The sun., 1906-02-18
WATERMARKS ON PAPER.
Signiflcance ol Those First Csed-Meana
OF Detecting F0rgHies.


OF Detecting ForgTies.
watermarks have proved themselves in
valuable for safeguarding against the
forgery Of banknotes, bills, stamps, 6c
though the difficulty experienced by the
Bank OF England in evolving mark de-
flying imitation was very great aud was
accompanied by the execution Of forgeries
innumerable.
Many a will has been s.t aside owing
to false dates in watermarks, for, thanks
to water1narks, We are under no uncer-
tainty respecting tho date Of the existence
OF the paper. Ireland's celebrated Shake.
spearian forgeries were, however, peTpe.
trated with skilful recognition Of the water.
mark difficulty. At first, says the London
Globe, he was unaoquainted with any water
mark Of Elizabethan times, 90 he carefully
selected marklese sheets for bis commencing
efforts.
Driven to the production Of Ms. be
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
III OiNol tilhp chiO fiSNAoSeAou oAA - ceN0Sb
of 30 many identical watermarks might not
arouse suspicion.
Two OF the earliest watermarks consist
of circle surmonted by cross. stgnifyins
the cross planted on earth, aud an open
hand surmounted by star or CROSS. repre-
senting the pastoral benediction Of priest
POST paper takes its name from the post
horn, which mark was In uss as early a.
1870. It sometimes appears on = shield,
and in the seventeenth oentury Is sur
mounted by ducal ooronet. in which form
it is still met with on our ordinary note
paper.
The watermark Of 'demy' paper haa ever
been the fleur-de-lys, the peculiar cogaiz-
ance OF the House Of Burgundy, who were
patrons Of the Bordeaux industry. In
course OF time the manufacture Of paper
became centred in the Low Countries. and
the excellence Of Dutch paper, it's purity
and durability have never been excelled
The papers manufactured in the Dutch
mills have great variety OF watermarks,
and many Of them we're the badg,s Of the
noble families who had founded mills else
where. Thus the P. and Y, sometimes
separate and sometimes oonjoined, are the
initials Of Philip the Good, Duke Of Bur-
gundv. 14l9 to 14t7 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
wate1mark in the form Of the letter P for
the Game and Playe Of the Cheese frs.
printed in l.7i.
The first edition of Shakespeare, printed
bv Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount in
1868 will. however, be found to be mostly
on paper bearing a cap like jockeys as
watermark; and the general use Of the term
cap" to various mouern papers owes it TO
marks of this kind
The first English paper maker was John
Tate. VINO founded q mill at Hertford at the
close Of the fifteenth century. Tate made a
fine thin paper, having for a watermark an
eight pointed star within double circle
White coarse paper was made by Sir John
Spei,man, German, at Dlrtford, in 1850
and here the first English paper mills on
arge scale we're erected. Till $780, however
when William Ill passed an act to en-
courage the home manufacture of white
paper. all the best paper for writing anG
printing was imported from Holland and
France.
A story goes that the most curious Of all
watermarks, FOOLS cap. which is derived
from the Italian -foglio-cappo,,', folio
sized sheet, was ordered by the RumP
Parliament to be substituted for the roya
arms in the paper used for the journals ofthe
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 10
the topical allusions whi.h the Royalists
contrived to perpetuate in the case Of papers
introduced from Holland during the Cron-
wellian regime. For example, in 1919
large hat, to denote the broad brmmed
beaver worn by the Puritans; in 1851 -four
crowns; and in 1857, a regal crown-all SYM
bols likely to be obnoxious to the ruling
powers-were exhibited on many papers.