It was the love and appreciation of fine design along with the opportunity to create and market well-made yet affordable products that lead Jonathan Newman and Steven Faulkner to found Boston International (BI) in 1986. In the beginning, BI was a boutique line with beautiful hand-made paper products from smaller suppliers in Italy, Spain, Germanyand the UK. Through the years the company developed and grew, in 1996 Boston International added Ideal Home Range (IHR) to their product mix and very shortly after that BI began its relationship with New York"s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Through the combination of these lines, BI"s core group of suppliersand BI"s development of proprietary lines and accessories, BI has created a major force in the gift industry today. Currently BI partners with suppliers and manufacturers from around the globe to bring their vision to the US market. BI now employs more than 50 people in rustic Holliston, Massachusetts, some 25 miles west of Boston. Boston International"s philosophy is the same now as it was back in 1986—combine the very best design with the highest quality materials and manufacturing, then add outstanding distribution and unmatched customer service. Currently over 19,000 customers in 11 countries are the beneficiaries of this philosophy.