Paper & paper making, ancient and modern

by Richard Herring

Post paper seems to have derived its name from the post-horn, which at one time was its distinguishing mark. It does not appear to have been used prior to the establishment of the general post-office (1670), when it became the custom to blow a horn, to which circumstance no doubt we may attribute its introduction. The mark is still frequently used, but the same change which has so much diminished the number of painted signs in the streets of our towns and cities, has nearly made paper-marks a matter of antiquarian curiosity; the maker’s name being now generally used, and the mark, in the few instances where it still remains, serving the purpose of mere ornament, rather than that of distinction.

Water-marks, however, have at various periods been the means of detecting frauds, forgeries and impositions, in our courts of law and elsewhere, to say nothing of the protection they afford in the instances already referred to, such as bank notes, cheques, receipt, bill, and postage stamps. The celebrated Curran once distinguished himself in a case which he had undertaken, by shrewdly referring to the water-mark, which effectually determined the verdict. And another instance, which I introduce merely in the form of an amusing anecdote, occurred once at Messina, where the monks of a certain monastery exhibited, with great triumph, a letter as being written by the Virgin Mary with her own hand. Unluckily for them, however, this was not, as it easily might have been, written upon the ancient papyrus, but on paper made of rags. On one occasion a visitor, to whom this was shown, observed, with affected solemnity, that the letter involved also a miracle, for the paper on which it was written was not in existence until several centuries after the mother of our Lord had died.

A further illustration of the kind occurs in a work entitled “Ireland’s Confessions,” which was published respecting his fabrication of the Shakspeare manuscripts,—a literary forgery even still more remarkable, I think, than that which is said to have been perpetrated by Chatterton, as Rowley’s Poems.

The interest which at the time was universally felt in this production of Ireland’s, may be partially gathered from the fact, that the whole of the original edition, which appeared in the form of a shilling pamphlet, was disposed of in a few hours; while so great was the eagerness to obtain copies afterwards, that single impressions were sold in an auction room at the extravagant price of a guinea.

This gentleman tells us, at one part of his explanation, that the sheet of paper which he used was the outside of several others, on some of which accounts had been kept in the reign of Charles the First; and being at that time wholly unacquainted with the water-marks used in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, “I carefully selected (says he) two half-sheets, not having any mark whatever, on which I penned my first effusion.” A few pages further on he writes—“Being thus urged forward to the production of more manuscripts, it became necessary that I should possess a sufficient quantity of old paper to enable me to proceed, in consequence of which I applied to a bookseller, named Verey, in Great May’s Buildings, St. Martin’s Lane, who, for the sum of five shillings, suffered me to take from all the folio and quarto volumes in his shop, the fly leaves which they contained. By this means I was amply stored with that commodity; nor did I fear any mention of the circumstance by Mr. Verey, whose quiet unsuspecting disposition, I was well convinced, would never lead him to make the transaction public, in addition to which he was not likely even to know anything concerning the supposed Shaksperian discovery by myself, and even if he had, I do not imagine that my purchase of the old paper in question, would have excited in him the smallest degree of suspicion. As I was fully aware from the variety of water-marks which are in existence at the present day, that they must have constantly been altered since the period of Elizabeth, and being for some time wholly unacquainted with the water-marks of that age, I very carefully produced my first specimens of the writing on such sheets of old paper as had no mark whatever. Having heard it frequently stated that the appearance of such marks on the papers would have greatly tended to establish their validity, I listened attentively to every remark which was made upon the subject, and from thence I at length gleaned the intelligence that a jug was the prevalent water-mark of the reign of Elizabeth, in consequence of which I inspected all the sheets of old paper then in my possession, and having selected such as had the jug upon them, I produced the succeeding manuscripts upon these, being careful, however, to mingle with them a certain number of blank leaves, that the production on a sudden of so many water-marks might not excite suspicion in the breasts of those persons who were most conversant with the manuscripts.”

Thus, this notorious literary forgery, through the cunning ingenuity of the perpetrator, ultimately proved so successful as to deceive many learned and able critics of the age. Indeed, on one occasion a kind of certificate was drawn up, stating that the undersigned names were affixed by gentlemen who entertained no doubt whatever as to the validity of the Shaksperian production, and that they voluntarily gave such public testimony of their convictions upon the subject. To this document several names were appended by persons as conspicuous for their erudition as they were pertinacious in their opinions.

The water-mark in the form of a letter p, of which I have given an illustration, is taken from Caxton’s well-known work, “The Game of the Chesse,” a fac simile of which is about to be published as a tribute to his memory. Paper has recently been made expressly for the purpose, in exact representation of the original, and containing this water-mark, which will be found common in works printed by him.

The ordinary mode of effecting such paper marks as we have been describing is that of affixing a stout wire in the form of any object to be represented to the surface of the fine wire-gauze, of which the hand-mould, or machine dandy roller is constructed.