Excuse me, might I use your...

It should come as no surprise that I find many actual bookmarks tucked beneath the pages of books both old and new, but I rarely come across one that I find as great as this one from Mabie Todd & Co.

It's advertising pens & ink (I love those!), it's from Rayleigh (Essex), and it's a bookmark. Fall in love yet? Hey, me too! If I've learned anything from music & books, it's that having anything to do England is instantly cool. I mean, I'm genuinely fascinated by artifacts from all over the world, but if you brought a rock into the bookstore and swore to me that it was lifted from the cobblestone streets of London, I would be in awe of it. Go ahead. Try it. Tell me that it was blessed by a mermaid and actually unlocks an ancient door to a parallel universe where inanimate objects are, well, animate. I'll believe you. You said 'London.' I'm already putty in your hands.

My lust for travel aside, the bookmark is a great find. Even if it wasn't vintage, it's got that instant 'vintage' look to it that makes you want to show it off. "Look at me, World, I'm reading Anna Karenina on a plane! And when I want to pause for a moment and 'reflect,' I'll mark my page with a bookmark of antiquity. One that says, 'I care about the printed word!'"

As if reading on a plane/in public isn't pretentious enough.

Unless, of course, you're traveling to England.