Business Card Holder

The slot is sawn through both ends in one pass, set off centre toward the back, so the cards lean back a little and show their faces. A wider slot would let them slump; a narrower one would hold only a few. The stone is a dark purple-brown with fine pale veins, honed, and its grain runs along the length of the block so the slot cuts across it, like a saw cut across a log.

It sits on a desk, by the door of a study or at the edge of a reception counter, and it is the first object a visitor touches. The stone is cool and the edges are eased by no more than a millimetre, so the hand meets a solid, quiet thing, and the block weighs enough that a card can be pulled out with one hand while the stone stays put.

The slot's depth and its distance from the back edge are the only dimensions that matter, because they set how far the cards lean: deep enough to hold a card at the bottom and let the top show, far enough back that the block has a front and the cards lean into the deeper half. The holder is under an inch high, and the slot takes nearly half of it.