Building the perfect stationery set can be a real challenge. To build the ideal collection, you want to find pieces that both reflect your personality and pull from a wealth of design sources. Fortunately FitzGerald Coleman has come to the rescue this holiday season, and done all of the work for you. Introducing curated desk sets, each three-tiered secretary box is expertly filled with elite paper goods from brands like Herman Yu, Pancake & Franks, Paper & Cup, Snow & Graham, TokyoMilk, and John Derian.

Choose your personality: the Romantic, Minimalist, Innovator, Traditionalist, Connoisseur, Humorist, or Modernist, and find a box packed to the brim with luxurious paper goods tailored directly toward your own style. If you love gorgeous die cuts and pop outs, go for the Innovator. If Victoriana is more your style, choose the Traditionalist. If you like to make people laugh, the Humorist is the box for you. In addition to standard stationery, you'll find wrapped cards for every holiday and occasion of the year, all on delicately printed handmade paper. Click through the images to see some of the intricate designs. The boxes are even topped off with a matching pen from Montreal company Pierre Belvédère.

At $145, including shipping, fine paper is the luxury that anyone can afford this holiday season. It's a perfect gift full of wonderful surprises for anyone on your list. Head to FitzGerald Coleman to find your own paper personality.

Last month we reported that stationer Mrs. John L. Strong, one of the world's leading boutique luxury brands whose customers included Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, Oprah Winfrey and the late Duke and Duchess of Windsor, was shutting down after 80 years. Many of them were caught out short when the New York-based firm abruptly ceased all its operations; as a result the costly handcrafted metal dies and engraving plates (above) used for luxurious engraved stationery which customers had stored at Strong's for decades may never be recoverable.

Another luxury stationer, Dempsey & Carroll, is coming to the rescue. It is actually a much older establishment than Strong's, founded in 1878 by engraver John Dempsey and businessman George D. Carroll in New York. The firm soon became a society staple, providing the best in engraved cards and writing paper to the city's Gilded Age elite, a tradition continued to this day. Through the end of the year D&C is extending a special offer of reduced cost for custom engraving to all former Mrs. John L. Strong clients placing new orders, and has set about recreating their precious stationery.

Dempsey & Carroll custom stationery is created using hand-engraved steel dies and copper plates made to specification. Words and images are cut into the metal in an incuse fashion, a method similar to that used in manufacturing coins that has changed little since the 16th century process of engraving ascended to an art form. D&C is one of only a handful of stationers still using these distinctive hand-engraving techniques to create beautiful luxury paper products with their own unique stamp of history and tradition.

Stationer Mrs. John L. Strong, one of the world's leading boutique luxury brands whose customers included Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, Oprah Winfrey and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, is shutting down after 80 years. The company has decided to close its Madison Avenue atelier, its boutiques, web site, catalog, wholesale and corporate businesses due to the recession, the Times reports.

Nannette Brown, the company's chief executive and creative director, said that an inability "to finance the business's expansion plans combined with a challenging retail and economic environment, left the company with no alternative but to close." Efforts to sell the company also failed. "This is a sad day for Mrs. John L. Strong," Brown said in a statement, "and a sad day for luxury as the world has become increasingly bereft of unique, hand-finished products." Indeed.

This era of email and texting is a tough time for the stationery business but those who seek a more elegant form of communication have a big name on their side, Martha Stewart. The Berkshire Eagle reports that just one week after Crane & Co. announced layoffs in its stationery division, it has forged a partnership with Martha Stewart Omnimedia. The new Martha Stewart Stationery Weddings Collection will be released this spring. The line will be sold through Crane stationers, online and through select retailers. It's a bit of a return to her roots for Stewart who was once featured in a Crane stationery advertising campaign during her modeling career and also perhaps a sign that Stewart is looking to steer her brand back into a more refined direction.

Smythson of Bond Street, suppliers of luxury stationery and leatherbound diaries to the Queen of England, is being put up for sale. According to the company however this is not a distress sale, rather the result of several parties having expressed interest in acquiring the business, the London Telegraph reports. Smythson was bought for £16 million in 2005 by a consortium led by Goldman Sachs banker Mike Sherwood. Sales have increased considerably since then and are expected to be around £20 million for the previous year-to-date. Nonetheless this seems like an odd time for any investor to pay a premium for a luxury goods company.

Founder Frank Smythson opened his first London shop in 1887. His trade card described his business as "First class stationery, leather goods and cabinet work." In addition to its UK shops Smythson now has stores on New York's 57th St. and Beverly Hills' famed Rodeo Drive. Smythson was granted a Royal Warrant to Her Majesty the Queen in 1964. Other warrants followed: HRH The Prince of Wales in 1980, HM The Queen Mother in 1987, and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in 2002. Back in September we reported on Smythson's luxurious $6,500 watch cabinet.

If you need to write a note to your media room or your library then you need the Jet Set Box from luxe stationery company, Mrs. John L. Strong. Their house crate has 14 writing tablets, each with a distinctive purpose, one for your jet, your wine cellar, your butler's pantry, your office, your library, your sitting room, your media room, your game room, bedroom, guest bedroom, guest cottage, sun room or pool house. The wooden crate sells for $350.

Feeling wicked? The stationer Mrs. John L. Strong has partnered up with the purveyor of goth luxury, Douglas Little to create the Seven Deadly Sins Collection. The collection includes seven candles, Anger, Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Sloth and Vanity along with seven hand-engraved cards. The set sells for $225.

Emails may do the trick for most things but for Valentine's Day you are going to need a card. We've swooned over the gorgeous stationery of Mrs. John L. Strong before. No drugstore cheapie card here, these cards have the weight and texture that denote their high quality. There is just a subtle appeal of fine paper as it slides under your fingertips. And paper like this is ideal for writing with a fountain pen, which has the bonus of putting you in that slightly nostalgic and old-fashioned mood which is perfect for committing flowery declarations of love to paper. The card shown here says Sugar or Spice? and then on the inside "both are nice. Happy Valentine's Day. It sells for $15. They have a variety of boutiques for your browsing pleasure. Choose you card then light a Diptyque Tubereuse candle, fill up your Montblanc, pour yourself a glass of a fine White Burgundy (no risking sense risking red wine spills when writing on white paper) and let the love flow.

In the era of email, text messages and cell phones, there are few things that are as meaningful as a hand-written letter. If you are one of the few people out there who refuses to give up on snail mail, you're also probably one of those people with a penchant for cool stationery.

IShould you fall into this aforementioned category, you must visit R. Nichols Stationery to check out the newest selection of distinctive paper. Nichols is a well-known illustrator who provided the leggy, glamorous drawings for the recent best-seller, French Women Don't Get Fat. Nichols'  hand-drawn cards and stationery are divided according to theme: babies, gardens, travel, New York, Paris, fashion, beauty. My favorite has to be the "Taxi in the Rain" card. For obvious reasons, this quirky card captures the romance and the drudgery of life in the Big Apple. A box of eight folded note cards with envelopes costs $14.