In 2019, I started training in traditional bookbinding techniques at North Bennet Street School, where I was exposed to the rich history that surrounds decorated book papers and paper binding structures for the first time, and I started collecting shortly thereafter. From the beginning, the guiding principle of the collection has been my personal aesthetic: there's a particular sense of movement, texture, and humanity present in papers from the hand-press period, and through the slow acquisition and acknowledgement of the colors and patterns that induced an "Oh!!" reaction, my focus has honed in on paste-decorated and block-printed papers from the long 18th century (c. 1670–1830), especially those of ostensibly German, Dutch, and Italian origin. My admiration for paper as a material is such that I also study decorated and undecorated paper binding structures, including full paper coverings over boards, laced limp paper bindings, and simple wrappers. 

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Pursuing these papers in the wild and admiring them on shelves full of fellows is reason enough to develop this collection, but there are practical goals as well. Unlike collections of works by Saint-Exupéry or the Plantin press, there are no definite bounds to a collection of decorated papers. With a staggering few exceptions, we cannot fathom the number of patterns produced by a particular workshop, the breadth of paste paper designs, or the infinite variations, combinations, and colorways of block prints. We're unlikely to ever know whether such collections are representative, let alone comprehensive. As a result, I'm less interested in perfect editions and instead hope to illuminate that unknowable expanse of patterns, colors, techniques, and associations through diverse and—especially in terms of condition—forgiving acquisition. The catalog you see here is complemented by a spreadsheet of bibliographic features which is used to statistically derive trends in the prevalence of particular techniques and motifs over time and geography. I opportunistically conduct material analyses such as x-ray fluorescence and multi-spectral imaging to identify the colorants and fibers used in these papers to reveal how they were made and, possibly, with time, where and when they were made. My ultimate goal is to develop a more thoughtful set of definitions and contexts for these items—to better understand what they are so that we can more fully appreciate what they mean.

 

At the moment I only have the faculties to maintain this level of analysis for books in my own library, but the value of this type of research is exponentially increased through larger samples and collaborative insights. If you're interested in participating in this work by conducting a survey, offering your expertise, or contributing objects to this collection, I'll be delighted to hear from you. 

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~Mitchel