Description
Substrate, Spectre, Subtraction: the Material and the Macabre in Rossetti’s Early Drawings – Gianna French
A fascinating article, describing how important the paper substrate was to Rossetti in his works inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s story The Raven. In addition to drawing on the substrate, he also used metal scrapers to thin specific areas of the works, achieving both texture and contrast, which is highlighted when the works are backlit to show the degree to which the artist has abraded and altered the paper sheet. A unique insight into the enigmatic way one artist has transformed paper to make it an intrinsic apart of the artwork.
5 pages, 6 figures
Paper Templates in mid-eighteenth-century Silk Mosaic Patchwork – Geoffrey Day
This article gives a full account of work presented at the 2025 Annual Conference in Exeter. The silk patchwork items were acquired by the Quilt Collection in York, and were dated provisionally to between 1700-1760. Fortunately, the covers were stitched onto paper templates, being taken from printed and manuscript sources. The author outlines the work undertaken to identify the printed sources, which gave dates between 1743-1745, thus narrowing down the likely dates (and also the earliest possible dates) when the covers were produced.
10 pages, 18 figures
Book Review – Peter Bower
“Paper Chase” by Julia Donaldson
Teer-Boys and other child workers at the Newcastle, Paper Hanging Manufactory of Richard Goodlad and Company – Mike Malley
This fascinating piece of social history deals with the problem of child labour in the manufacture of wallpaper in and around Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It deals in particular with hand printing of wallpapers, a skill that was soon to be displaced by machine-printing. The mistreatment of the children is documented, as are the excuses put forward by the firms involved.
6 pages, 3 figures
Notes on 18th Century English Papermaking – Anon
This extract comes from The Sister Arts, or A concise and interesting View of the Nature and History of Paper-Making, Printing, and Bookbinding: Being designed to unite Entertainment with Information concerning those Arts, with which the Cause of Literature is peculiarly connected, printed and published by J. Baxter in 1809. It deals with hand papermaking from rag pulp, and gives a surprising amount of information about contemporary practices.
1 page
The NEWS
From Q116 The NEWS became an integral part of the journal, rather than an insert. This is The NEWS No.141. (Contains the article “Designing the Interpretation” from Frogmore Mill.)
4 pages
Thorney Paper and Board Mills (No.278), Iver – Daven Chamberlain
Thorney mill was an old, small site in Buckinghamshire, which never achieved great feats in the world of papermaking. What makes it of interest is the very detailed list of papermakers to be found in the local parish register, dating from 1699 and lasting for the best part of a century. This gives a more detailed picture of the community of papermakers in this small village than is to be found in most parish registers.
3 pages, 1 figure, 1 table
New Fire Policy Entries from Royal Exchange Ms07253 and Ms07255 – Daven Chamberlain
The author produced a book (BAPH Studies in Paper History Vol.IX) on fire policies that relate to paper mills and makers. This article concentrates on two series of Royal Exchange Fire Insurance Company policy books, and extends the work published to date with a list of 138 new policies never before recorded.
3 pages
Managing a business during Wartime: the letters of Morgan Skeins, 1938-1940 – Rowena Haigh
Morgan Skeins was the Managing Director of John Dickinson & Co from 1938-1940. A series of letters he produced in this period forms part of the Apsley Paper Trail archive. This article uses these (and other contemporary items) to highlight issues relating to supply problems, staff management, wartime fundraising and maintaining morale. A fascinating glimpse into how one company managed operations in the early part of WWII.
5 pages, 4 figures
The Quarterly Index Nos 133-136 – Daven Chamberlain
The index for 2025 is arranged in eight categories: Articles by author; Articles by title; Book reviews; General index; Illustrations; Papermakers; Paper mills; Watermarks. The Watermarks index is further divided into those that are illustrated and those that are mentioned in the text.
10 pages
