Welcome to Heritage Standard

A newsletter documenting the erosion of European local traditions and teaching you to develop real aesthetic judgement.

We’re losing more than craftsmanship. We’re losing entire ways of life.

Dutch cheesemaking guilds that defined regional identity. Austrian tailoring houses passed through five generations. Stone masons who knew how limestone weathers differently in Burgundy versus Bavaria.

These weren’t hobbies or luxury goods. They were how communities built meaning, beauty, and order into daily life.

Most are gone. What’s left marketed as ‘tradition’ is usually commercial imitation.

This newsletter exists to show you the difference.

Not through cultural criticism alone, but through concrete examination: What did we actually lose? What survives? How do you tell real from fake when both claim authenticity?

And more importantly: how do you develop the taste to recognise quality yourself?

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Weekly Essays: Deep dives into specific European traditions. Their history, their decline, and whether anything legitimate remains. From Norman architecture to Lombardy cheese caves to Viennese bootmakers.

• Taste Development: Learn to evaluate materials, construction, and provenance. Training your eye to spot the difference between real craft and commercial imitation.

• Craft Archaeology: How authentic trades became commercialised products. The moment guilds became brands. When techniques became marketing copy.

This isn’t about nostalgia for a lost golden age. It’s about understanding what European regions actually created, why it mattered, and training yourself to recognise quality in what remains.

If you care about place, craft, and developing genuine taste…