It is here – finally! The lovely Paul Dolk was a rock through the long long process of sending it to someone abroad and then it being lost by the Swedish postal service. He, thanks to brilliant detective work, managed to use the Dutch postal system to track it down, when the Swedish system couldn’t find it. I should also give a huge thank you to the staff of small shop which acts as my local Swedish postal agency – they were going to take the whole day tomorrow when it is quiet and sort through every single one of the parcels in their depot to find it.
I have just collected it and now, after almost a month, am able to review it for my readers. I had never seen a Van Der Spek in real life – only in photographs. This one was custom made for a company in Rotterdam and is in smooth, brown, glossy leather. It is very soft to the touch. Inside there are 12 credit card pockets in the front and a full length zippered pocket as well as a full length slip pocket in the back. The refills are from 1995 and look to be Succes. They have a VERY nice layout. Not sure if this layout is still available. The tabs are also really nice. In the pocket are tab reinforcers.
This organiser is from the 1990s but it is absolutely brand new and the leather and hardware look like they were made today. It still has that lovely strong leather smell and has probably never been out of the box.
I had 
Thank you Paul – so much for the wonderful experience that was this transaction. It has been a privilege to have met you and gotten to know you. Thank you also to Anamarija for finding this binder for me.
Is this leather similar to colour 184 or closer to 182 on the VDS colour selector page? Thanks
I believe it is closer to 184. My colour is Cognac but the one they have now is called Brandy I think. So if you ask Petra for that one, it is the closest you will find to mine. And it is an absolutely stunning leather.
Those are fabulous inserts – if you find out they are still available, I hope you’ll post. I’ve tried to navigate the Succes site and not had much success figuring out how to buy anything.
I found some which look to be almost identical here http://www.succesagenda.com/Succes_Vullingen_Accessoires/succes-a5-vullingen-accessoires/A5-Executive-Agendavullingen-2014/Succes-Vulling-A5-2013-Dag
Have not figured if they ship to my end of the world though but I will keep you posted!
This might just turn me into an A5 user…. Possibly the perfect dayplanning page! I would fly to the Netherlands to get it, if necessary!
They still have that leather – just sayin’ 🙂
What an absolutely beautiful agenda! Wishful thinking!
This is the most appealing A5 organizer I’ve ever laid eyes on. Do the current ones look like this? Wow! And golden rings are my favorite. I wish they were more commonly available. Thank you, Janet, for letting us all live vicariously through your sharing of these treasures!
My pleasure! I have asked Petra Van Der Spek if they still do this leather. The styles are similar I think. Are you in the Van Der Spek Group on Facebook? If not, I will add you.
Janet,
I actually dropped out of the Van Der Spek group in a general rationalizing of my group memberships; Facebook was becoming too much of a time-hog and I needed to establish some control! But I am truly intrigued by these binders and keep visiting the website. Will ask to join the group if I change my mind. Many thanks!
Oh okay thank you! I will remove you as I added you again. I understand totally as it happens to me as well. That is why having a little community forming around my blog is such a pleasure for me. I adore having you as a regular commenter!
Thank you! I have looked in on your blog several times in the past but for some reason it never got onto my short list of regular reads; I’m really enjoying your work and have been reading back the older posts which I missed.