diff --git a/entity.go b/entity.go
index e2bd80c4..a4cad9d2 100644
--- a/entity.go
+++ b/entity.go
@@ -16,6 +16,10 @@ type Entity struct {
 
 	mediaType   string
 	mediaParams map[string]string
+
+	originalBody io.Reader
+	encoding     string
+	charset      string
 }
 
 // New makes a new message with the provided header and body. The entity's
@@ -25,8 +29,10 @@ type Entity struct {
 // error that verifies IsUnknownCharset, but also returns an Entity that can
 // be read.
 func New(header Header, body io.Reader) (*Entity, error) {
-	var err error
+	originalBody := body
+	var encoding, charset string
 
+	var err error
 	mediaType, mediaParams, _ := header.ContentType()
 
 	// QUIRK: RFC 2045 section 6.4 specifies that multipart messages can't have
@@ -35,8 +41,8 @@ func New(header Header, body io.Reader) (*Entity, error) {
 	// e.g. "quoted-printable". So we just ignore it for multipart.
 	// See https://github.com/emersion/go-message/issues/48
 	if !strings.HasPrefix(mediaType, "multipart/") {
-		enc := header.Get("Content-Transfer-Encoding")
-		if decoded, encErr := encodingReader(enc, body); encErr != nil {
+		encoding = header.Get("Content-Transfer-Encoding")
+		if decoded, encErr := encodingReader(encoding, body); encErr != nil {
 			err = unknownEncodingError{encErr}
 		} else {
 			body = decoded
@@ -45,8 +51,9 @@ func New(header Header, body io.Reader) (*Entity, error) {
 
 	// RFC 2046 section 4.1.2: charset only applies to text/*
 	if strings.HasPrefix(mediaType, "text/") {
-		if ch, ok := mediaParams["charset"]; ok {
-			if converted, charsetErr := charsetReader(ch, body); charsetErr != nil {
+		var ok bool
+		if charset, ok = mediaParams["charset"]; ok {
+			if converted, charsetErr := charsetReader(charset, body); charsetErr != nil {
 				err = unknownCharsetError{charsetErr}
 			} else {
 				body = converted
@@ -55,10 +62,13 @@ func New(header Header, body io.Reader) (*Entity, error) {
 	}
 
 	return &Entity{
-		Header:      header,
-		Body:        body,
-		mediaType:   mediaType,
-		mediaParams: mediaParams,
+		Header:       header,
+		Body:         body,
+		mediaType:    mediaType,
+		mediaParams:  mediaParams,
+		originalBody: originalBody,
+		encoding:     encoding,
+		charset:      charset,
 	}, err
 }
 
@@ -111,6 +121,8 @@ func (e *Entity) writeBodyTo(w *Writer) error {
 	var err error
 	if mb, ok := e.Body.(*multipartBody); ok {
 		err = mb.writeBodyTo(w)
+	} else if w.encoding == e.encoding && w.charset == e.charset {
+		_, err = io.Copy(w.rawWriter, e.originalBody)
 	} else {
 		_, err = io.Copy(w, e.Body)
 	}
diff --git a/entity_test.go b/entity_test.go
index 775b61ce..b0d8c9cf 100644
--- a/entity_test.go
+++ b/entity_test.go
@@ -150,6 +150,24 @@ func TestRead_single(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestEntity_WriteTo_original(t *testing.T) {
+	e := testMakeEntity()
+
+	var b bytes.Buffer
+	if err := e.WriteTo(&b); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal("Expected no error while writing entity, got", err)
+	}
+
+	expected := "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n" +
+		"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII\r\n" +
+		"\r\n" +
+		"Y2Mgc2F2YQ=="
+
+	if s := b.String(); s != expected {
+		t.Errorf("Expected written entity to be:\n%s\nbut got:\n%s", expected, s)
+	}
+}
+
 func TestEntity_WriteTo_decode(t *testing.T) {
 	e := testMakeEntity()
 
diff --git a/writer.go b/writer.go
index 21c3cd3d..3f377915 100644
--- a/writer.go
+++ b/writer.go
@@ -21,12 +21,16 @@ type Writer struct {
 	w  io.Writer
 	c  io.Closer
 	mw *textproto.MultipartWriter
+
+	rawWriter io.Writer
+	encoding  string
+	charset   string
 }
 
 // createWriter creates a new Writer writing to w with the provided header.
 // Nothing is written to w when it is called. header is modified in-place.
 func createWriter(w io.Writer, header *Header) (*Writer, error) {
-	ww := &Writer{w: w}
+	ww := &Writer{w: w, rawWriter: w}
 
 	mediaType, mediaParams, _ := header.ContentType()
 	if strings.HasPrefix(mediaType, "multipart/") {
@@ -46,7 +50,8 @@ func createWriter(w io.Writer, header *Header) (*Writer, error) {
 
 		header.Del("Content-Transfer-Encoding")
 	} else {
-		wc, err := encodingWriter(header.Get("Content-Transfer-Encoding"), ww.w)
+		ww.encoding = header.Get("Content-Transfer-Encoding")
+		wc, err := encodingWriter(ww.encoding, ww.w)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
@@ -54,12 +59,13 @@ func createWriter(w io.Writer, header *Header) (*Writer, error) {
 		ww.c = wc
 	}
 
-	switch strings.ToLower(mediaParams["charset"]) {
+	ww.charset = mediaParams["charset"]
+	switch strings.ToLower(ww.charset) {
 	case "", "us-ascii", "utf-8":
 		// This is OK
 	default:
 		// Anything else is invalid
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unhandled charset %q", mediaParams["charset"])
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unhandled charset %q", ww.charset)
 	}
 
 	return ww, nil