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Show TH OL WATERMARK 29 1670, when the general post-ofce was established in England. Thi is a mistake as marks of this type have been found in document bearing dates as carly as the late fourteenth century he art of forming the wire watermark s applied t the moulds has been modified butlitle since the originof the craf in the late thirteenth century. In Europe, before the cighteent century, all paper was made on laid moulds, and the shets s moulded retained the impressions of the laid and chain wires use in the construction of the moulds. Any wire-work, in the form o objects added to the top surfic of this laid and cha n wire coverg also made impressions in the paper. Why these indentation were called watermarks is not known, as the mark in paper is n more made by the use of water than is the sheet itself. In Germa the design impressed in the paper is called wasserzeichen, which like the English term watermark, is confusing. Tn the French language the term s filigrane, and in Dutch papiermerken. Th two appellations are more suitable. Lewis! writing in 1737, alway refers to watermarks a and al contemporary German writers called them papierzeichen. In the Enghsh patu\ granted to John Phipps, dated 1790, the name "w appeared. This was, no doubt, the first use of this term, nnd as th name wasseracichen was not used by German writers until abou 1810, we are led to believe that the term, watermark, faulty in it meaning as it is, had its origin in the English languag The wire forms for producing the watermarks, or papcrmmrks were for centuries held in place on the surface of the moulds b means of threadlike wires stitched back and forth, binding th mark to the laid and chain wres. In much of the old paper it is possible to detect the sewing-on wires around the watermarks whe the sheets are held to a bright light. Tn many of the early papermarks the sewing-wires are pronounced, owing to wire havin © Life of Mayster Wyllyor Caston. London, 1737 i |
