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A very fine pair of moulds used for one of England's most distinguished banks. Made by Edwin Amies & Son (date unknown) this is a very good example of the mould maker's craft with debossed decorated border & the word BANKERS (which will show darker than the rest of the sheet) with the other lettering in sown on wire which will appear as lighter lines. Size 284 x 475mm.
© Copyright Simon Barcham Green 2011. Not to be copied or reproduced without written permission
These small moulds were made by E Amies & Son (date unknown) to make two bills on each mould. Overall size is 122 x 661 mm. The zig zag edging watermark is in place but the lettering identifying the bank has been removed. Note the careful repair to the deckle where the wood had been damaged although the reinforcing brass is part detached.
© Copyright Simon Barcham Green 2011. Not to be copied or reproduced without written permission
I don’t own the mould for this but Terry Connors wrote to me about the watermark of which he has an example and asked what I knew of the mould. I told him that I do not know much about the history of the mould. It was apparently made by GSW in 1906 and seems to have been an exhibition piece. In 1986 GSW asked if we could make some paper on it for a papermaking exhibition in (I think) Stockholm. We made about 1,000 sheets but as this was such a small amount we had to use whatever white stock we had at the vat at a time. As a result the watermark is not as clear as it probably would have been in 1906. We kept a few sheets one of which we donated to a Hand Papermaking auction which Terry now has. It was only after we made the paper that I realised the 1986 calendar was exactly the same as that in 1906 so that GSW could have changed just one figure to make it current! The rest of the story is rather sad. GSW were bombed in World War II and virtually all their old moulds, equipment and archives were destroyed in the fire. I am not sure how this one survived. The 1,000 sheets were taken to the exhibition but very few were handed out to those attending the stand because someone stole the entire packet. Presumably they placed some value on them so the paper will be out there somewhere. If anyone knows where this package is, please let me know.
The GSW business was originally started by John Green of Maidstone. This has caused us endless confusion as he was not related to the John Green V who owned Hayle Mill in the early 19th Century. GSW were one of the main makers of moulds and are reasonably well represented in my collection.
Photo courtesy Terry Connors PhD, University of Kentucky
These two sheet wove moulds seem to have been used to make minute paper. The ruled watermark lines would be sufficiently visible on the surface of the wire side of the sheet for the minute writer to align their writing accurately. 36 indicates the number of rule lines & may be there to help customers re-order. These moulds are very similar to M211 Smith & Allnutt except for the watermark and so I am only showing one image in this post. There are five images in the M236 photo album which can be compared with M211.
These moulds seem to have been in the process of having their dates changed since in various sheets the dates 1914 & 1915 appear as well as incomplete dates as in this picture. There is a rubbing with these moulds, made in 1950.
© Copyright Simon Barcham Green 2011. Not to be copied or reproduced without written permission
This is one of the few moulds I own from other mills. Until the middle of the 18th Century the Swedish government imported their currency paper but in 1755 they constructed a mill at Tumba which is about 20 km South West of Stockholm and imported some Dutch papermakers with knowhow. At the time the mill seemed very remote from civilisation so for many years it ran not only its own school but also a dairy and a brewery. It was still a very forested area when I visited in the 1970s but is now fairly suburban. The modern papermill is now a subsidiary of Cranes, the US currency maker but there is a museum - http://www.tumbabruksmuseum.se/index_eng.htm.
I do not know why Tumba use the beehive as their symbol but this is a particularly lovely mark with the wreath of flowers and the bees. Size 380 x 482. Thought to be made at Tumba Bruk who had a loom on display.
© Copyright Simon Barcham Green 2011. Not to be copied or reproduced without written permission
I have no information on these moulds, who they were made by or when. Sheet size 180 x 788mm.
The Bank of Adelaide was founded in 1865 in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was incorporated by an act of the Parliament of South Australia. It was taken over in 1979 by ANZ, and merged into that organisation, after bailing out a subsidiary finance company (the Finance Corporation of Australia) that had lent too much to people without the security to cover the loans. It should not to be confused with the more recent Adelaide Bank, a totally separate bank which has merged with Bendigo Bank. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_adelaide)
© Copyright Simon Barcham Green 2011. Not to be copied or reproduced without written permission.
At first glance you might wonder if these two moulds are actually a pair. One is wove and one is laid and they have completely different watermarks. However not only does a stamp in the brass indicate they were made by T J Marshall (but no date) but also both moulds were stamped B7698 so they are definitely a pair.
The wove mould features two small light and shade watermarks.
This little bird is a gem featuring both light and shade and line watermarking. It looks to be a dove but rather than holding an olive branch in its beak it has a ring and seems to be perched on a branch. So maybe it's a crow which suggests perhaps Aesop but I could not, in a quick search, find a fable involving a ring as well. The Dove's Press symbol had two doves facing each other.
The other watermark in the wove mould is CP - could this be Curwen Press?
The second mould is double faced laid. The cover wire is shinier than the wove cover which suggests that perhaps a new cover was fitted to this mould; if so why not to the first mould?
In contrast to the wove watermarks, this one is straightforward, or nearly. In 1975 we made two batches of paper watermarked with Jasper Johns' signature. The watermark on this 341 x 424 mm sheet was complemented by the same watermark in wove sheets 210 x 148 mm. My understanding was that they were both to be used in a suite of 11 etchings. The small sheets each had an image of the number 0 to 9 whilst the large sheet had all ten numbers in a grid. You can see the ten small images at Joseph K Leven Fine Art but I have not found the larger one and wonder if it was ever made. I have quite a lot of the blank small sheets in the archives, complete with the water mark which was later removed as it was fitted to our laboratory mould M298 used for making trial sheets of paper for colour matching.
Finally this image shows how the sheet size had been reduced by fastening small slips of wood to the deckle.
© Copyright Simon Barcham Green 2011. Not to be copied or reproduced without written permission
For the latest info on these moulds posted on 12 February, scroll down to the foot.
Note that the image above has been reversed in my PC and is a mirror so showing what would appear as a watermark in the paper. The images below are exactly as they are on the mould - back to front as is normal for Hayle Mill. See FAQ for more about this.
These laid moulds have a fine "botanical" watermark although I cannot identify what it represents. The watermark also has the apparent date 1818 (although the moulds were made by E Amies & Son in 1901) and the additional numerals 8988. I am very confused what these numerals indicate. Nevertheless these are very attractive moulds in very good condition having been very little used. This may suggest that they were made for a limited edition book (or series) with a very specific dimensional requirement that was not available with existing moulds.
Phil Crockett has commented (in FAQ) "I did wonder whether Mould 213 was made to celebrate 10 years of a horticultural society 1888 to 1898?". This makes sense to me.
Cor Knops suggests the device may represent a carnation which it does resemble quite well.
Hugh MacFarlane has now solved the mystery; he writes "The mould M213b, is as you suggest paper that was made for the Essex House Press, founded by C.R.Ashbee, his Guild of Handicraft founded in 1888, the press in 1898, the last book being printed in 1910. One of the books from the press that I have, bears the same watermark, this was printed in 1899.I hope this of help to you". A little googling has since revealed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Robert_Ashbee
http://www.ull.ac.uk/exhibitions/bookbeautiful.pdf
The latter reference states that Essex House Press chose white pinks (dianthus) as its symbol, and the flower can be spotted in many of the works on display.
Keith Adams has commented: "I see that you have been informed of the significance of this watermark. The flower was a bit of a giveaway, but I took rather longer to check my facts than your other correspondents. It is very much like one used for an edition of The Poems of William Shakespeare printed by the press in 1899 in an edition of 450 published by Edward Arnold. Page size 230h x 170w. As this was only a year after the press was started, perhaps they had exhausted the paper purchased from the Kelmscott Press, or may have need a different size.
© Copyright Simon Barcham Green 2011. Not to be copied or reproduced without written permission
Sadly there is no story attached to this nice example of a small light & shade watermark. The position of the four marks in the mould suggests the sheet would have been torn in four and then "fly folded" in half. The moulds were made by E Amies at their Chancery Lane, Maidstone factory (date unknown).
For information about watermarks and how they are made, browse around Larry D Smith's website which is an extremely comprehensive and useful source of information.
A sheet of paper was made on the moulds in 1981 using, I assume, whatever stuff was to hand. Clearly the beating was not optimised for clarity.
© Copyright Simon Barcham Green 2011. Not to be copied or reproduced without written permission
These moulds have been featured not so much for their watermarks, although these are attractive, but because the ribs are unevenly spaced for no apparent reason. In other instances, there are often two closely spaced ribs underneath a deckle divider, but this does not apply in this case. Furthermore the variation in spacing is quite irregular. Made by W Green, Son & Waite (date unknown).
© Copyright Simon Barcham Green 2011. Not to be copied or reproduced without written permission
These beautiful moulds would have made eight banknotes. I have very few "four sheet" moulds; these are an economic size for production and produce four sheets each of which produces a pair of banknotes. This photo shows the wear of the reinforcing brass as well as the watermarks close up. Made by E Amies & Son in 10/1903.
© Copyright Simon Barcham Green 2011. Not to be copied or reproduced without written permission
