#decorative paper

[uwmspeccoll]

Chinese Ceremonial Papers

Many hundreds of varieties of prayer sheets used to be produced by specialist ma-chang printers all over China. Many of the limited range made today are the cheapest offset-litho jobs on the cheapest machine-made papers, but the designs still imitate the original woodblock prints.

Modern Taiwanese sheets of cash, made from recycled paper, sold very cheaply by weight in Taipei.

Mock money and other ceremonial papers for religious ceremonies will be gathered in "bowls" of crude papers, usually made of a mixture of rice-straw and bamboo fibers.

The simplest form of mock money is made traditionally with thin layers of tinfoil affixed to the center of a small piece of bamboo paper, although in contemporary production the cheapest grades of machine-made paper will be used instead, and in Taiwan and Malaysia metallic inks may be used instead of tinfoil.

Here's a piece of mock money in traditional colors with auspicious designs, and tinfoil brushed over with a dye from the pagoda tree to make it resemble gold.

Contemporary Taiwanese ceremonial paper.

Another variety of gold mock money, with inscriptions and symbols for good fortune building up the design, usually still quite well printed from woodblocks on fairly good quality paper, but sometimes now mass-produced by offset lithography.

Contemporary ceremonial paper printed letterpress on a stout machine-made paper in Hong Kong. The yellow coloring might have been brushed on by hand, but otherwise production of these attractive sheets has been mechanized completely.

At the Feast of Hungry Ghosts many large sheets of paper with pictures of all the clothes one's ancestor could need are burned. Although images of the paraphernalia of modern life like cell phones and computers might be printed on these papers, the clothing is always of traditional style.

Red paper envelopes with good luck symbols have been used for many years to enclose gifts of money made at New Year. They may be found wherever any ceremonial papers are sold; today usually with elaborate and eye-catching gold-stamping.

Decorative Sunday

The examples shown here are original paper samples included in Roderick Cave's (1935-2019) two-part article on "Ceremonial Papers of the Chinese" published in Matrix 12 (Winter 1992, pp. 51-66) and Matrix 13 (Winter 1993, pp. 161-177), printed at the John and Rosalind Randle’s Whittington Press in Risbury, Herefordshire, England.

In these articles, Cave, a noted print historian, librarian, and educator, discusses the history, manufacturing, printing, distribution, and uses of Chinese ceremonial papers used in rituals, celebrations, and festivals associated with the gods and the ancestors.

Our copies of Matrix are a donation from our friend Jerry Buff.

View more posts on Chinese papers.

View other posts associated with Roderick Cave.

View more Decorative Sunday posts.

[curiouscatalog]

More marbling today. It's been a very marbled week over here.

From: Weisse, Franz. The Art of Marbling. North Hills, Pa : Bird & Bull Press, 1980.

Z271.3.M37 W45 1980

[renato-crepaldi]

Magenta stir marbled paper. Marbled with black, white and silver in a Suminagashi-like structures, bright magenta duo stir and metallic old gold spots on top. Only 10 sheets available! Signed and dated. Base paper is red, 80 gsm, long grain. Sheet size is 66 x 94 cm (26" x 37"). Will be available in the next release - July 24th at 12 UTC.

Home | Renato Crepaldi Hand Marbled Papers (bigcartel.com)

[adventuringpages]

[othmeralia]

The pretty books have it so easy. This decorative paper covers a 1750 French book on mineral waters.

Essai analitique sur les eaux de Bussang, 1750.

[sosnastudios]

more paste papers!

[jennablackmorebooks]

I decorated a folder to keep some of my short stories in.

[starboardbowsbows]

My most recent batch of handmade gift bows

[u-mspcoll]

Lovely endpapers (obnoxious stamp placement!) on the back cover Isl Ms 1031, early copy of Taşköprî-zâde's (d.1561) biographical work al-Shaqāʼiq al-nuʻmānīyah (الشقائق النعمانية)

 Browse / download images of the entire manuscript and the description!  

[underthesunstoreblog]

Create, Design, and Inspire with Decorative Paper

Under The Sun Store invites you to create, design, and inspire with our exquisite decorative paper. Unleash your imagination and explore a captivating array of patterns, colors, and textures that will elevate your craft projects to new heights. From scroll rods to DIY handmade décor, our premium decorative paper selection offers endless possibilities. Experience the joy of crafting with our unique collection, where creativity knows no bounds.

[uwmspeccoll]

Decorative Sunday: Paste Paper Edition

In 1942, Harvard University Press printed 250 copies of Decorated Book Papers: Being an Account of the Designs and Fashions by the bookbinder, author, and creator and collector of decorative papers, Rosamond Bowditch Loring. Published by the Harvard College Library Department of Printing and Graphic Arts in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the 234 sale copies of the first edition sold out within months, despite the “then considerable price of ten dollars” and the economic stressors of the war. In addition to eight plates reproducing examples of 18th century decorative papers, the first edition includes twenty-five samples tipped in, many of which are from the author’s own extensive collection. 

While Loring collected a variety of a decorative papers, the examples shown here are from the chapter on paste papers, Loring’s area of creative specialization. The sample papers included in this chapter are all Loring’s own work, or that of her student, Veronica Ruzicka, who bound the first edition (it is worthy to note that Ruzicka is the daughter of illustrator, wood engraver, and type designer Rudolph Ruzicka, whose work we have highlighted several times). Ruzicka also contributed an essay when a second edition of the book was finally published by Harvard University Press in 1952, along with Dard Hunter and Walter Muir Whitehall. 

Rosamond Loring (May 2, 1889 – September 17, 1950) studied book binding under Mary Crease Sears at the Sears School of Bookbinding in Boston. Sears, about a decade older than Loring, had had to battle to learn the trade; women were barred from the Bookbinders Union but most commercial binderies were happy to hire women for particular tasks, such as sewing sheets, but maintained a strict separation of roles, preventing employees from learning the whole binding process from start to finish. Eventually, Ms. Sears secured an apprenticeship in France to complete her studies and opened her binding school in Boston shortly after, training several generations of women binders. While studying under Sears, Loring became frustrated with the lack of options for quality endpapers and became determined to make her own, which she sold to other binders at Ms. Sears’s studio. Her first major commercial commission was for the Houghton Mifflin publication of The Antigone of Sophocles, translated by John J. Chapman (Boston, 1930).

Our copy of Decorated Book Papers is a gift of Dick Schoen. 

-Olivia Hickner, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[chalkrub]

strange fellas

[retrogamingblog2]

Stained Glass Nintendo Window Hangers made by RetroSixtyStore

[trustiskingandqueen]

"I think you're very sophisticated."

Watercolor pencil on gray sketch paper <3

[toyastales]

A classical inspired bathroom.