. BOOKMAKERS . PAPERS .

Throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, marbled papers were the endpapers of choice for finer bindings.  Following the lead of France and Germany, other European countries began marbling papers around the mid 18th century.  England and America took up the craft towards the end of the century. By the first quarter of the 19th century, the English, along with the Germans and French, were acknowledged as the Western world’s greatest marblers. Marblers have always guarded their knowledge carefully and maintained it as a trade secret.  In the guilds, which were the main centers of education and industry, each apprentice was trained in a separate part of the work and was taught to make only one or two of the patterns so that they wouldn’t have enough expertise to set up a rival establishment. These desired patterns were continued to be sort after throughout the 19th century and into the early part of the 20th century.  These days, based on technique, the marbled papers and covers of books can be more valuable than the book itself.  These papers were also used for other decorative purposes; linings for trunks, cabinets, instrument cases, and tea chests as well as covering small decorative objects.