watermarks

These are interesting master trade mark designs of paper-mill and paper manufacturers which immediately appear if we turn a mould-made piece of paper towards light. The watermark designs were made by fine wires which were fixed on a dipper sieve: it made the paper thinner around the design's outline. The origin of the paper can be identified based on its watermarks, however, it might not be an easy task since the different paper manufacturers often used the same watermark or the same workshop might have had several different watermarks. Gutenberg printed his famous 42-line Bible onto such paper, the watermark of which illustrated a bunch of grapes. Watermark researchers reviled that this paper was made in Switzerland. The watermark of Honterus' printing house in Brasov was the arms of the town.

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