Pens: Anatomy of a Letter, Part 1 "While John and I continue to transcribe away in RBML, we want to give you guide to some of the characteristics of the materials we are using. Unsurprisingly, there is much variation between letters, as their writers chose the paper, style, and format of their letter to serve varying purposes. Many of these characteristics involve written conventions, which is something that John will focus on in the second part of this post. I am going to be looking at the more concrete aspects of a letter—what can be determined simply from the paper. There are several different things we look for when we inspect a letter. 1. What paper was used? There are two different types of paper that writers in early Philadelphia used: laid and wove. Wove paper is created by using pulped linen in a wire mesh frame in a way that the liquid material weaves itself together. Laid paper is made by sifting a diluted linen pulp into a mold that then creates a series of parallel ribs throughout the paper, which are referred to as chain lines. When you hold a piece of laid paper up to a light those lines are clearly seen. Wove paper, however is made using a frame of wire mesh woven together, thus eliminating the presence of chain lines and making the frame lines almost indiscernible. Wove paper grew popular in the late eighteenth century as letter writers began to use it in their correspondences, and this method of creating paper eventually eclipsed laid paper in the early nineteenth century. Today, however, upscale stationary will have fabricated chain lines that are put in to create the illusion of the much more arduous paper making process. 2. Watermark This leads right into number 2: the watermark. Wove paper does not possess watermarks, but laid paper does. Watermarks are incorporated by the paper making company, who wish to include their mark on the paper. Many times this will simply be a name or initial in the paper that is normally invisible but can easily be found when held up to a light. Identifying watermarks helps us discern what type of paper a writer was using, where the writer was acquiring his paper, and the respective popularity of different paper markers’ brands. 3. Seal Only some of the letters possess wax seals. This is usually because the reader will rip open the letter too quickly, causing a rip in the parchment, or the seal may fall off. Letters with wax seals are generally made with stamped with an emblem belonging to the owner, so a series of letters from the same person most likely will have the same seal. 4. Pre-folded Many writers in early Philadelphia would pre-fold their letters. This means that they would fold the sheet of paper before writing, creating multiple pages on which they could write. If a sheet is folded in half, this will turn that page into into four pages, thus giving the writer more room to fill. When John and I consider the letters, we measure the size of the paper, as well as how much of the paper the writer used. Usually, there will be bank sections, or in some cases blank pages. 5. Margins Occasionally, we will also see pre-folding in order to form margins, establishing spatial boundaries on the page. Rather than write to the edge of the page, the writer will use folds in the paper to measure the section on the page in which they will write. This creates a neater letter and also can provide additional space in a pinch, as writers will use the margins as extra writing space if they run out on the page." Click link to see photos
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 09:25:15 +0000
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