No 38, April 2001

The Quarterly, No 38 --April 2001

Arms of London Watermarks: A Means of Dating Undated Manuscripts - Ruby Reid Thompson

In 1995 the author was asked to participate in the creation of a computerised catalogue of the Portland Collection of literary manuscripts, collected by various members of the Cavendish/Harley/Bentinck families of Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire. The article details the use of watermark information gathered during the process in dating anonymous and undated manuscripts, concentrating on variants of the Arms of London watermarks both individually and in conjunction with countermarks.

10 pages, illustrated, tables

Papermill at St. Martin's Richmond

From time to time in The Quarterly we have published artists' images of British papermills. Phil Crockett has provided us with this delightful print of a papermill drawn by George Cuitt in 1814. The two inscriptions, top left, "4 G. Cuitt. Chester. 1814." and bottom left "Papermill at St Martin's, Richmond." however, raise some questions.
The first is where exactly is the mill? George Cuitt (1743-1818) was a Yorkshire painter who rarely worked further afield, although two oil paintings of views in Shropshire are known. This suggests that the Richmond mentioned in the inscription may well be Richmond in Yorkshire, and that "Chester" refers to Chester-le-Street in Co. Durham rather than Chester, Cheshire.
The second question relates to the number 4 in the inscription. Such numbers generally mean that the work is part of a series. But was it a series of topographical views or more particularly a series of mills? If any reader has any information on the St. Martin's Mill depicted or can throw any light on whether other such illustrations of papermills by George Cuitt exist, could they please contact the Editor - baph@fsmail.net

1 page, illustrated

British Paper Mills: Bramshott, Barford and Standford Mills near Liphook in Hampshire - Alan Crocker

The River Wey which flows into the Thames at Weybridge in Surrey powered, together with its tributaries, 22 paper mills. This article explores the history of four of these, Barford Upper, Barford Lower, Bramshott and Standford. These all lie near Liphook in Hampshire near the point where Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex meet. All four mills shared common ownership for much of their working lives and in particular the Pim and Warren families of papermakers were very much involved.

9 pages, illustrated

Book Reviews

Puzzles in Paper: Concepts in Historical Watermarks. Edited by Daniel W. Mosser, Michael Saffle and Ernst W. Sullivan II.

Papier en Water / Paper and Water. Devised by Pat Torley and Peter Gentenaar.

Letters

Letters to the editor giving further information on the Padsole Mill Token (Quarterly 37, pp1-3) and the Lion Brand Writing Paper mentioned in the articles on the Metaxas Letters (Quarterly 36, pp18-23 & Quarterly 37, pp4-10).Also letters giving details of the growth of hemp for papermaking both historically and currently, and on extracts from the archives of La Papeterie featuring the 1889 Paris Exhibition and on the subject of infected rags.