SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
271
1539. Every one knows how often we are obliged to lefer to ancient times to explain com- mon terms of art and words which are in every one's mouth. We have a curious instance of this in the names which are fj^iven to the different sorts and razes of paper. We all talk of fooU- taf pafer, post paper, and note paper, and paper imkers and stationers have other terms of the sume kind, as hand-paper, pot-paper, &c. Now, tbe term note paper is clear enough, as it evi- dently means paper of the size fit for notes ; while po$t paper, we may suppose, means the larger size which is used for letters sent by the post. But when we come tofooUcap paper we are ahoTCther at a loss for an explanation ; and here we find we must look to something else than the size of the paper as the origin of the name.
Now, if we go hack to the early history of paper-making, we find that terms which now poxzle us so much, may easily be explained by the Tarious paper-marks which have been in oae at different times. In ancient times, we have shew-n, when very few people could read, pictures of every kind were very much in use, where writing would now he employed : every shop had a sign, as well as every public-house ; and these signs were not then, as they very often are now, only printed upon a board : they were always either painted pictures, as many inn-signs stil] are, or else models of the thing which the sign expressed, as we still sometime see a bee- hive, a tea-canister, or a doll. For the same reason, printers always had some device which they put upon the title-pages and at the end of their books ; and paper-makers used marks to distingxiish the paper of their manufacture from that of others. Some of these marks becoming etnmnon, naturally gave their name to different sorts of paper ; and as names, we all know, remain very often long after the origin of them is forgotten and the circumstances changed, we diall not be surprised to find the old names still in ose ; though, in some cases, they are not applied to the same things they originally denoted.
It will be the best way, perhaps, to mention briefly the chief paper-marks which have been used, as they occur m the order of time.
The first paper-maker in England was John Tate, who had a mill near Hertford : his device was a star of five points, within a double circle. The first book printed on paper manufactured in England was a Latin one entitled Bartholomeui de Proprietatibut Rerwn: it was printed in 1495 or 1496: the paper seems to nave been made b^ John Tate the younger, and had the mark of'^ a wheel. The paper used by Caxton, and other early printers, had a great variety of marks, of which the chief are the ox-head and star, the letter p, the shears, the hand and star, a ooUared dog's head, with a trefoil over it, a crown, a shield with something like a bend upon it, &c. &c. The ox-head, sometimes with a ■tar or a flower over it, is tbe mark of the paper on which Faust printed some of his early booKs: but the opoi hand, which was likewise a very andent mark, remained longer in fashion, and
probably gave the name to what is still called hand paper. We have given a representation of one which is copied (as were the rest which we shall give) from loose pages of old written or printed books.
The above figure was taken from a loose page at the beginning of a Bible printed in 1539.
Another very favourite paper-mark, at a some- what later period, was the jug, or pot, which seems to have been the origin of the term pot paper. It is sometimes found plain, but oftener bears the initials or first letters of the maker's name: hence there is a very great variety of figures, every paper-maker having a somewhat different mark. We have given iig^ures of both kinds : the jugs or flagons are often of a very elegant shape, and cunous as showing the work- numship of the times in which they were made.
The specimens here given are taken from books printed in 1539.
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