Weaving Silk Stories - research - paper, unicorns & roses - supporting thoughts of roses - part III
- Stephanie Smart
- 2 hours ago
- 23 min read
In Tudor Roses from John Tate, Allan Stevenson justifies his own forensic study of the paper made by one man as follows:
"As the history of paper is the history of an important human activity, it deserves notice both for its own sake and for its implications for economics and culture." He comments that many academics studying books have taken the paper they are written on rather for granted but tells us that the "...French frequently honor it as the suppôt des pensées".
Paper - 'support of thoughts'. What a perfect definition! As a paper artist I am perhaps biased. But then again, I began my work making paper clothes after having seen a paper kaftan made for a sultan in Turkey, covered in religious script and worn to remind him of his spiritual duty. The question that this conjured in my mind was: what if everything that is normally internal/ephemeral - our thoughts, history, feelings, memories, imaginings - were written and drawn on the surface of our clothes for others to see and read when they meet us?' It was this question that provoked my work and The House of Embroidered Paper.
Surely such thought provoking clothes could be fabricated from no other material but paper. Not only does it present the most suitable surface for supporting the stuff of the mind (when such stuff is recorded in the form of text and imagery), but through its own material qualities it also allows for the artistic representation of the fact that such impressions as we generate mentally are fragile and semi-transparent. Normally invisible and often transitory the notions of our minds are yet sometimes so strongly written as to be able to inspire others. When I get asked about working with paper as a material for construction, the usual implication behind the question is concern. Concern, that is, because of its perceived fragility. But I give the same answer that I used to to give when asked similarly about working with glass. In fact it's much stronger than it is generally assumed to be, as long as you work with it's, rather than trying to force your own will upon it. Paper is perfect for demonstrating the quality of the fragility of the stuff of the mind, but it is also capable of great strength. The ideas recorded upon it might seem opaque but paper is also potentially beautifully translucent, just like our thinking. And paper's semi-transparency requires certain conditions of light. Notions that are usually invisible then can be recorded on paper in ways that allow them to remain hidden, until there's a change in the light, in the form of illumination. All of these notions intrigue me.
Note: Concerning the strength and survivability of paper...
in 1145 the King of Sicily ordered that "...deeds written on paper must be
transcribed onto parchment because it was feared that paper would not last.
The oldest document on paper in the Italian peninsular appears
to be one of 1109 in the archives of Palermo in Sicily."
As part of my last collection The Regency Wardrobe I made three (all white) Walking Dress outfits. There were layers of the decoration of these pieces that only became visible when the overhead lights were lowered and lights under the skirts came on. In this case the extra decoration was formed by cutting and stitching hidden design elements layered beneath the top surface. But what if hidden imagery could be imbued within a single sheet?
Well of course it can. Paper is also capable of holding, containing and hiding or revealing imagery and text as part of its construction. I hadn't made the link until I started reading about Britain's first paper maker: John Tate (1448 - 1507). And each of the pieces of John Tate research I have now seen has included the same method for identifying particular sheets of paper as being Tate's own. This has been done by considering their watermark.
There I am (much of the time) worrying that the paper stocks I have will, despite my best efforts, pick up moisture from the atmosphere. And yet (though I have done enough paper making to know that it is formed in water) I hadn't given much thought to the process of mark making that takes advantage of this fact. Marks that can be made in it when it is wet, that then become hidden as it dries. You can see the process here
That video shows a ready made sheet, made wet, written on and then dried. That is not how Tate's watermarks (for he used more than one as we shall see) would have been formed. They would have been made using moulds. The technique shown in this video comes a bit closer
Note: As I'm working on the new collection, Weaving Silk Stories,
I'm on the look out for techniques I haven't tried before. This collection
of garments is inspired by the history of silk in the UK, its manufacture
and trade and the other material I work with is thread so this project is integrating silk thread
wherever possible but in this post the focus is on my ongoing fascination for paper.
In his study Tudor Roses from John Tate, Allan Stevenson tells us of the likely origins of John Tate's paper making moulds:
"We see that the moulds were Italianate, perhaps made for Tate by a workman from Genoa..."
Note: Europe should be understood as having been far ahead of Great Britain
in terms of the history of paper making. In Italy, a society for manufacturing paper had been
formed near Genoa in 1255. But in Valencia, Spain, the first paper mill may have
been built as early as 1056. Parchment filled in in between the introduction of paper
and the loss of papyrus (that other material commonly used as a substance
for writing in the ancient world, which had disappeared by the Tenth century, the reason for
which is unknown).China of course was further ahead still. The traditionally assumed date
for the introduction of papermaking to the West is 751 but Legend has it that in 105,
T’sai Lun first presented a sheet of paper to the Chinese Emperor as a substitute writing
surface instead of the silk or other cloth which had been used up to that time.
Stevenson then goes on to talk more about the process of manufacture in relation to Tate's watermark:
"In the unwatermarked half of the sheet the spacing of the chains is uniform, with the spaces averaging around 35 mm. But in the watermarked end the spacing varies, so as to provide the watermark with a supporting chain through its center and a place between attendant chains..."
At first I didn't understand the meaning of the word chain in this context so I had to do a search for a definition which you can read here:
"Before the mechanization of papermaking, paper was made by hand, using a wire sieve mounted in a rectangular mould to produce a single sheet at a time. A papermaker would dip the mould into a vat containing diluted pulp of hemp or linen fibers, then lift it out, tilt it to spread the pulp evenly over the sieve and, as the water drained out between the wires, shake the mould to lock the fibers together. In the process, the pattern of the wires in the sieve was imparted to the sheet of paper.
Up until the invention of wove paper around 1756, these screens were made up of thicker, more widely spaced wires around which were woven finer and more tightly packed wires. The traditional laid pattern thus consists of a series of wide-spaced lines (chain lines) parallel to the shorter sides of the sheet and more narrowly spaced lines (laid lines) at right angles to the chain lines. A further distinction exists between what are called "antique laid" and "modern laid" papers. From the 12th century on, the chain wires of a paper mould were attached directly to wooden ribs in the frame itself. When the frame was pulled from the vat, these ribs produced a slight suction which pulled the water out of the newly formed sheet, and a slightly thicker layer of pulp was left across the top of the ribs. In a dried sheet, darker strips can be seen running along these chain lines when the sheet is held to the light. Improvements in mould making in the early 1800s lifted the chain wires slightly, resulting in a more evenly toned sheet."
As I have said John Tate is credited as the first English papermaker. Hence Stevenson's particular interest in him and his work, and by extension my interest also. Stevenson set out to trace John Tate's watermark (effectively his signature) so as to identify particular sheets of paper. Tate's paper can be found in some of Britain's most ancient books, held by great institutions. But I am interested in his choice of particular shapes/images as watermarks also, for anything they might tell us of his personality and his life. It seems to me that whilst he would have been selling his paper stocks as blank sheets for use by book makers, each sheet in fact supported something of his thoughts in the form of the choices he made regarding this personal mark making. He is now gone but his paper holds, to this day (half hidden-half revealed) his maker's mark.
In Papermaking in Britain 1488–1988 A Short History Richard L. Hills tells us:
"Nothing is known about John Tate’s reasons for launching out into the paper industry. It may be significant that he also was a member of the Mercers’ Company. His father was John Tate, another Mercer, who was Mayor of London in 1473 and died in 1478 or early 1479. It is difficult to identify positively either of these John Tates and the position is further confused because they had a relative, Sir John Tate, who was Mayor in 1496 and died in 1514. He had a son John as well. Our John Tate also had worked for the Merchant Adventurers on the Continent and so was well placed to be involved in trade and commerce...."
Note: "English trading in the 15th century (and later) was organised
and controlled by Companies known as "Guilds, Crafts or Mysteries.
These Guilds are today called "Livery Companies", a phrase which
must not be applied to the time of John the Paper maker. Some guilds held a
Royal Charter giving them almost total control over the trading practices
and standards of their members, according to their statutes. Their Court decided
which men to Admit to the Freedom of the Guild, and controlled the trading
practices of the Freemen. No-one but a Mercer could trade as a Mercer;
a Mercer was a man - or a woman under certain circumstances -
entitled to trade in "fine cloth" and in the import and export of wool.
"Fine cloth" meant silk, velvet, brocade, cloth of gold and the various
ornamental clothes which delighted the England of that time."
John Tate Mercer and Papermaker by The Revd. Philip Blewett, C Phys.
You can read more about the 700 year history of the Mercers' Company here
I found it interesting to learn that the wife of a Mercer who engaged in trade could be independent, own her own stock, keep her own profits and be recognised in State documents..
The note above explains why the Mercers are necessarily related to my research for Weaving Silk Stories.
"Most of the fine silk cloths would have been produced in Italy where silk manufacture was highly organised with wave-powered throwing mills already in operation by this date. Silk and paper were imported directly from Italy to Britain for Italy was also home of the manufacture of high quality paper. I am sure that it is highly significant that in John's will we read, "I also bequeth to the said Robert my grete place in mynchenne lane wherein nowe doo dwellynne Mark mazerake and oone polle merchantes perteynying to Unyce". The Tates had houses in Mincing Lane and must have leased one to these Italia merchants which suggests John was involved in trading links with Italy"
John Tate England's First Papermaker Dr Richard Hills, lecture given at Stationers' Hall 1993
I will return to John's familial links with the Mercers Company (his father was in fact not only a member but Master of the Company as were other direct relatives) but I will concentrate on paper for now. Generally we find that every country tended to import paper for a considerable period before starting to make it and:
"England was no exception for, while our white paper industry was not firmly established until the end of the seventeenth century, the oldest surviving piece of paper found in the Public Record Office dates from about 1220. Yet it is not until after 1500 in Tudor times that paper is to be found with any frequency among the records there."
Precisely when John Tate began to build his own papermill is also unknown, a date of 1476 is suggested. And whilst the moulds used may have been made abroad it is reasonable:
"...to assume that paper bearing his watermark was actually made at Tate’s mill near Hertford and that therefore this mill was in operation by at least 1494."
So what were Tate's watermarks?
Stevenson includes a photo of the one that seems to have been most commonly used. He tells us:
"Most accounts of the beginnings of papermaking in England tell us that the first mill was established near Hertford by John Tate the younger and that his paper-mark was a Flower or Star or Wheel...there has been much uncertainty as to what the device represents, for it is a conventional or mathematical figure consisting of eight thin loops within a two-line circle about an inch and a quarter (32 mm) across. No botanist would accept it as a composite, for though it has rays like an aster it has no center flowers. No astronomer would recognize it as a star, for it has eight beams roughly pointed at both ends. And no wheelwright would fashion a wheel with spokes not reaching the rim. Nevertheless, as there are eight of these floating spokes, as in a comic-strip cartwheel or waterwheel, I call it sometimes the Wheel of Tate."
p15 Tudor Roses from John Tate
Stevenson notes subtle differences in the exact shape of the Wheel of Tate on different pages. From this he concludes:
"...the watermark is twins...two similar but distinguishable marks from the pair of moulds handled by vatman and coucher.".
p15-16 Tudor Roses from John Tate
He finds this mark in copies of: Bartholomaeus: De proprietatibus rerum, tr. Caxton [1495]; Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend, tr. Trevisa (8 Jan. 1498); Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales (1498); Lydgate: The Assembly of the Gods [1498] all of which were printed by Wynkyn de Worde. The Bartholomaeus has the famous verses at its end in which Wynkyn tells us that the paper was supplied by Tate:
And also of your charyte call to remembraunce
The soule of William Caxton, first prynter of this boke
In laten tonge at Coleyn himself to auaunce
That every well disposyd man may thereon loke
And John Tate the yonger Joye mote he broke Whiche late hathe in Englond doo make this paper thynne That now in our englyssh this boke is prynted Inne"
John Tate England's First Papermaker Dr Richard Hills, lecture given at Stationers' Hall 1993
"Wynkyn de Worde: (died c. 1534) was a printer and publisher in London known
for his work with William Caxton, and is recognised as the first to popularise
the products of the printing press in England".
To read more please click here
"William Caxton (c. 1422 – c. 1491) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer.
He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England,
in 1476, and as a printer to be the first English retailer of printed books."
To read more please click here
Note: "William Caxton was apprenticed in 1438 to Robert Large, member
of the Mercer's company. In 1463 he was appointed Governor of the
Company of Merchant Adventurers ...it was while on the Continent that
he learnt the art of printing and in 1475 he returned to England determined
to establish his own printing press. The place he chose for this venture
was Westminster Abbey. One reason may have been to avoid some of
the restrictions imposed by the Guilds in the City of London but it was
more likely that he saw a better market for the books he wished to print
among the courtiers and noblemen attached the royal household
than among the merchants of the city...The printing press opened up a much
larger market for books...so it was evident that paper was the only possible material...
In addition to printing, there was a continuous demand for good quality paper
for letters and all sorts of business and civil records, particularly as trade expanded in
the more settled conditions established by King Henry VII after the end of the Wars of the Roses".
John Tate England's First Papermaker Dr Richard Hills, lecture given at Stationers' Hall 1993
"In 1494 the Latin text was reissued of the Papal Bull of Pope Innocent VIII (though cousins of some degree and in recognition of Henry as the rightful occupant of the English crown. Of the six extant, it is the one at Lambeth Palace which has been claimed to be the oldest piece of paper made in England for it shows Tate's watermark, which can also be found in some of the other copies."
John Tate England's First Papermaker Dr Richard Hills, lecture given at Stationers' Hall 1993
For four long studies of the history of paper and to learn more about different designs of watermarks please see: http://ihl.enssib.fr/paper-and-watermarks-as-bibliographical-evidence/dillying-and-dallying-with-watermarks or https://www.motherbedford.com/watermarks/Watermark1B3.htm or https://ia601003.us.archive.org/2/items/b31345736/b31345736.pdf or https://baph.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Cumulative-Index-1-60.pdf
Stevenson explains:
"...a careful study of the Wheel marks has shown that Tate had but one pair of them, whose prolonged life extended from 1494 to 1499, whereas moulds producing paper in great demand commonly lasted but a year or two."
Unfortunately Stevenson doesn't suggest any reasons for the nature of this design beyond his comment above which concludes the wheel of Tate to be not quite a wheel, a flower or a star. So I had thought it was only in my imagination that I could fill in the gaps. Then I read:
"...there is no reason to suppose that the design was personal to him. A motif of eight points or petals within a double circle, bearing a considerable resemblance to this watermark, was sometimes carved in Tudor wooden panelling; an example can be seen in the Tudor guest house at Topsham, Devon, which dates from the fifteenth century. The design may have been quite common at that time."
Ok, I admit I was disappointed. I wanted a more personal reason for why the Medieval papermaker John Tate had chosen this as his personal watermark. But by this time I was already in discussion with Historic Royal Palaces about showing Weaving Silk Stories so you can imagine how serendipitous I found the fact that Stevenson goes on to describe as many as three possible other watermarks which have been attributed to Tate. One of these looks more floral still than the Wheel of Tate. It looks in fact like a rose. A Tudor rose.
"Two further Tate books have been discovered...among Wynkyn de Worde's books after the turn of the century...Thordynary of crysten men (1506) and The Justyces of paes (1510)...suddenly I realized that Thordynary contains other paper manufactured by John Tate...Among the ambiguities three principal facts stood out...the Roses so intermingled with the Wheels are surely Tudor Roses . . . and the two papers have the same Italian chain pattern and the same substance.."
The pages with his wheel on and the pages with this rose on are interspersed throughout Thordynary of crysten men, a book of religious instruction. It seems Wynkyn might have had to use stock from two production runs by Tate:
"A Tudor Rose is of course a double rose compounded of the Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York. Though the Rose watermark has no contrasting colors, it shows prettily and convincingly five cordiform petals with sepals between and in the midst thereof a similar group of five small petals overlapping the larger ones. It is a free treatment of the heraldic rose, not a Gallic or garden rose with multiple petals. Here it arrives auspiciously as a symbol of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, within their reign, which lasted till 1509, and within the lifetime of John Tate, who died in 1507, the year after Thordynary was published..."
Stevenson also tells us that Roses have been linked with paper from Italy and/or France. Just as the chain pattern suggests Genoese make or influence so his sources know of few double roses in Italian paper but:
"...an enterprising Norman maker appears to have anticipated the Tudor Rose by a year or so...a Rose with stem and leaves...comes from Cuy (Orne) near Argentan dated 1484. Three quarters of a century later a Rose of Tudor form appears upon a small Shield...As Briquet found this mark among the Archives of Calvados in tabellionage from Troarn, east of Caen in the direction of Lisieux, the paper probably came from the Pays d'Auge, which had supplied Unicorn paper to England."
Unicorn paper! Doesn't that sound wonderful. Caxton's first procurements of paper into England are known to have come from the Low Countries in France with watermarks of a bull’s head and a unicorn. It was this that would give me pause when designing the mantua Supporting Thoughts of Roses as I looked at the idea of including a unicorn in the design.
He says however that rose paper (another lovely notion that would indeed inform the design of that same dress) was also made in the:
"Bocage near Sourdeval...Nevertheless it was proper for an English mill to make her own roses"
Note: Around 1600 England would again have a white paper mill, in which
John Spilman, Elizabeth I's jeweller and papermaker,
made suitable paper for printed books and manuscripts.
Stevenson finds a rose watermark on paper upon which is written a Proclamation
that denounces the Earls of Essex, Rutland, and Southampton as traitors:
"The Tudor Rose is unmistakable in the Huntington copy, where I first
came upon it, as also in two British Museum copies. For Essex this symbol of Tudor
authority must have seemed the unkindest of his career, and its thorn cut to the heart."
"It is probable that the same Italian mould maker who had made the Wheel moulds and marks made the Rose moulds and marks as well."
Again he finds two slightly variant versions of the mark and therefore believes there was more than one mould made:
"All this may seem insufficiently convincing that the Rose paper is Tate's. But final and sufficient evidence resides in the character and the texture of the paper, the stuff from which it was made. For the Rose paper and the Wheel paper obviously came out of the same vatstuff. In [one] volume they have the same yellow-whiteness, with the same liability to slight foxing, the same tendency to close felted thickness, some sheets of both being overly thick, and, most telling of all, the same flecks and occasional clots of foreign matter, perhaps knots from wollen underwear. For the paper is indeed 'naughty', as Moxon would have said. Tate's once-beautiful paper has slipped a long way in quality....The distribution suggests that de Worde used the Wheel and Rose papers as if they were one... or else that the paper came from the mill with some reams made up of both sorts. In any case short runs of Rose paper occur, into which the Wheel paper intrudes; and sometimes the Wheel in one copy is opposite a Rose in other copies."
As you might imagine all of this made me very interested to learn more about the origins of the Tudor rose design which I believe many people would associate most especially with Henry VIII. But it should be noted that it was on his marriage to Elizabeth of York that Henry VII (son of Edward Tudor and Margaret Beaufort from the House of Lancaster) adopted the Tudor rose badge conjoining the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster.
"James VI of Scotland and I of England used a badge consisting of a Tudor rose dimidiated with a Scottish thistle and surmounted by a royal crown."
So what was the reason that Tate produced certain batches of paper with this symbol as its watermark? Well, the fact that his paper mill:
"...was in or near Hertford is confirmed by a poem of William Vallans, printed in 1590 and called A Tale of two Swannes, which describes the River Lee and its tributaries. In the notes appended to the poem, there is the following:
"In the times of Henry VIII [correctly VII] there was a paper mill at Hertford and belonged to John Tate, whose father was Mayor of London..." "
"A Tudor Rose is of course a double rose compounded of the Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York. Though the Rose watermark has no contrasting colors, it shows prettily and convincingly five cordiform petals with sepals between and in the midst thereof a similar group of five small petals overlapping the larger ones. It is a free treatment of the heraldic rose, not a Gallic or garden rose with multiple petals. Here it arrives auspiciously as a symbol of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, within their reign, which lasted till 1509, and within the lifetime of John Tate, who died in 1507, the year after Thordynary was published. In his will, now at Somerset House, Tate mentions supplies of paper still on hand: 'as moche whit paper or other paper as shall extende to the somme of xxvj s 8 d . . . owte of my paper myll at Hartford'."
We know "...from the Household book of Henry VII, he was at Hertford Castle on 23 May 1498 and on the 25th he saw the papermill. The entry reads:
For a rewarde geven at the Paper Mylne, 16s 8d
The interesting thing is that a similar entry occurs in the following year:
Geven a rewarde to Tate of the Mylne, 6s 8d
What is the meaning of the additional reward? Apparently the King did not revisit the mill. I suggest that after the visit of May 1498 Tate's Italian workman fashioned new moulds emblazoned with the royal symbol and that at Westminster (say) John Tate presented to Henry VII a supply of writing paper marked with Tudor Roses."
"So it has been suggested that, after the first visit of the King in 1498, Tate’s Italian workman fashioned new wire profiles emblazoned with the royal Tudor Rose and that some of the paper made with this watermark was presented later to the King himself."
Note: At this time Hertford Castle was a royal residence and Tate's mill (Sele Mill)
was just a little upstream from it. It would seem that Henry paid a visit to it to
see the latest technological and industrial wonder in his realm
The royal links are fascinating as regards the ways in which they tie in with the many tangential directions of my research for the collection Weaving Silk Stories. The reason that Tate's mill was located where it was also relates. For it was at one end of:
" ...the River Lee (or Lea)...because he needed transport of the raw materials, the rags, and the finished article, the paper, as well as power to work the papermaking machinery. The River Lee and its tributaries supplied both." Because of work carried out under Acts passed in 1424 and 1425, that began just below the Town Mills in the centre of Hertford, Tate had "...good transport within easy reach of an important town and harbour, the City of London."
Having known someone who grew up close to the Lee in Hackney I knew already that this river runs into the East End, but I didn't know it ran from Hertford or that at its other end it joins the Thames at Limehouse, close to Spitalfields, the area where Huguenot migrant weavers would settle and establish the centre of silk production in the City of London from the reign of William III and Mary II onwards. The Lee therefore offers a nice (silken) blue thread joining the area of the first paper made in England with the start of the London silk centre some three hundred years later.
But then there are two other variations of a third water mark also. These show a hand:
"There are two contrasting sorts of Hand paper...The main one, the one associated with the Rose and Wheel papers, has a Hand & star mark with close fingers and is situated on a regular chain in the Genoese manner. It is the sort of Hand that the Norman paper-makers began to imitate twenty years later, producing what the printer Thomas Berthelet called 'jene' in his bill to Henry VIII...The other, coming late in the volume, is a Hand mark without star but with separated fingers, of a sort preferred by other makers at Genoa and in Piedmont. And now we note that this open-fingered paper uses supporting chains in the manner of the Rose and Wheel papers... It looks as if Wynkyn de Worde regarded the Rose-Wheel and Hand & star papers as a sufficiently homogeneous stock of paper and the Hand separated as a satisfactory one to follow with...I began to think that the Hand papers might also be Tate's. For again these papers have occasional thick sheets and similar flaws or knots in the stuff...it looks probable that we now know four kinds of Italianate paper used by John Tate the younger. Joye mote he broke...Where it [had] been generally supposed that Tate had but one mark or pair of marks, we now see that he had at least two. The Tudor Roses are surely his, the Hand & star marks probably his, the Hand separated marks possibly his."
It was only after I had found the Tate family crest that includes a hand and, interestingly, a rose, that I was fortunate enough to have the chance to speak to David Tate, great, great grandson of Sir Henry Tate, the Victorian merchant and philanthropist and founder of Tate & Lyle sugar. David has looked into his family's history and had more information for me about John Tate Mercer and papermaker as well as about his Mercer father, grandfather, uncle and cousins. At this point therefore the research took on another level of personal connection. Visiting David at home I was privileged to be able to photograph the family crest as a hand painted, framed image with description on the back. This is the coat of arms of Sir Henry Tate, I haven't a picture to include of the Medieval John Tate's hand watermark but suffice to say there appear to be links here.
I'd like to take a moment to look a little more at John Tate's immediate family links. Here then is a reduced family tree showing John the papermaker on the left, his father (John), his grandfather (John), his three sons (one of whom was named John), his uncle and two cousins (one of whom was named John). In 1490 there were no less that five of them living in London
You can read more about them all here
Robert was already an office holder at the time of the removal of John Tate his uncle from his Aldermanic seat, displacing his cousin the paper maker.
"The Acts of the Court of Mercers of London show no sign of John the Papermaker taking apprentices but various public records show him active, sometimes in consortium with relatives, holding property and trading as a Mercer...The only reference so far found in Public records to Tate at the paper-mill are the records in the Household Accounts of Henry VII that the King visited the paper-mill and gave Tate gifts of money."
from John Tate Mercer and papermaker by The Revd. Philip Blewett, C. Phys
In this one family you can see clearly the historical links between trade and government, merchant and mayor, positions of state and luxury materials; which included paper and silk.
Note: The links between ceremonial positions and trade have continued of course.
A fascinating 18th century example of the links between other Livery Companies
and the position of Lord Mayor can be seen in a dress held by the
Museum of London and worn by Ann Fanshaw, daughter of Crisp Gascoyne
(c. 1700-1761) who became Free of the Brewers’ Company in 1741
and Lord Mayor and in 1752. To read more about how this dress became
involved in my research please see my blog post about Spitalfields here
"The profitability of trading as a Mercer is shown by the terms of John's will, but of course we do not know how much of his wealth he inherited from his father...his wife...was to care for his estates during her life...houses in Ludgate, the great place in Mincing lane, lands, woods and houses in the parish of Yareley called Cromer Hall in Hertfordshire, as well as "Stanstede Mountfechit" in Essex...the bulk of which will have come through the family trading as true Mercers...this may also help to explain how John could have spared some capital to put into a new venture, that of making paper."
John Tate England's First Papermaker Dr Richard Hills, lecture given at Stationers' Hall 1993
In the end the mill Tate owned ceased production:
"It may have been difficulty in obtaining rags as was suggested soon afterwards, ‘Foreigners bought up our broken linnen cloth and ragges’ and sold them to us in the form of paper"
"At this period, the production time for a piece of paper in a paper mill was something like six months because the rags had to be left to rot or ferment before the could be pulped in the stampers. After being formed, the sheets of paper had to be dried in the loft before being sized and dried again. They might need conditioning and flattening before being dispatched to the printer..."
John Tate England's First Papermaker Dr Richard Hills, lecture given at Stationers' Hall 1993
That time frame sounds comparable to the timing of the production of a piece created by The House of Embroidered Paper. Suffice to say then that, as part of the new collection Weaving Silk Stories, a dress which recalled Britain's first paper maker whilst also demonstrating the type of fashion made historically from the fine (silk) fabrics imported by Mercers (but made of paper and capable therefore of acting as the ground on which to 'support thoughts of roses!') seemed definitely called for.
A final word comes from 1581, by which time three paper mills had been stablished in England making brown paper.
"Once a Bookseller made mee when I asked him why we had not white and browne paper made within the Realm as well as they had made beyond the Sea; then he aunswered mee that there was paper made for a while within the realm: at the last man perceived that made it that he could not aforde his paper as good cheape as it came from beyond the sea, and so, he was forced to lay down the making of paper; and no blame in the man, for men will geve never more for his paper because it was made here." - A.H Shorter Paper Mills and Paper making in England 1495-1800, quoting W.S Gentleman, A Compendious on briefe Examinacion of certayne ordinary Complaints of divers of our Countrymen in these our days, 1581
To see where the design and research of this piece went, please see the Parts I and II posts about the making of the Supporting Thoughts of Roses dress
Weaving Silk Stories is a new project in partnership with the independent charity Historic Royal Palaces, which is due to launch in 2027.
Paper sponsorship by Duni Global
