Thursday, July 30, 2009

The paper of old prints

In previous blogs I have looked at the subject matter which appears in old prints, as well as the processes used to make them. Another important aspect of old prints is the paper upon which the impressions are made, so today we’ll take a look at this subject.

Prints have been made on papyrus, vellum, silk and other materials, but the vast majority of antique prints are made on paper. The quality and content of the paper has varied considerably over the years. Until the nineteenth century, paper was almost exclusively made from rags (primarily cotton or linen) which were soaked and stirred in vats until the fibers separated into a pulpy mixture that could be used to make sheets of paper. In the nineteenth century, wood pulp paper was developed, which used wood fibers. The wood pulp was created either by mechanical means (first developed about 1840) or shortly thereafter by chemical processes.

Rag paper is still being made but today the majority of paper is made from wood pulp, which is easier and less expensive to produce. Rag paper, however, is significantly superior. The fabric fibers are longer than wood fibers, which makes rag paper stronger. Also, wood pulp paper is usually acidic, which causes it to deteriorate over time, and also it contains significant amounts of lignin, which reacts to light and oxygen by yellowing. Rag paper is naturally non-acidic and it will last without deterioration as long as it is properly handled. This is, of course, why prints that are hundreds of years old are frequently found on almost pristine paper, while prints that are less than a century old are often brown and brittle.

There were two general types of processes used to made the paper pulp into sheets of paper. The first process creates what is called “laid paper.” Laid paper is made by the paper pulp being poured into a mold made of a wooden framework with a wire mesh on the bottom. Laid paper was made by hand and the size of the sheets limited by the practical size of the wooden mold. The way that laid paper can be recognized is by the pattern that is impressed into the paper by the wire mesh. If you hold up a sheet of laid paper to the light, you can see the pattern of the wires (called chain lines), which usually will have very closely spaced lines with crossing lines at wider intervals.

The fact that the wire mesh makes a pattern in laid paper led paper makers to attach wire designs, such as crests, dates or intials, to the mesh. This creates a matching design in the paper, called a “watermark,” and this can be used to help determine the date or manufacturer of the paper used in a print. It should be noted, however, that fake chain lines and watermarks can be put into sheets that are not actually laid-paper.

The other main type of paper is “wove paper.” This is mechanically-made paper, where the pulp is formed into paper on a woven belt. Wove paper, therefore, lacks chain lines. Though wove paper was invented in the eighteenth century and laid paper is still produced today, as a rule of thumb it can be said that the majority of prints made prior to 1800 are on laid paper and the majority of prints made subsequently are on wove paper.

Often when talking about a print, a size description will be used. These can be fairly simple, as in “octavo,” “quarto,” or “folio,” or they can be more complex such as “16mo.,” “royal octavo,” “large quarto,” “double folio,” and other similarly confounding phrases. Unfortunately, there is no standard definition of the sizes of antique prints and this can lead to considerable confusion. You can, however, achieve some understanding of these size idioms by learning the origin of the expressions.

The phrases used to describe print sizes originally applied to bound volumes and have since been derivatively bestowed on prints. In the earliest days of printing, the largest volumes produced were made from single sheets of hand-made paper folded once, thus making two leaves, or four pages. These are called "folio" volumes, after the Latin folium, meaning leaf. Volumes made with sheets of paper folded twice, creating four leaves, are called "quarto"; those made with thrice folded paper, forming eight leaves, are called "octavo"; those made with sheets folded four times, producing 16 leaves, are called "16mo."; and so on. This sounds simple enough, except for the fact that the size of sheets of paper varied considerably, creating an equal variation in the size of a folio or quarto or octavo book. Indeed, some quarto volumes are actually be bigger than some folio volumes made from different sized paper.

These book terms have, by common use, been transferred to paper and thus to prints. A folio volume is made from sheets of paper folded once, so a folio print is half the size of a full sheet of paper, and likewise a quarto print is one quarter the size of a full sheet, an octavo print one eighth size, and so on. A print made from an unfolded sheet of paper is called a "double folio" print.

Many prints were made which do not fit neatly into these size categories. Not all prints were made from a sheet of paper to a particular fraction size, and other prints were made from rolls rather than from sheets of paper. Prints which were bound into books often vary in size because of the binders’ propensity to trim pages prior to gilding the ends, and of course there is the issue of different sizes of the sheets of paper. It is helpful that some paper sheets have names for their specific size, so that the prints made from these sheets can be unequivocally identified. For instance, the prints from John James Audubon’s The Birds of America are “double elephant-folio,” those from his work The Quadrupeds of North America are “imperial folio,” and those from the octavo editions of both works are “royal octavo.” Where there is no specific name for the sheets of paper used, general expressions such as "small folio," "medium quarto" or "large octavo" are sometimes used to give a more accurate description of size.

Understanding the history and nature of the paper used in making prints is important, but all these factors make this a fairly complex subject. There are the general rules of thumb, such as the fact that most prints made before 1800 will be on laid paper and most made afterwards on wove paper, but the best thing is to try to build as much experience looking at paper of prints where you know the history of the paper. An experienced dealer or collector can often give an approximate date for a print, or determine the originality of a print, by examining the paper and this is something which it is useful to try to learn for anyone interested in old prints.

23 comments:

  1. Hi Christopher, I just bought a paper with writing on it supposedly from around 1860. When I tilt the paper, I can faintly see the words "In Wove" in a water mark. Is this normal? Does it mean that the paper is not from this time period? Thanks!

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    1. I have never seen that water mark, so cannot answer with confidence. However, by 1860 they were using wove paper, so there is nothing about the water mark particular suspicious.

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    2. Hi I have a bill of rights and declaration of independence on some old paper with watermark it's about 11x8 in size not sure what kind of paper it's on

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  2. Good Evening,

    I have an engraving that is dated 1637. By its appearance, after reading your post, I am confident that it has been printed on laid paper, but am skeptical about the date and condition of the paper. I read another article that mentioned the topic of "shadowing" on older laid paper at the spacers edges due to the suction effect in the middle of the mold and I do not see that on my piece. This leads me to believe that it is not 17th century, but may 18th century.

    The laid paper is more off white in color and leans towards a cream color. After reading your article on the aging difference between rag versus wood pulp I am curious as to how you can tell the difference. The paper feels less smooth to the touch and under a loupe I can see an uneven surface that kind of looks marbleized in fashion with longer in length threads.

    I am newer to collecting and would appreciate any advice so any future purchases can be done in an informed manner. Thank you and have a nice day.

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    1. I am afraid that I cannot tell you anything specific things to look at for telling 17th vs. 18th century paper. Really the way we tell (and we are not always sure we are right) is by the "feel" of the paper. The best thing for a collector (and dealer) to do is to handle as much paper from different periods as possible and then you will develop a "feel" for different periods. Wish there was a more concrete way I could tell you to check, but I do not know of one.

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  3. I have an old notepad with poems wrote on it. It is glued and has two staples. It has no margins so any idea how old it could be?

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  4. After going through some old photo & papers of my grandfather I found a letter with a watermark of "Worlds Fair 1893". Any information on this?
    Thank You.

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  5. The question I have is, is there a simple way to date laid paper? without getting radiocarbon dating done? I have some pages from an ancient koran that I am interested to know more about

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    1. The only way I know of is if there is a paper maker's watermark in the paper, and you can then use that to date it. Other than that, it is (as far as I know) a matter of "feel," just having seen lots of paper and getting a feel for date. Sorry...

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  6. Hello Chris,

    I have a old shipping Bill of Lading dated 1836 from the east coast ( Baltomore postage cancel) with what I believe as a watermark says R. AMIES. It is very light and thin paper. I am curious to know more about the
    paper. Thanks

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  7. We really do not have information on particular paper makers, just general knowledge of types of papers. Sorry we cannot help.

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  8. I have a watercoulor painting a slightly smaller than 8 x 10. In the top side of paper which is harder of a paper it has a watermark of J W and possibly H and is cutoff there. How can I know how old this paper is? There is no date on watermark.

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  9. Can the J Wharton watermark be cutoff? What was the standard size paper?

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    1. I assume you me "J Whatman" and it certainly could be but I cannot tell from what you wrote. There is no "standard size" paper as they made different sizes. I would "guess" at the age by i) my experience handing lots of paper and ii) see if I recognized the watermark, though Whatman was making paper for a long time. There is no easy way to explain to you how to tell, so you might try to show it to someone with experience.

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  10. Hi Chris, I have a 1705 newspaper and someone has asked me about the watermark. Would this have a watermark at this period of time?

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    1. That is an interesting question, but unfortunately one I do not know the answer to. Sorry I cannot help!

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  11. I have the Constitution of the United States and a newspaper page with the reward of who killed Abraham Lincoln. My uncle past away and these items was in a safety deposit box. The paper is yellow and bridle. How can I tell if these are truly old or fakes. I can send you pictures if you like

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  13. In recent times, the Digital Printing packaging is growing rapidly. It would provide more versatility and flexibility in boxes to the users. Digital Printing can give you a better finishing poster, banner or other thing for promotional purpose.

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  14. I recently discovered an old book of sewing instructions. The instructions are in typed print, and the paper itself is brown and brittle. A faint watermark is apparent on one such page when it is held to the light. Might you have any idea when this paper could be from? It flakes very easily, so I would expect it to be relatively old. Thank you!

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