Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-24
wATERMARKs ON PAPER.
How They Proved Invaluable in De-
tecting Many Clever Forgeries.

SSSt1AS AAAy ~ - ~ . >~AS0
From the London Globe.
Watermarks have proved themselves in
valuable for safeguarding against the for
gerry of bank notes, bills, stamps, etc,
though the difficulty experienced by the
Bank of England in evolving a mark defy
ing imitation was very great and was ac-
innumerable.
Many will has been set aside owing to
false dates In watermarks, for thanks to
watermarks, we under no uncertainty
respecting the date of the existence of the
paper. Irelands celebrated Shakespearean
forgerieS were, however, prepetrated with
| skillful recognluon of the watermark diff
ticulty.
Driven to the production of manuscripts,
he set to work purchasing old volumes for
their fly leaves and hearing that the jug"
was the prevalent watermark of the reign
of Queen Elizabeth, he selected such as had
the jug on, being careful to mingle with
them certain number of blank leaves in
order that the production on q sudden of
so many Identical water marks might not
arouse suspicion.
Two of the earliest water marks consist
of a circle surmounted by a cross. signify
Ing the cross planted on earth, and an open
hand surmounted by a star cross, rep
resenttng the pastoral benedictton of a
priest. Post" paper takes its name from
the post horn, which mark was in use as
early as 1870. 1t sometimes appears on a
| shield, and in the seventeenth century is
surmounted by a ducal coronet, in which
| form 1t is still met with on our ordinary
note paper.
The water mark of deny" paper has
| ever been the neur -de-lys the peculiar cog
nizance of the house OF Bergundy, who
were patrons of the Bordeaux industry. In
course of time the manufacture of paper
became centered in the low countries and
the excellence of the Dutch paper, its pur ty
and dura bility have never been excelled.
The papers manufactured in the Dutch
mills have great variety OF water marks,
and many of them were the badges Of the
noble families who had founded mills else
where. Thus the P. and Y, sometimes sep
arate and sometimes conjoi1ed are the in
tials of Philip the Good. Duke of Bur
gundy, 141O to 1857 and Ysanella, his wife.
The ox's head was another ancient water
mark on which Caxton and Faust printed
some of their books, but Caxton used a
water mark in the form of the letter p for
the Game and Plays of the Cheese first
printed in 14I4.
The first edition of Shakespeare, printed
by Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount in
1923 WILL however be found to be mostly
| on paper bearing cap like a jockey as
water mark, and the general use of the
term cap to various modern papers owes
1t to marks of this kind.
The first English paper maker was John
Tate who founded a mill at Hartford at
the close of the fifteenth century. Tate
made a fine thin paper having for a water
mark an ight-pointed star within a double
circle. White coarse paper was made by
Sir John Speilman, q Germ an, at hartford
in 1880 and here the first English paper
mills on a large scale were erected. Till
1890 however, when William III passed an
act TO encourage the home manufacture OF
white paper all the best paper for writing
and printing was imported from Holland
and France
story goes that the most curious of all
water marks, FOOLS cap which is derived
from the Italian foglio-cappo, folio
ordered nv the
lament to be substituted for the royal
arms in the paper used for the journals OF
the house of commons.
AS a matter of fact, no paper so marked
found it's way into England before 1859.
and the story probably owes its origin to
the topical alius:ons which the royalists
contrived to perpetuate in the case Of pa
pers introduced from Holland during the
Cromwellian regime. For example. in 1919
a large hat, to denote the broad-brimmed
beaver worn by the Puritans; in 1851, four
crowns and in 1857, regal crown-all sym
bols likely to be obnoxious to the ruling
powers-were exhibited on many pages.