diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index e3e5806f..833a4552 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+### Version 5.4.0
+* Add `BasicAuthRequestInterceptor`
+
 ### Version 5.3.0
 * Split `GsonCodec` into `GsonEncoder` and `GsonDecoder`, which are easy to use with `Feign.Builder`
 * Deprecate `GsonCodec`
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 622d4581..1d43eacd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ For further flexibility, you can use Dagger modules directly.  See the `Dagger`
 When you need to change all requests, regardless of their target, you'll want to configure a `RequestInterceptor`.
 For example, if you are acting as an intermediary, you might want to propagate the `X-Forwarded-For` header.
 
-```
+```java
 static class ForwardedForInterceptor implements RequestInterceptor {
   @Override public void apply(RequestTemplate template) {
     template.header("X-Forwarded-For", "origin.host.com");
@@ -66,6 +66,12 @@ static class ForwardedForInterceptor implements RequestInterceptor {
 Bank bank = Feign.builder().decoder(accountDecoder).requestInterceptor(new ForwardedForInterceptor()).target(Bank.class, "https://api.examplebank.com");
 ```
 
+Another common example of an interceptor would be authentication, such as using the built-in `BasicAuthRequestInterceptor`.
+
+```java
+Bank bank = Feign.builder().decoder(accountDecoder).requestInterceptor(new BasicAuthRequestInterceptor(username, password)).target(Bank.class, "https://api.examplebank.com");
+```
+
 ### Multiple Interfaces
 Feign can produce multiple api interfaces.  These are defined as `Target<T>` (default `HardCodedTarget<T>`), which allow for dynamic discovery and decoration of requests prior to execution.
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/feign/Util.java b/core/src/main/java/feign/Util.java
index f3b7b0ac..0036be7b 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/feign/Util.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/feign/Util.java
@@ -60,6 +60,10 @@ public class Util {
    * UTF-8: eight-bit UCS Transformation Format.
    */
   public static final Charset UTF_8 = Charset.forName("UTF-8");
+  /**
+   * ISO-8859-1: ISO Latin Alphabet Number 1 (ISO-LATIN-1).
+   */
+  public static final Charset ISO_8859_1 = Charset.forName("ISO-8859-1");
 
   /**
    * Copy of {@code com.google.common.base.Preconditions#checkArgument}.
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/feign/auth/BasicAuthRequestInterceptor.java b/core/src/main/java/feign/auth/BasicAuthRequestInterceptor.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b0a2ee9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/java/feign/auth/BasicAuthRequestInterceptor.java
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2013 Netflix, Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package feign.auth;
+
+import feign.RequestInterceptor;
+import feign.RequestTemplate;
+import sun.misc.BASE64Encoder;
+
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+
+import static feign.Util.checkNotNull;
+import static feign.Util.ISO_8859_1;
+
+/**
+ * An interceptor that adds the request header needed to use HTTP basic authentication.
+ */
+public class BasicAuthRequestInterceptor implements RequestInterceptor {
+  private final String headerValue;
+
+  /**
+   * Creates an interceptor that authenticates all requests with the specified username and password encoded using
+   * ISO-8859-1.
+   *
+   * @param username the username to use for authentication
+   * @param password the password to use for authentication
+   */
+  public BasicAuthRequestInterceptor(String username, String password) {
+    this(username, password, ISO_8859_1);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Creates an interceptor that authenticates all requests with the specified username and password encoded using
+   * the specified charset.
+   *
+   * @param username the username to use for authentication
+   * @param password the password to use for authentication
+   * @param charset the charset to use when encoding the credentials
+   */
+  public BasicAuthRequestInterceptor(String username, String password, Charset charset) {
+    checkNotNull(username, "username");
+    checkNotNull(password, "password");
+    this.headerValue = "Basic " + base64Encode((username + ":" + password).getBytes(charset));
+  }
+
+  @Override public void apply(RequestTemplate template) {
+    template.header("Authorization", headerValue);
+  }
+
+  /*
+   * This uses a Sun internal method; if we ever encounter a case where this method is not available, the appropriate
+   * response would be to pull the necessary portions of Guava's BaseEncoding class into Util.
+   */
+  private static String base64Encode(byte[] bytes) {
+    return new BASE64Encoder().encode(bytes);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/feign/auth/BasicAuthRequestInterceptorTest.java b/core/src/test/java/feign/auth/BasicAuthRequestInterceptorTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3a8c6bf5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/java/feign/auth/BasicAuthRequestInterceptorTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2013 Netflix, Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package feign.auth;
+
+import feign.RequestTemplate;
+import org.testng.annotations.Test;
+
+import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.Collections;
+
+import static org.testng.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+/**
+ * Tests for {@link BasicAuthRequestInterceptor}.
+ */
+public class BasicAuthRequestInterceptorTest {
+  /**
+   * Tests that request headers are added as expected.
+   */
+  @Test public void testAuthentication() {
+    RequestTemplate template = new RequestTemplate();
+    BasicAuthRequestInterceptor interceptor = new BasicAuthRequestInterceptor("Aladdin", "open sesame");
+    interceptor.apply(template);
+    Collection<String> actualValue = template.headers().get("Authorization");
+    Collection<String> expectedValue = Collections.singletonList("Basic QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ==");
+    assertEquals(actualValue, expectedValue);
+  }
+}