent visitors to the House on Boulevard Malesherbes. Since then, the company, which has always remained in Benneton family hands. It has been able to preserve its heritage of savoir-faire and still supplies a discerning and elegant clientele the world over with the same carefully crafted engravings, with the same taste in the choice of colors and papers, and always, the same quest for elegance and detail.