FOOTNOTES:
[3] To those who do not read French or do not possess Les Elzevier, Mr. Goldsmid's The Elzevir Presses, published as part of his Bibliotheca Curiosa, may be of some assistance. It is a species of compendium of the work of M. Willems, and was issued in 1889. It is somewhat faulty and incomplete; but not without its value to beginners in the study of the Elzevir press.
CHAPTER III.
PAPER-MAKING—DIFFERENT SIZES OF PAPER—DIFFERENT SIZES OF BOOKS—MEASUREMENTS WATER-MARKS—BOOKS TO CONSULT.
THE mould used by paper-makers is a kind of sieve of an oblong shape, bottomed with the very finest wire strands, all of which run horizontally from end to end. From top to bottom, and about an inch apart, are placed "chain wires," and on the right-hand side of the mould the wire water-mark, which, together with the wire-marks, appears semi-transparent. The reason of this is that both water-mark and wires are slightly raised, and of course the pulp is thinner there than anywhere else. Any ordinary sheet of paper held up to the light will show this, and serve to extra illustrate the following diagram.
Paper-maker's Mould: Jug Water-mark.
Here CDEF is the mould which the workman drops into a vat of pulp, the fine strands run from G to H all the way down the mould, AA, &c., are the chain wires, and B is the water-mark, in this case a jug. The water in the pulp of course runs through the sieve, leaving a layer of soft matter, which after a while hardens into a sheet of paper. The water-mark was at one time the trade mark of the maker, but subsequently became merely a symbol denoting the size of the sheet of paper before it was folded. The smallest sheet was water-marked with a jug, as above, and termed "pot"; the next had a cap and bells, hence our term "foolscap"; the next a horn, hence "post". Others had a "crown," and so on. At the present day all water-marks have once more become trade symbols, and cannot be depended upon to afford any evidence of size; but at one time—i.e., before the year 1750—this was not so, and, therefore, these water-marks, irrespective of their antiquarian value, serve a useful purpose—namely, to point out in cases of doubt whether any given book is an octavo, quarto, or folio, or a variation of any of these sizes.