Fig. 58.—English “Britannia” watermark, 1907.
The foolscap itself shortly gave way to a figure of Britannia or a lion rampant. The post horn was another common watermark here; it gave its name to its paper about 1670, when the mail carrier was accustomed to announce his approach by a blast from his horn. The name “Post” still designates a certain size of printing paper. The smallest folio paper of the seventeenth century was marked with a watermark of a “pot,” and hence the name.
For specially printed books it is a pretty fancy to have a coat-of-arms set as a watermark, and it is now and then done, but I fear few readers notice it. Many papers are now made without watermarks, and it is likely enough that, except for trade terminology, they will gradually die out altogether as being unnecessary.
Fig. 59.—English “post” watermark, 1679.
Fig. 60.—English “pot” watermark, 1640.
The possibilities of artistic watermarking have not yet been fully realised. At the St. Louis Exhibition in 1904 there was a German exhibit which showed the remarkable effect which could be made by impressing paper pulp by means of a photographic plate in relief.
The papers which had been so treated were set up in a frame with a light behind them, and they looked like most delicate paintings in monotone. Those exhibited were portraits of celebrities, and they were not only excellent but possessed the quality of permanence in a remarkable degree.