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Show 71 OLD~PAPERMAKIN their own monuments and from the writings o the old historians. All these creatures were sym bols as well as idols to the Egyptians,~symbols t the educated and idols to the ignorant The unicorn, like the bull, is found as a watermark in the paper used by Caxton and holds prominent place in papermarks from the fifteent to the seventeenth century. M. Briquet has foun over eleven hundred examples of this animal use as a device for marking paper. The unicorn wa symbolic of purity and innocence and it was believed that the horn of this mythical animal was panacea for all illness and an antidote for poisons The ancients believed the horn of the unicorn s sensitive that if a cup of poison was brought nea it the poison liquid would expel a thick moistur from its surface, and if a piece of the horn wa thrown into the poison it would bubble, and i time boil over. It wasalso thought by the ancient that the horn was movable at will, like a kind o Swo The unicorn was used as a watermark by th old papermakers both in full body and head alone As a papermark this mythical animal is seldo seen with any other symbol incorporated with i but in a few instances a sword or cross protrudin from its back has been noted. A marlk of this kin is given in one of the specimens from 1 . Th wire forms for both of the watermarks illustrated Diital image© 2004 Mariot Libary, Universty o Uta. All right reserved |