The Quarterly No. 37 – January 2001
The Padsole Paper Mill Token – Tim Porter
Concise history of the short life of Padsole Paper Mill, Maidstone Kent from around 1790 till the 1840's. Padsole Mill was one of the few paper mills to issue a token in the eighteenth century, a halfpenny one in 1795. The tokens were issued as a response to a shortage of low denomination coins
being issued by the Royal Mint.
3 pages, illustrated
The Metaxas Letters: An Investigation into the Authenticity of a Group of Documents – Part Two –
Peter Bower
The continuing account, and conclusion, of the author's investigation of a collection of eighty-nine letters addressed to Prince Andrew of Greece by his aide-de-camp Menelaos Metaxas between 3 June 1903 and 16 October 1913. The genuineness of the documents had been doubted and a sample had been examined at the University of Oxford Research Laboratory for Archaeology and The History of Art. The findings of this examination contradicted the evidence found within the paper itself and the author was
instructed to examine both the papers and the methods of the laboratory.
7 pages, illustrated
The Magnays: Stationers and Papermakers for Four Generations – Ian Dye
A full and comprehensive account of the families involvement in papermaking over four generations from about 1790 to 1884. Thirteen members of the family were associated with at least seventeen paper mills in England and Ireland. The family also established a wholesale stationers business in London and had close links with the Times newspaper. An outline family tree is included in the article.
9 pages, illustrated, tables
Bankers Note Paper – Peter Bower
Although all the bank note paper for the Bank of England has been made by Portals in Hampshire there were also hundreds of "country" banks which issued their own notes. Paper for these notes were made at a number of paper mills, this short article details a sample made at Lewes and Isfield mills in Sussex.
1 page, illustrated
In Memoriam – Peter Bower
Tributes to two recent losses to the world of paper history, John Balston and Alan Tyson.
John Balston came to his research after retiring from the papermaking industry and Alan Tyson worked within the academic community. Both contributed greatly to the body of knowledge available about the history of paper, its making and usage and will sadly missed.
2 pages, illustrated
Book Reviews
By his own Labor: The Biography of Dard Hunter. Cathleen A. Baker
Damnable Inventions: Chilworth Gunpowder and the Paper Mills of the Tillingbourne. Glenys and Alan Crocker.
Carrongrove: 200 years of Papermaking.
The Quarterly No. 38 – April 2001
Arms of London Watermarks: A Means of Dating Undated Manuscripts – Ruby Reid Thompson
In 1995 the author was asked to participate in the creation of a computerised catalogue of the Portland Collection of literary manuscripts, collected by various members of the Cavendish/Harley/Bentinck families of Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire. The article details the use of watermark information gathered during the process in dating anonymous and undated manuscripts, concentrating on variants of the Arms of London watermarks both individually and in conjunction with
countermarks.
10 pages, illustrated, tables
Papermill at St. Martin's Richmond
From time to time in The Quarterly we have published artists' images of British papermills. Phil
Crockett has provided us with this delightful print of a papermill drawn by George Cuitt in 1814. The two inscriptions, top left, "4 G. Cuitt. Chester. 1814." and bottom left "Papermill at St Martin's, Richmond." however, raise some questions.
The first is where exactly is the mill? George Cuitt (1743-1818) was a Yorkshire painter who rarely worked further afield, although two oil paintings of views in Shropshire are known. This suggests that the Richmond mentioned in the inscription may well be Richmond in Yorkshire, and that "Chester" refers to Chester-le-Street in Co. Durham rather than Chester, Cheshire.
The second question relates to the number 4 in the inscription. Such numbers generally mean that the work is part of a series. But was it a series of topographical views or more particularly a series of mills? If any reader has any information on the St. Martin's Mill depicted or can throw any light on whether other such illustrations of papermills by George Cuitt exist, could they please contact the Editor.
1 page, illustrated
British Paper Mills: Bramshott, Barford and Standford Mills near Liphook in Hampshire – Alan Crocker
The River Wey which flows into the Thames at Weybridge in Surrey powered, together with its tributaries, 22 paper mills. This article explores the history of four of these, Barford Upper, Barford Lower, Bramshott and Standford. These all lie near Liphook in Hampshire near the point where Hampshire,
Surrey and Sussex meet. All four mills shared common ownership for much of their working lives and in particular the Pim and Warren families of papermakers were very much involved.
9 pages, illustrated
Book Reviews
Puzzles in Paper: Concepts in Historical Watermarks. Edited by Daniel W. Mosser, Michael Saffle and Ernst W. Sullivan II.
Papier en Water / Paper and Water. Devised by Pat Torley and Peter Gentenaar.
Letters
Letters to the editor giving further information on the Padsole Mill Token (Quarterly 37, pp1-3) and the Lion Brand Writing Paper mentioned in the articles on the Metaxas Letters (Quarterly 36, pp18-23 & Quarterly 37, pp4-10).Also letters giving details of the growth of hemp for
papermaking both historically and currently, and on extracts from the archives of La Papeterie featuring the 1889 Paris Exhibition and on the subject of infected rags.
The Quarterly No. 39 – July 2001
The Invention of Vegetable Parchment: A Matter of Controversy – Philip
Harris
Material emanating from one of the French inventors of vegetable parchment, Guillaume Louis Figuier, has revealed that the development of this material was far from a straightforward, uncontroversial matter and was in fact the subject of a bitter dispute. The article follows on from earlier articles where the question arose whether or not the English 'inventor', W. E. Gaine, knew of the prior invention in France. (The Quarterly 34 & 35)
7 pages, illustrated
Arms of London Watermarks: A means of dating undated manuscripts, part two – Ruby Reid Thompson
Appendix tables following on from part one of the article providing data on undated manuscripts, or those with assigned dates, with Arms of London watermarks in comparison with firmly dated manuscripts with the same watermarks and counter-marks.
5 pages, tables
Letters – George Cuitt and the Papermill at St. Martins, Richmond
Two letters in response to the short article in Quarterly 38:
- In response to the short feature on St. Martins mill in Quarterly 38: there were at least five water mills on the River Swale at Richmond in Yorkshire. Highest up the river was Whitclif, followed by Green Mill, Castle Mill and finally St. Martins. The latter belonged to St. Martins Priory, a small cell of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary in York. Prior to the 1770s, before he moved to Egglestone Abbey Mill about 20 miles away, the mill was worked by the papermaker James Cooke and his father (also James). After the death of his parents Henry Cooke continued to make paper at Egglestone until 1823 when he took the lease of Whitclif Mill which continued as a paper mill until 1930. Nothing is left of either Whitclif or St. Martins, apparently the latter was demolished during the building of the railways in the mid-nineteenth century.
- I cannot answer all the questions posed about the Cuitt engraving in Quarterly 38 but I can deal with most of them. The George Cuitt concerned is the son of the George Cuitt, the artist mentioned. His entry in D Nuttall, (ed), the Book Trade in Cheshire to 1850: A Directory, Liverpool, 1992, he is listed as having been born in 1779 at Richmond in Yorkshire and dying in 1854 at Masham, Yorkshire. Between 1804 and 1819 he lived and worked at Chester, Shropshire, The British Library has several works by Cuitt including Ten Etchings of Picturesque Landscape Scenery, published by Colnaghi, Son & Co., London, 1827 and Wandrings and Pencillings among ruins of the
Olden Time; a series of seventy-three etchings, published posthumously by Natali & Bond, London, 1855.
British Bibliography of Paper History and Watermark Studies No 8, 2000 – Andrew Honey
A listing of publications and articles published in 2000 relating to paper studies, also addenda to Bibliography No 7, 1999 (see The Quarterly No 35, July 2000, pp 8-9).
2 pages
Book Reviews
Islamic Paper, a Study of the Ancient Craft. By Helen Loveday.
The Exeter Papers. Edited by Peter Bower.
Mr Anderson's Bill – Peter Bower
An examination of a late eighteenth century bill giving details of paper sizes purchased, the prices thereof and the paper of the bill itself. Documents of this type seem to survive more by accident than design and the author would be grateful for knowledge of the whereabouts of similar items.
2 pages, illustrated
Index to The Quarterly Issues Nos 33-36 – Terry Wells
The index is arranged in nine categories: Articles by author; Articles by title; Book reviews; General index; Illustrations; Papermakers; Paper mills; Tipped-in paper samples; Watermarks. The Watermarks index is further divided into those that are illustrated and those that are mentioned in the text.
9 pages
Papermaking Pubs
Two illustrations of public houses with names connected to papermaking in Maidstone, Kent – The Papermakers Arms and The Royal Paper Mill.
The London Papers
In a move away from past practices and in order to catch up on publishing the backlog of past BAPH conference papers it has been decided to include the conference papers as partworks within The Quarterly. The first of these to appear are The London Papers, the Proceedings of the British Association of Paper Historians Sixth Annual Conference, held at Imperial College London in 1995. The first part consists of three papers, two of which provided the 'London' part of the
conference, and a third, which although not presented at the conference adds knowledge to the complex subject covered in the other two papers.
Matthias Koops at Neckinger Mill, Bermondsey – Alan Crocker and Robin
Clark
Matthias Koops is well known for the innovations to papermaking which he introduced at the end of the eighteenth century. In particular he developed methods for extracting ink from used paper, so that it could be recycled, and for manufacturing paper from straw, wood and other raw materials. These methods were successfully put into commercial practice in 1800 at Neckinger Mill, Bermondsey, near the south bank of the Thames about a mile downstream from London Bridge.
8 pages, illustrated, appendix
The Chelsea Mill of the Straw Paper Company – Richard Hills
Koops experiments at Neckinger must have prompted the establishment of the Straw Paper Company on a site at Millbank on the north bank of the Thames about a mile upstream from Westminster Bridge. This mill was variously called Chelsea, Thames Bank or Westminster Mill and was certainly intended to be
on 'a large commercial scale' but a closer examination shows that the mill was never completed. This paper attempts to determine the sequence of events from its incorporation to its demise but many questions remain unanswered.
10 pages, illustrated, table
Neckinger Mill Paper and Watermarks – Alan Crocker and Richard Hills
Papers produced by Koops were used in the production of his book Account of the Substances which have been used to Describe Events, and to Convey Ideas from the Earliest Date, to the Invention of Paper, two editions were published, in 1800 and 1801. Copies held by various libraries were re-examined, additionally it has recently been discovered that Neckinger Mill paper was used in some books by Thomas Pennant published in 1801 and 1804. This article gives a detailed account of the findings
of this research.
8 pages, illustrated
The Quarterly No. 40 – October 2001
Security Papers – Colin Harris
The earliest security papers were probably special papers for currency, in the UK, Portals have manufactured banknote paper in Hampshire since 1724.
This article examines, and details, current methods employed to provide security measures which are implemented by the paper mill, either by inclusions or in the properties of the paper. Methods covered are: Chemical Security; Adhesive Film; Laser Print Adhesion Improvement; Watermark; Thread; Planchettes, Security Fibres and HiLites; Chemical Verification; Optical Variable Devices (OVD).
5 pages, colour illustrations, tipped in paper sample
Fire: The Papermaker's Nightmare – Ian Dye
Of the many reasons for the disappearance of paper mills from the face of the landscape fire has always been one of the most destructive and horrific. Reports on fires generated eye-catching news for the local, and sometimes, national newspapers of the 18th and 19th centuries. This article looks at some of the reporting of the more interesting paper mill fires in the period 1750 to 1900.
4 pages, table
Book Review
The Paper Conservator, Volume 25. Edited by Alan Donnithorne & Jane Eagan.
Papermaking Texts: Hector Campbell and Bleaching – Peter Bower
Perhaps the most important development in papermaking in the 1790s, aside from Robert's invention of the papermachine, was the introduction of chemical bleaching. Little is known about
some of the pioneers, including Hector Campbell, but some of their published writings are worthy of study. This article is a reprint of two of his texts, firstly, his 1792 Patent for "An Improved Method of Destroying and Taking away all the Carbonic, Oleaginous, and Colouring Elements and Particles in Linen, Cotton, Hemp, and in all Coloured Rags and other Materials used in Making Paper…", and secondly, a long letter dating from 1802 in which Campbell compares and contrasts the then state of English and French Papermaking.
5 pages, illustrated
Sir William Congreve's Triple Paper: A New Transcription of an Unique Document – Douglas Stone and Cindy Bowden
This work by Congreve on the development of the banknote and security papers has been briefly touched on before in The Quarterly No 23, July 1997 and a version of Congreve's manuscript was published by Dard Hunter in 1947, but that transcription was incomplete. The manuscript is a volume of 62 pages containing 36 specimens of tipped in paper samples and twelve pages of manuscript by Sir William Congreve. This article is a complete transcription of that text.
8 pages, colour & b/w illustrations
The London Papers (part two)
In a move away from past practices and in order to catch up on publishing the backlog of past BAPH conference papers it has been decided to include the conference papers as partworks within The Quarterly. The first of these to appear are The London Papers, the Proceedings of the British Association of Paper Historians Sixth Annual Conference, held at Imperial College London in 1995.
Paper Excise Stamps on a Re-used Haslemere Ream-wrapper – Alan Crocker
An examination and report of the covering of the 1820 Land Tax Return for Haslemere, Surrey made from re-used coarse paper printed on the inside with the Royal Arms and the words 'SUPERFINE FINE / JAMES SIMMONS'. This turned out to be ream wrapper complete with excise label and stamps, the only
example known to have survived from the early nineteenth century, largely because purchasers were instructed to destroy them. Includes a short account of the Simmons family papermakers and also details on the excise duties payable on paper.
5 pages, illustrated
Decorative End-papers in the National Art Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum – Marian Keyes
End-papers consist of units of two or more leaves which provide a measure of safety for the text-block from the wear and tear of book handling. An obvious function of many end-papers is to cover the inside of the book board, hiding the cover turn-ins. Bookbinders soon realised that end-papers had an
enormous decorative potential, utilising techniques such as wood-block printing and marbling. This article is a study of some of the end-papers found in books in the libraries collection. There is an appendix detailing papers used in books displayed in the exhibition held between 12 January – 13 March 1994 in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
8 pages, illustrated, appendix
Innovative and Unsung: George Steart's Development of Artists' Watercolour and Drawing Paper 1805-1832 – Peter Bower
Since 1989 the author has been involved in the study and identification of the papers used by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851)for the nearly 20,000 drawings and watercolours in The Turner Bequest at the Tate Gallery, London. One of the areas that has emerged is that most of the coloured papers used by Turner were made by the until now relatively unknown George Steart, of Bally, Ellen and Steart, papermakers of De Montalt Mill, Monkton Combe, Bath. George Steart's involvement with De Montalt Mill and The
Royal Society of Arts is covered in depth, including the full text submitted by him detailing the process of manufacture and published by the Society on the award of the Isis Silver Medal in 1821. There is also an appendix on John Constable (1778-1837) and George Steart's paper.
12 pages, illustrated, appendix