Author: Thomas Gravell, George Miller and Elizabeth Walsh, Foreward by Keith Arbour

Publisher/Date: Oak Knoll (2002 Second Edition revised and expanded)

Format/Condition: New cloth bound hardcover book with dust jacket in fine condition. 363 pages, 235 pages of b/w photos of watermarks. Measures 11 × 9 inches.

Description: To research and photograph the practically invisible requires a unique technology and a curious intellect. A half century ago Thomas Gravell began a life-long study by collecting examples of early American watermarks. In 1979, he and George Miller published an interim edition which illustrated over 700 examples together with some thumbnail histories of the paper mills that produced them.

Using all the original 1979 watermarks, now in the Special Collection Department of the University of Delaware Library, this edition adds more than 300 new watermarks found by Mr. Gravell during the past twenty years. In all, 1,057 watermarks have now been computer enhanced and triple-indexed for better identification. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Walsh of the Folger Library edited a great deal of new information from leading scholars and enthusiasts. This new corpus of research corrected and updated the numerous mill histories, indexes, glossary, and bibliography.

This expanded and revised edition of American Watermarks, brings to the paper and autograph scholar the latest information available on early American watermarks in a clear, concise work that should become a basic reference in its field.

Excerpt:

AMERICAN WATERMARKS 1690-1835

In the annals of American watermark scholarship the name of Thomas Gravell stands as a pioneer in technical research. His self-discovered Dylux method of capturing the ghost-like images of early American watermarks gives the modern researcher a long-awaited tool in document identification. Earlier scholars often hand-drew the almost invisible images they saw. Many of these efforts left much to be desired. Using Gravell’s Dylux technique, not only does the user get an accurate view of the watermark, they can often observe the peculiar chain and laid lines that make that piece of paper and watermark unique.

With over 1,057 illustrations, Thomas Gravell’s American Watermarks 1690-1835 is a major contribution to the study of this fascinating field.

To research and photography the practically invisible requires a unique technology and a curious intellect. A half-century ago Thomas Gravell began a life-long study by collecting examples of early American watermarks. In 1979 he published an interim catalog which illustrated 700 of his discoveries, with extensive annotations by George Miller.

This new edition, revised with the assistance of Elizabeth Walsh of the Folger Shakespeare Library, incorporates enhanced printings of all the original 700 watermark photographs published in 1973, and adds more than 300 new watermarks found by Mr. Gravell during the past 20 years. In all, 1,057 watermarks are illustrated in this new edition, which also includes revised and updated papermill histories, an updated bibliography, a new glossary of papermaking, and new name, geographic, and iconographic indexes.

This expanded and revised edition of American Watermarks 1690-1835 is the most comprehensive catalog of American watermarks to date. To paper historians, imprint and manuscript curators; reference librarians; autograph, ephemera, and financial history collectors; and other scholars, this catalog makes available in easy-to-consult, triple-indexed format, the latest information on early American watermarks.