Known bellows paper?

[Henrik Müller]

Bellows paper

Is this paper recognised by anyone?

It is on a Wheatstone from 1863 -

 

Gilding

The bellows are probably the original

- and there is very little gold left in the 

gilding (seen below)

 

/Henrik

 

 

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

actually I have not seen that exact paper pattern one. It looks similar to other early patterns but the colours are different. Also it looks a different shape. Are those deep fold bellows? As in - is it anything over 1" deep?

 

Its not bad really, I wonder if it was that colour originally though, some of those papers degrade over time - the typical one being Jeffries papers going green I have seen happening a few times. In any case I like the gold and dark red, it reminds me of a local and very old theatre! 

 

Best wishes and happy new year Henrik! It has been a while.

[Mike Acott]

wih some early Wheatstones  the four fold bellows are deeper than the more common five and six fold bellows found on later 19th century boxes . Sometimes there can be a variation fom the original colours over a long time  and storage conditions.

Mike

[d.elliott]

often originally a green paper that has been washed with leather dye. The dye does not take over the gold pattern, hence you have the vegetable bit and the gold lozenges and dots showing through and where the gold is worn the dye has speckled the pattern.

 

[Henrik Müller]

Thanks, Jake, it has indeed - Happy New Year to ye (and all who reads this)

 

Bellows depth = 1" and 5 folds-

 

A bit of a mystery, the paper. I must admit that though I can accept "variations" on the original, I can't really buy that as an explanation to why it is coal black now. There is no trace a green anywhere, and I scraped through a paper (yes - very invasive - I am making new bellows) and it's black all the way through.

 

Washing with leather dye I can accept if it leaves the gold pattern untouched (as well as the "grid with small dots" in the background). But if the leather dye ends up as fine, black powder, why is it only on the papers, not on the leather? Unless the leather reacts differently (than the paper does).

 

And green? Why use green if the leather is black? Mystery, mystery...

 

On the papers I have seen,all graphic objects are made as a fill and a stroke. Fill is either gold or green, and the stroke is black. Now, if the background is meant to be black (from the start), a black stroke doesn't make any sense, yes? In that case something else is called for - another graphic element, which there is:

 

 

In this new and better photo, you'll notice that the gold objects all have a line that "follows" its curvature, creating a 3D effect. I have sometimes used this trick in simple graphics like icons (very limited area) to simulate  shadows, with the "sun" coming from north-west (here, in this damaged object, it looks like the sun or light source comes from south-east.

 

You can also see, much better, the "grid" pattern in the back ground.

 

Anyway - I have just found similar papers (with different colours) with much clearer graphic objects, so I will update the vector version I have started. I'll be back 😉

 

/Henrik 

 

 

 

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

So far so good, we look forwards to what you draw. I hope to see you at consairtin again one day.

[Henrik Müller]

Like wise, Jake - if not this year either, it'll three years without Consairtín 😳