"Papier Chine", made from bamboo bark and manufactured in the open air, giving it a gray hue, is generally considered the most luxurious of the special papers used for limited issues (grands papiers). It is exclusively used for first editions, sometimes limited to one or two copies. While it is a paper of unrivalled finesse and suppleness, its texture is also very fragile, not easy to leaf through and, above all, prone to foxing. However its unique quality has always granted it exceptional status, as Anatole France wrote in Le livre du bibliophile: 

 

“The papier de Chine deserves a special mention - its use needs to be specified. We are refering to true Chine, light as cork, very thin and very spongy at the same time, and as soft and shiny as a silk scarf. For all its qualities, papier de Chine, too inconsistent, owes its reputation not to its own beauty, but to its particular affinity with printing ink. Its texture, both smooth and soft, is better suited than any other to a fine print. This unique feature makes papier de Chine especially sought-after for the printing of engravings... The print comes out with incomparable sharpness. Books printed in small-format texts particularly benefit from being printed on papier de Chine.”