Dear Mr. Scheiner,
Just to add a thought to the information given by Mr. White and
others. I think you'll find that in the incunabula period every volume
in folio (or regent folio) has only one watermark per bifolio. This has
to do with paper production, obviously, since papermakers added
their water- or "trademark" by means of small wires which they
attached to the sieve (is it really called so?). It was always placed
"off-side" and never in the center.
The place where the watermark is located in the page of the printed
book, however, depends on just how many times the paper has
been folded. A book in folio is folded just once; in quarto, the paper
has been folded twice, in octavo three times and so on.
This produces different results: In folio format you will find the
watermark in the middle of the page (if still visible behind the dark
ink letters!). By contrast, you'll find it in quarto in the fold at the
spine, where the stitching is, and in octavo it appears along the
edges of the page.
Have a look at Philip Gaskell's "A New Introduction to Bibliography"
who includes an excellent chapter on watermarks and formats.
Best regards,
Dr. Randall Herz
On 28 Nov 2005, at 14:05, s cheiner wrote:
> I am trying to find out if the paper stock used for
> the Gutenberg (B42) Bible had a single watermark
> (grapes or ox head or walking ox) on each royal folio
> sheet, so only half the leaves that resulted from
> folding had a watermark on it, or watermarks were
> placed so each resulting leaf would have a watermark.
> I did not find the answer to this in Janet Ing's
> excellent book and I do not have my copy of Schwenke's
> 1923 study available.
> Thank you.
> C.J. Scheiner
>
>
>
>
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