#patterned papers

Decorative Sunday

In Praise of Patterned Papers was printed in an edition 360 copies by Graham Moss at his Incline Press in Oldham, England in 1997. It includes dozens of paper samples and a collection of essays by noted British designers and patterned-paper experts Tanya Schmoller, Paul Nash, Phyllis Barron, Enid Marx, Alan Powers, Sebastian Carter, Victoria Hall, and Graham Moss himself. Moss writes:

What you have here is a guide book rather than an encyclopaedia, not a study so much as an exuberance. . . . Patterned paper is a particular type of decorated paper, and has as many uses as you might put it to. The main emphasis of this collection of essays is to take a look at its use as a book covering, with a little but the occasional turn of the head to look at other decorated papers used in bindings.

The patterns shown here are by Sarah Nechamkin, Hans Schmoller, Edward Bawden, Enid Marx, and Robert Simon.

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Decorative Sunday

There are 440 Washi-producing centers throughout Japan. It is widely produced not only as traditional paper using pure kozo, mitsumata, and gampi, but also as more contemporary paper used in art, crafts, folkcrafts, casting, and molding. Washi is an intangible cultural asset and traditional craft product of Japan.

The examples shown here are from Washi, Handmade Paper of Japan (日本の紙 : 全国手漉き和紙見本帖), a specimen book of 307 Washi paper samples in a binder, produced at Ino, Agawa District, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan by Zenkoku Tesuki Washi Rengōka in 1997. Shown here from the top:

Ecchu Washi, Katazomeshi (Stencil Printed Paper): A resist is applied onto the kozo base paper through a stencil. The paper is then dyed, and then the resist paste is washed away to reveal the image.

Mino Washi: Flowers and butterflies are embedded in kozo paper, used for handicrafts and interior decoration.

Echizen Washi, Seikaiha (semicircular repeated wave patterns): mitsumata paper with gold leaf.

Mino Washi: Kozo with embedded butterfly.

Echizen Washi, Kiriasa: Mitsumata paper.

Echizen Washi, Hiryushi: Mitsumata paper.

Sakishu Washi: Unbleached kozo paper is processed by folding the paper and dipping the edge into dyes to create a variety of colors and patterns.

Tosa Washi: Made from kozo and Manila hemp.

Kurotani Washi, Bingata-somegami: Made from kozo, Bingata was produced as one of the folkcrafts in Ryukyu, using a dye and resist method.

Our copy is another donation from our late friend Jerry Buff (1931-2025).

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Decorative Sunday

Paste Paper Patterns

Victoria Hall is a noted English maker of marbled and paste papers. These original samples of her paste paper work are included in her chapter on the paste papers she produced for the book covers of Incline Press and Rampant Lions Press imprints in the Incline Press publication In Praise of Patterned Papers, printed in an edition 360 copies by Graham Moss in Oldham, England in 1997. In her chapter, Hall also makes reference to the metallic colors used by American paste-paper artist Claire Maziarczyk including a sample of her work.

View another post with a sample of Victoria Hall paste paper.

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Decorative Sunday

Here are some more decorative papers from  In Praise of Patterned Papers, printed in an edition 360 copies by Graham Moss at his Incline Press in Oldham, England in 1997. Shown here in order are:

Indian hand block-printed pattern, which at the time of this printing was available in sheets at Traidcraft shops, litho-printed on paper made form sugar cane waste in Bangladesh.

Dorothy Larcher (1884–1952) design for the Little Gallery, ca. 1930.

Modern litho-printed reproduction of Italian woodblock patterns.

Margaret Calken James (1895–1985) designs for the Curwen Press, 1927.

Enid Marx (1902-1998) design used by Chatto & Windus for their Zodiac series in the late 1930s.

Boulders, designed by Rigby Graham (1931-2015) for Philip Ward's play A Musical Breakfast published by Brewhouse Press, 1968.

Butterfly Boulders with Eye by Rigby Graham, ca. 1970.

Landscape with Folded Hill by Rigby Graham, 1971.

Ruined Castle Against a Hill by Rigby Graham, derived from drawings of ruined Irish castles, late 1970s.

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Decorative Sunday

A Pick of Patterned Papers by British art historian, writer, and design specialist Alan Powers (b. 1955), printed in an edition of 50 copies by Graham Moss at his Incline Press in Oldham, England, was produced as a 2001 New Year keepsake from the Incline Press, and includes four patterned paper samples wrapped in a paste paper cover. The patterns shown here from top to bottom are:

Victoria Hall paste paper cover.

18th-century Italian woodcut pattern used for the backs of playing cards.

Patterned paper designed for the Little Gallery, London using an Enid Marx (1902-1998) wood engraving, 1929.

Design drawn by Thomas Lowinsky (1892-1947) for the dust jacket of Milton Waldman's King Queen Jack published by Longmans, Green & Co., 1931.

Patterns by Alan Powers.

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Birthday Anniversary - Walt Whitman, May 31, 1819

Walt Whitman was born on this day, May 31, in 1819 in West Hills, New York. At the age of 36, he published the first edition of Leaves of Grass—his seminal work of poetry that began as a pamphlet of 12 poems and grew to a tome of over 300 poems in what is called the “deathbed edition” which was copyrighted in 1891 and published in 1892, the year of Whitman’s death. The deathbed edition isn’t actually a new edition, but is essentially a new impression of the 1881 edition. 

This edition of Leaves of Grass contains the complete poems of Walt Whitman as published in the 1891-1892 edition mentioned above. It was published in 1950 by Peter Pauper Press in Mount Vernon, New York. The book features original two-color wood engravings by Boyd Hanna that illustrate the text, including one of Abraham Lincoln, who Whitman greatly admired. I particularly enjoy the engraving of a figure I assume to be Whitman, with a bird landing on the poet’s hand and his characteristic beard. 

The book was published in an edition of 1,100 and “the types used are Waverly and Lydian; the paper was specially mould-made for this book by the Hurlbut Paper Company, and the binding was done by the Russell Rutter Company” (colophon). The binding is a quarter binding done in brown leather and red paper patterned with (you guessed it!) leaves of grass printed in cream and green. 

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Fore Edge Friday

Bubbles and vacuoles! At least, that’s what we see in these patterns on the covers, edges, and endpapers of this gold-stamped, calf-skin half binding for the 6th edition of John Tyndall’s 2-volume Fragments of Science, published in London by Longmans, Green, and Co. in 1879. The pattern appears to be what the University of Washington’s site on Patterned Papers identifies as Zebra.

The pattern begins with a Turkish base, with the first colors constricting as others follow and become the ‘vein’ colors for the latter thrown inks. A comb with one set of teeth is then drawn through the bath twice vertically, once in either direction with the second pass halving the first. The last step is to sprinkle or splash on one or more colors, which in the Zebra pattern are usually quite large drops. As we’ve noted before, when marbling the edges of a book, the text block is clamped tightly shut, and once dipped, the excess fluid is blown or shaken off quickly to prevent it from running into the book. Once dry, the marbled edges are burnished.

Cozy Autumn: School Days Patterns

This pack includes 22 school/autumn themed patterned papers.