#totenzettel

Depicted in the middle: my printmaking partner David's cloth for wiping the edges, back and front, a thing of beauty.  Wish I had more time to write some properly researched entries, but swamped with work in the printshop this week, and after a nice hot sauna in the evenings (we're in Finland, after all) there's no brain energy left for writing. Oh well, a tiny little thing:

Printmaking lingo: Trauerrand (German)

Best translated with "mourning border", the black border around a card commemorating a death or funeral. In printmaking it is used for a print where the printer has forgotten or neglected to clean the edges of the intaglio plate, resulting in an unwanted (black) "frame" around the image.

Etymologically, the word Trauerrand comes from the Totenzettel, small, often folded cards that gave a short (or at times lengthy) description of the life of the deceased, the dates and or comforting quotes. They were given to attendants of the funeral service in church or were being mailed to notify those living further away. Varying in decoration, yet some sort of a black border (the Trauerrand) unifies most of the Totenzettel, with -of course- more than enough exceptions.

Thanks for reading this far, I'm trying to remember what point, if any, I was going to make. Nevermind, please point your attention back to the Totenzettel depicted above. Not only is the lovely lady mourned here named 

Maria Teresia Ursula Walburgis Aloysia von Eschenbrender