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- History of Watermarks
History of Watermarks
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 March 1979
- Paintings, Drawings and Prints , Books, Manuscripts and Maps
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The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.
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Dating and Forgeries
Collectors of prints, drawings, maps and other works of historic, scientific or artistic importance based on early paper always want to know the value of watermarks for dating purposes and their use in exposing forgeries. Although watermarks when taken in consideration with other evidence can sometimes prove helpful in exposing forgeries, the information provided by the watermark must for the following reasons be used with caution. Few of the early watermarks bear dates and if they do the date of the mark might not be the same as the date of the printing. It is not uncommon even today for paper to remain for a considerable time at the mill to mature before being sold. It is also possible for a dated watermarked mould to have been used for many years without the date being changed. There was nothing to prevent a well-known water¬mark used on a popular quality paper from being copied by an unscrupulous paper maker. It was also possible for moulds to change hands when a mill closed down and the new owner might have retained the original watermark. For example, a number of old English and other European moulds found their way to North America where they are used by amateur paper makers.
Watermark design sewn to the surface of a laid wire paper making mould.
In order to obtain paper of consistent colour, texture and thickness it was always possible that the printer found it necessary to sort through the makings of different mills and dates. This is the reason why so many different watermarks appear in some early printed books. William Caxton, the first printer in England, never used papers of one watermark design in bis books. To obtain paper of consistent quality he would use from fifteen to twenty papers with different watermarks and various dates and presumably from different mills in Holland. It is uncommon for early watermarks to have any relationship with the purpose to which the paper was to be put. One notable exception is the watermark showing Atlas holding-up the world which appears on the paper made for Blaeu's great atlases of the seventeenth century.
It should be mentioned that attempts are sometimes made to apply false watermarks to prints and maps in order to make them acceptable as one of a rare or valuable set. The practice involves getting a skilled forger to use a small bladed scalpel to carefully scratch away selected surface areas from the back of a print or map to make a transparent image. If the work is skilfully executed it is often difficult to detect with the naked eye. Fortunately, the process damages and breaks the surface fibres of the paper and can usually be recognised as an attempt at watermark falsification when the print or map is closely examined with a magnifying glass.
Watermarking Machine made Papers
Subsequent to the introduction of the continuous paper making machine in the early part of the eighteenth century there were attempts to produce watermarks on machine made paper similar to those that for five centuries appeared in hand made papers. The invention of the dandy roll by John Marshall in 1826 eventually overcame the problem. Nowadays the major part of paper making and consequently watermarking, is done by machine. In simple terms the dandy roll is a hollow roll covered with laid or woven wire to which watermark designs can be attached. The roll is positioned at the wet end of the paper making machine and rides over the surface of the newly formed paper from which most of the water has been drained. It compresses and consolidates the fibres and at the same time can be used to impress the watermark into the surface of the paper. On large dandy rolls the wire design for the watermark usually has to be repeated many times especially when the paper is very wide and is to be cut into smaller sheets.
Watermark designs are fixed to the surface of the dandy roll in much the same way as in the modern hand paper making mould. They are usually soldered in position but if they have to be removed they are sewn in. This allows one dandy roll to be used for several designs.
Watermark images being soldered in position on a wove dandy roll
(By courtesy of Wiggs Teape Group Limited)
Some modern mills produce machine made papers with rubber impressions or dry marks as an alternative to marking in the traditional way with a dandy roller. The design to be used is engraved on firm rubber rollers which are positioned on the dry end of the paper making machine between the drying rollers. The paper is formed and partially dry when the design is compressed into the surface and as a result there is very little displacement of the fibres. A mark with a sharper outline is obtained in this way, but when the sheet is held up to the light the mark is much less easily visible than that of a traditional watermark.
From its early primitive beginnings the watermark has been highly developed in a way which renders the fraudulent reproduction of paper money and security documents almost impossible. The modern technique of light and shade water¬marking (more correctly referred to as Chiarocuro or Shadow watermarking) was invented by William Henry Smith in 1848. This method of watermarking allows degrees of density and lightness to be included in the design so that when held to the light the paper reveals, through its watermark of various thicknesses, an object or form rather similar to a monochrome photographic negative.
The original, which may be an artist's drawing or a photograph, is carefully transferred by incising the image into a smooth thin sheet of prepared wax. Using a process known as electrolysis, an electrotype die is produced which is then chrome-faced for hardness and backed with lead. A second die is made which is an intaglio version of the first to give a male and female die of the image. Only a woven wire can be used and the image is transferred to this by a process of annealing and placing the mould under heavy pressure between the two dies which depress and raise parts of the wire which will cause the paper formed on the wire to be of varying thicknesses to match the design. This technique of water¬marking can reproduce intricate portraits, landscapes and other pictures with pleasing results.
Watermarks, at first thought, may seem comparatively unimportant, but these symbols of art and mystery hidden away for centuries in early papers will forever continue to interest and stimulate collectors of engravings, prints, maps and incunabula.
Further Reading:
COPYRIGHT March 1979 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Collectors of prints, drawings, maps and other works of historic, scientific or artistic importance based on early paper always want to know the value of watermarks for dating purposes and their use in exposing forgeries. Although watermarks when taken in consideration with other evidence can sometimes prove helpful in exposing forgeries, the information provided by the watermark must for the following reasons be used with caution. Few of the early watermarks bear dates and if they do the date of the mark might not be the same as the date of the printing. It is not uncommon even today for paper to remain for a considerable time at the mill to mature before being sold. It is also possible for a dated watermarked mould to have been used for many years without the date being changed. There was nothing to prevent a well-known water¬mark used on a popular quality paper from being copied by an unscrupulous paper maker. It was also possible for moulds to change hands when a mill closed down and the new owner might have retained the original watermark. For example, a number of old English and other European moulds found their way to North America where they are used by amateur paper makers.
Watermark design sewn to the surface of a laid wire paper making mould.
In order to obtain paper of consistent colour, texture and thickness it was always possible that the printer found it necessary to sort through the makings of different mills and dates. This is the reason why so many different watermarks appear in some early printed books. William Caxton, the first printer in England, never used papers of one watermark design in bis books. To obtain paper of consistent quality he would use from fifteen to twenty papers with different watermarks and various dates and presumably from different mills in Holland. It is uncommon for early watermarks to have any relationship with the purpose to which the paper was to be put. One notable exception is the watermark showing Atlas holding-up the world which appears on the paper made for Blaeu's great atlases of the seventeenth century.
It should be mentioned that attempts are sometimes made to apply false watermarks to prints and maps in order to make them acceptable as one of a rare or valuable set. The practice involves getting a skilled forger to use a small bladed scalpel to carefully scratch away selected surface areas from the back of a print or map to make a transparent image. If the work is skilfully executed it is often difficult to detect with the naked eye. Fortunately, the process damages and breaks the surface fibres of the paper and can usually be recognised as an attempt at watermark falsification when the print or map is closely examined with a magnifying glass.
Watermarking Machine made Papers
Subsequent to the introduction of the continuous paper making machine in the early part of the eighteenth century there were attempts to produce watermarks on machine made paper similar to those that for five centuries appeared in hand made papers. The invention of the dandy roll by John Marshall in 1826 eventually overcame the problem. Nowadays the major part of paper making and consequently watermarking, is done by machine. In simple terms the dandy roll is a hollow roll covered with laid or woven wire to which watermark designs can be attached. The roll is positioned at the wet end of the paper making machine and rides over the surface of the newly formed paper from which most of the water has been drained. It compresses and consolidates the fibres and at the same time can be used to impress the watermark into the surface of the paper. On large dandy rolls the wire design for the watermark usually has to be repeated many times especially when the paper is very wide and is to be cut into smaller sheets.
Watermark designs are fixed to the surface of the dandy roll in much the same way as in the modern hand paper making mould. They are usually soldered in position but if they have to be removed they are sewn in. This allows one dandy roll to be used for several designs.
Watermark images being soldered in position on a wove dandy roll
(By courtesy of Wiggs Teape Group Limited)
Some modern mills produce machine made papers with rubber impressions or dry marks as an alternative to marking in the traditional way with a dandy roller. The design to be used is engraved on firm rubber rollers which are positioned on the dry end of the paper making machine between the drying rollers. The paper is formed and partially dry when the design is compressed into the surface and as a result there is very little displacement of the fibres. A mark with a sharper outline is obtained in this way, but when the sheet is held up to the light the mark is much less easily visible than that of a traditional watermark.
From its early primitive beginnings the watermark has been highly developed in a way which renders the fraudulent reproduction of paper money and security documents almost impossible. The modern technique of light and shade water¬marking (more correctly referred to as Chiarocuro or Shadow watermarking) was invented by William Henry Smith in 1848. This method of watermarking allows degrees of density and lightness to be included in the design so that when held to the light the paper reveals, through its watermark of various thicknesses, an object or form rather similar to a monochrome photographic negative.
The original, which may be an artist's drawing or a photograph, is carefully transferred by incising the image into a smooth thin sheet of prepared wax. Using a process known as electrolysis, an electrotype die is produced which is then chrome-faced for hardness and backed with lead. A second die is made which is an intaglio version of the first to give a male and female die of the image. Only a woven wire can be used and the image is transferred to this by a process of annealing and placing the mould under heavy pressure between the two dies which depress and raise parts of the wire which will cause the paper formed on the wire to be of varying thicknesses to match the design. This technique of water¬marking can reproduce intricate portraits, landscapes and other pictures with pleasing results.
Watermarks, at first thought, may seem comparatively unimportant, but these symbols of art and mystery hidden away for centuries in early papers will forever continue to interest and stimulate collectors of engravings, prints, maps and incunabula.
Further Reading:
- Charles M. Briquet, Les Filigranes 4 vols. Geneva 1907.
- W.A. Churchill, Watermarks in Paper in Holland. England, France etc. in the 17th and 18th centuries and their interconnection. Amsterdam 1935.
- Dard Hunter,Paper Making. The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft. The Cresset Press, 1957.
- E.J. Labarre, Dictionary and Encyclopaedia of Paper and Paper Making. Second Edition. Swets and Zeitlinger, Amsterdam, 1952.
COPYRIGHT March 1979 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
