Questions	Answers and Reactions
You can have your question put right here, just mail us! (see bottom of page) (question received //200*)	Who's got the answer to this question? Please e-mail us With kind regards Anna-Grethe Rischel (answer received #/#/2009)
Hi, If anyone could shed some light on this watermark, it would be greatly appreciated. The paper has a drawing on one side, 18th century I have been told, and another drawing on verso, 17th or 16th century. Again, your expertise is very much anticipated and appreciated. With kind regards, Reldon Coffey (question received 20/05/2009)	Who's got the answer to this question? Please e-mail us With kind regards Anna-Grethe Rischel (answer received #/#/2009)
Van Gelder Zonen watermark indentification Hi,my name is Lisa Duncan and I am a paper and photograph conservator in the US. I have been researching Van Gelder Zonen paper as part of a project associated with an early Ansel Adams photographic portfolio. The paper has begun to discolor in interesting ways and I am trying to find out more information about the maker and also about the processes in making the paper. The portfolio I am interested in was printed around 1929 at Grabhorn Press in San Francisco, California. I have attached to this email 2 watermarks on the paper. Can you please forward this to someone who can add my posting/ question to your website? I was unable to get to an area for posting the question as my email is not directly linked to my computer. The button on the website does not provide an actual email name in order to copy and paste into my email. Question: I am interested in learning more about Van Gelder Zonen paper that was used in a 1929 portfolio by the famous American photographer, Ansel Adams titled "Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras." The paper was used as a folder for each of 18 prints in the portfolio. Currently the paper was discolored in areas in contact with the silver photographic print and I am trying to understand why this particular paper is so susceptible to discoloration. Any information about the processing techniques in the 1920s & 30s of Van Gelder Zonen would be greatly appreciated. Also, any sources about Van Gelder Zonen would be appreciated. Currently there is only one book that seems to address, in depth, Van Gelder Zonen and it is written in Dutch. Unfortunately, I don't read Dutch. The two watermarks embedded in the paper are attached, taken in transmitted light. Lisa Duncan (question received 05/04/2009)	Who's got the answer to this question? Please e-mail us
watermark on aid paper circa 1860 I am trying to identify the manufacturer of a laid paper which was used to print a block of nine 10 cent Jefferson Davies stamps circa 1860 to 1870. I can make out part of the watermark of the manufacturer, it starts with a L and has 5 letters namely L-ti-. Thank you in advance Fred Rigo (question received 01/03/2009)	Who's got the answer to this question? Please e-mail us
Unicorn watermarks in British paper c. 1800 Dear Sir or Madam, I understand from various publications (such as Papermaking by Dard Hunter and others) that the Unicorn was widely used as a watermark from the 15th to the 17th centuries inclusive. According to Hunter one person, M.Briquet, has recorded over 1100 different renderings of this used as a device for marking paper. But it was less used from the early 18th century onwards. But can you please say if you are aware of any quality paper being manufactures in England which still uses the Unicorn watermark form around, say, the year 1800 or just before? The reason I’m interested is because the only example I’m aware of from around that time seems to have been produced in the Austro/Hungarian Empire. But the document in which I’m interested appears to have been produced in England around the early 19th century. Does anyone know of Unicorn paper being made from England at around this time and, possibly, where it may have been manufactures in England? The writing on the paper in question is English and was almost certainly made not later than 1810. Many thanks for any assistance. Robert Newman (question received 28/02/2009)	Who's got the answer to this question? Please e-mail us
wove paper Hi, I am a hand made paper maker from India and currently making acid free water colour paper. I use woollen felts to make water colour paper. i use cotton rags as raw material. I want to develop drawing paper. This paper will be used for pencil and charcoal sketching. I tried using cotton felts but in spite of doing heavy calendring the marks of cotton felts do not go and we do not get smooth paper ideally suited for smooth pencil work. can any one guide me in suggesting a felt which can give a smooth finish? Sundaram Srikkanth (question received 20/02/2009)	Who's got the answer to this question? Please e-mail us
Blue lined note paper I would like to know how long blue lined note paper has been commercially available. I have well aged 140mm x 225mm loose sheets of blue lined paper and am curious how old it could be. Thank you Roy Rantilla (question received 07/02/2009)	Dear Roy Rantilla Thank you for your question and interest in paper production. I will send your question to paper historians with archival knowledge about the actual production of the paper mills, but according to my own sample of a folio sheet of handmade paper from Lessebo in Sweden with blue lines it was common in the 19th century. With kind regards Anna-Grethe Rischel (answer received 07/02/2009)
Fabriano watermark dating I am curious whether these are Fabriano watermarks of late 1500’s – they were from the same blank book. I would be especially grateful to find where I can contact or view a database that may confirm or show it with relative date. Thank you Ron Bodoh (question received 02/02/2009)	Thank you for your question about the watermark added to your mail. There are various data bases of watermarks and there are also a number of catalogues to check, but maybe you have already done that. I suggest that you contact Paola Franca Munafň at Istituto centrale per la patologia del libro in Rome (Paolafranca.munafo @ beniculturali.it and Emanuel Wenger at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna (emanuel.wenger @ oeaw.ac.at). With kind regards Anna-Grethe Rischel (answer received 04/02/2009) Dear colleagues The question concerning the two watermarks came up to me. Although we are concentrated on watermarks of the middleages I looked up the repertories available at our commission – unfortunately without results. If there’s the opportunity they are from Fabriano perhaps it shows more promise to contact the papermuseum there. With kind regards Maria Stieglecker (answer received 13/02/2009)
Paper based filling system (#2) Hi Anna Thank you for your quick response. The word “a paper based filing system” means the way a person or an organisation stores its files [paper or electronically]. This could be in the form of a file or on the computer. We as a team have to argue that keeping paper documents in cabinets is the right thing to do. We have to motivate this starting from when paper was first used stating the following: Which year? By whom were the uses of paper discovered? The history of paper and filling? Regards Mphakamisi Mzamo Regards Mphakamisi Mzamo (question received 16/01/2009)	Dear Mphakamisi Mzamo Thank you for more information of your questions. You have put a lot of questions and in my opinion you will get the most precise answers from Dr. Józef Dabrowski who is the most distinguished paper historian and specialist in pulp and paper technology. I will forward your questions to his e-mail address. With kind regards Anna-Grethe Rischel (answer received 07/02/2009)
Paper based filling system (#1) Please assist with the following question. Team A must prepare a report giving arguments in favour of a paper based filing system. In your debate, you must link your current change control process to the management of your filing system. You must motivate its strengths and why this process should not change. Convince the other team to maintain the status quo. Regards Mphakamisi Mzamo (question received 14/01/2009)	Thank you for your question that I want to be sure that I understand correctly before I send it to a colleague with special knowledge in this field. Please let me know if the word “a paper based filling system” means a pulp machine filling out tears and missing areas with new fibres with the combination of vacuum? With kind regards Anna-Grethe Rischel (answer received 16/01/2009)
Watermark Dear Sir/Madam I have a 2 page beautifully written manuscript dated circa 1750. It has a very prominent bookmark that I would like help to identify. I live in London NW3 and would appreciate an experienced watermark specialist to look at it. Can someone help please. Robert Hendry (question received 08/01/2009)	Dear Robert Hendry Thank you for your question. I can recommend you to search for the watermark in Edward Heawood’s Watermarks mainly of the 17th and 18th centuries, published as the first edition of The Paper Publication Society Monumenta Chartć papyraceć. If you already have studied that fine book I would suggest that you write to Dr. Richard Hills, Stanford Cottage, 47 Old Road Mottram/Hyde, Ceshire SK 146L W, G.B. and send him a copy of the watermark With kind regards Anna-Grethe Rischel (answer received 16/01/2009)
Black paper, 1847 I have been inspecting a silhouette that is credited to 1847. The black paper from which it was cut, when louped (watched) with a 16x loupe (magnifying glass), shows a very distinctive patterns (and a very clear white on the back of the black paper). The pattern is uniform in both directions and looks exactly like the thread count in cotton material of today, and the lines are about the same density in number as would be threads in cotton. From what I can find on “laid lines” in hand set paper in that period of the 1840s, there should not be exactly the same spread in the lines both horizontally and vertically. Is that the case? Is there some other factor that would explain a black paper of 1847 that appeared to have very fine black threads melded on its surface? S. Anderson (question received 29/12/2008) Hello, Mrs. Rischel: Thank you so much for your prompt response. The black paper making up the front surface of the silhouette is glued onto cardboard similar to that which was used on old albumen photographs. The white side of the paper is down, being the side glued to the board. Only a tiny edge of the black paper shows the white backing so we cannot be sure that the whole of the black paper is backed by the same very white backing, but it is probably safe to assume that there is white backing of the black paper. The very even, tiny mesh lines are on the face of the black paper. Due to the gluing, I cannot tell whether the white paper has similar lines. I should give you a bit more detail on my inquiry. A study has been made of the black paper used by some of the early, famous, 19th century silhouettists. That study showed that, at least the silhouettes studied, were cut from paper made by applying a black compound onto white paper, with the chemical structure of the compound varying from one cutter to the next. I have found advertisements for black paper in newspapers in the early 1840s, but have not been able to find advertisements for paper made for silhouettes, nor did the study. The knowledge I lack is whether a less skilled silhouettists might have been able, in 1847, to have purchased a pre-made, finely and evenly meshed black paper with a white reverse side. The authenticity of the particular silhouette I am inquiring about is some what in question unless a black paper with a fine mesh surface and backed with white was likely to have been produced in the 1840s. If a black compound over white paper was generally used by most silhouettists to make their black paper, then the compound would likely cover over any mesh as fine as that which appears on the surface of our black paper; or if the black paper with a fine mesh on its surface and backed by white was an unlikely production of the 1840s, then the paper of this particular silhouette would appear to be an anomaly and make the 1840s date an unlikely one. What would your opinion be? Again, thank you so much for the time you have taken on this inquiry. Susan Anderson (reaction received 02/01/2009)	Thank you for your question concerning black silhouette paper. I understand on your description that only the front of the paper is coloured with black and that you can observe a structure similar to a woven textile on the white reverse. The structure of the reverse side of the paper is most often the impression of the material on which the paper has been made; in handmade paper you will therefore not find any impression of the laid lines and the chain lines of the metal wire in the mould, if it has been covered with a woven material as is the case in Whatman paper. In handmade Oriental paper made with a floating mould with a fixed bottom of woven textiles the impression of the woven structure is to be found on the reverse of the paper, if not a heavy polishing has taken place. The structure that you observe in the paper from 1847 could indicate that it was machine made paper and not handmade Whatman paper and that the woven structure was the impression from the endless woven material of the paper machine or that it was a pattern that was pressed into the paper as an after treatment. I know from my studies of Japanese paper from the end of the 19th century how any structure and surface could be added to the paper to imitate embossed leather and there are many examples of modern machinemade writing paper with textile structure and chain lines and laid lines. I hope that my suggestions to your question can help you and I will look for woven structure in machinemade paper from that period. Anna-Grethe Rischel (answer received 02/01/2009)
Pope Reel Bonjour, J'aimerais savoir ŕ quoi correspond la technique du « pope reel » ? Pouvez-vous m'illustrer le fonctionnement du machine du type « pope reel » ? Merci, Cordialement, Jean-Hugues Le-Gallou (question received 21/01/2008)	Dear colleague, In this surface–driven type of the reel (or reeler), the peripheral speed of paper web during its reeling is constant and not influenced by the diameter of wound rolls. So this type of the reel is used on papermaking machines, and also on some converting machines, where large diameter tightly wound rolls are desired and where the product is not particularly sensitive to tension or pressure. In American English, it is frequently written as ‘pope reel’, in spite of the fact that the name commemorates its inventor, a certain Pope. It is also called drum reel, see Fig. 17-38, taken from G.A. Smook: Handbook for Pulp and Paper Technologists, Vancouver 1989: G.A. Smook in his “Handbook for Pulp and Paper Terminology” (Vancouver 1990, p. 171) writes: DRUM REEL: Typical equipment for reeling the product at the end of the paper machine in which the web wraps around a motor-driven drum and feeds into the nip formed by a spool contacting the drum and driven by the drum. The paper wraps the spool and builds up into a reel. Syn. Pope Reel. I have not found any information about Pope, an inventor of this reel. R.H. Clapperton in his “The Paper-making Machine, Its Invention, Evolution, and Development” (Oxford 1967) do not mention this invention when writing about standardization of the paper-making machines in 1870-90. Probably it is a twentieth-century invention. In attachment I am adding information about the Pope reel in German, i.e. about ‘Poperoller’. It was taken from the book entitled “ Das Papierbuch. Handbuch der Papierherstellung“ (Houten 1999, p. 314) by J.H. Bos, P. Veenstra, H. Verhoeven, P.D. de Vos. This is a German version of the fifth edition of their handbook originally published in Dutch and entitled „Het Papierboek“. However, I do not possess any book in French about paper-making machinery. I am sorry about that. Nevertheless, I do hope that my explanations will satisfy your thirst of knowledge. Friendly regards, Józef Dabrowski, Poland (answer received 03/02/2008)
Pfaffenweiler Blumenmacherin Hi, my ancestor, Johanna Keifer, immigrated from Pfaffenweiler, Baden, Germany (very near to Freiburg) to Jasper, Indiana (USA) in 1847. In a history book for Pfaffenwieler her occupation is described as blumenmacherin. Flower maker? Would this only refer to one who made flowers from paper? Was this just a cottage industry? Or could this term also be used for a fresh flower arranger (florist)? My memory was that she was called a blumenbender but www.freetranslation.com doesn't recognize that word and asks if I mean Blumenbinden which translates as "flower bandage" which REALLY doesn't make sense, unless it means someone who gathers flowers in a field and binds them into bunches to be taken to market. Any reply would be appreciated. I am told that paper flowers were used for funerals when fresh flowers could not be obtained. She did later work for a funeral home in Washington, Indiana making funeral wreaths. Linda Wolff (question received 01/07/2006)	I know Freiburg well and Pfaffenweiler too. In my opinion a "Blumenmacherin" has produced artificial flowers. For imitation a flower-maker used dyed paper as well as silk. Usually it was a cottage industry. The wife of our famous poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christiane Vulpius from Weimar, also had been a "Blumenmacherin". She was active as a so called "Putzmacherin" (a milliner) in a factory for hats as a young girl. Christiane produced silk flowers. References: A play for children: http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=70735&CONTENT_I TEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ID=10272 : tells Bumenmacherin = flower-maker = fleurist Dr. Frieder Schmidt, Leipzig (answer received 04/07/2006)

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PAPER HISTORIANS

Questions & Answers