dbellingradt

dbellingradt, 5 months ago

Selling small amounts of tobacco was a thing, not only in taverns. And so you needed small papers to wrap tobacco into small selling units. Often, as paintings like this one from Pieter van Anraedt of mid seventeenth-century, show, old papers - of #almanacs and #pamphlets - were used for this wrapping up. The still life "Still Life with Earthenware Jug and Clay Pipes" from 1658 shows clearly what kind of paper was reused here, dear #histodons. Let's have a closer look in the next post.

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Painting from Pieter van Anraedt of mid seventeenth-century: "Still Life with Earthenware Jug and Clay Pipes" from 1658. You see a table with a beer glass, a few clay pipes, and a paper packet of tobacco.

dbellingradt, 5 months ago

It is well known that paper was used in #earlymodern Europe mainly for writing, printing - and wrapping purposes. In this regard, wrapping tobacco was part of the most typical paper usages and re-usages. Have a look: https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004424005/BP000010.xml

The painting offers a scene of thirst (look at the #beer!) and smoke, likely in a tavern or coffeehouse, where small "sealed" quantities of tobacco were sold.

And these papers were used papers! Zoom in, see the next post, and enjoy.

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Detail of the painting showing the paper used for wrapping up tobacco.

dbellingradt, 5 months ago

The closer look clearly indicates: this is a used paper, maybe an old letter, maybe a page from a printed textbook? You can see the words on the paper, and this detail wasn't by chance included by the painter.

#bookhistory knows: paper was reused for many purposes. And tobacco wrapping was one of them. Future research in the field will hopefully address: who sold the used paper from the bookish worlds to the alehouse owners and tobacco traders - and pepper sellers too?

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dbellingradt, 5 months ago

But there is more to this as paintings like this one from Frans van Mieris show. Here, the paper packets for tobacco are in a more paperish environment: next to the tobacco wrapped in an old paper sheet are playing cards - a printed paper product, in this case very likely also hand colored.

Bonus: long clay pipes lying on the table, and a very stylish beer drinking glass. (When did we stop making such beer glasses?).

Let's zoom in further and see what kind of paper was used.

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Highlighted details of the painting showing the table with the playing cards, the beer glass, and the tobacco paper.

dbellingradt, 5 months ago

In this detail of the painting you see even clearer that this wrapping paper was once a paper letter or a manuscript page. The lines of words written are visible here. #bookhistory

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dbellingradt, 5 months ago

@franco_vazza @histodons that’s true. So we need a 5th Evangelist in here!

dbellingradt, 5 months ago

@kevinjardine @franco_vazza @histodons oh yes! Worldly was on my mind.

dbellingradt, 6 months ago

@histodons Paper is often only recognized when it is written upon or printed upon. Here, in the highlighted detail no. 1, a written piece of paper, neatly folded and full of information, is given from the notary to a client. This might be a letter, a contract, or a legal document; important is that this paper and the information stored on the paper held significance in the European administration practices running on paper and with paper. A paper move, like here, was often a power move.

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The painting A Notary in His Office from Jan Berckheyde is shown. A notary is sitting at his writing desk, and is surrounded by various paper products. Highlighted are 5 of these paper products.

dbellingradt, 6 months ago

@histodons Using paper as a culture included storing. The neatly stored bound books are relatively easy to store, as #bookhistory knows. But the used paper sheets caused problems and messy storing decisions as highlighted in detail no. 2. Used paper was waiting to be used again (as reading matter). Too often newly written communication flows inspired new papers of the future. And in between: the sheets were waiting somewhere. Stored to rot a bit, bored as artifact can be, dear #histodons .

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The painting A Notary in His Office from Jan Berckheyde is shown. A notary is sitting at his writing desk, and is surrounded by various paper products. Highlighted are 5 of these paper products.

dbellingradt, 6 months ago

@histodons Using papers led to storing and ordering needs. So, where to put all the used and waiting paper? This notary office, decided, like many secretaries at the time, to use document bags - literally filled with paper, written pages. These bags could be seen hanging in Dutch administration buildings. Watch out Eric Ketelaar's "Archiving people" on these bags. The opening and closing of the bags was at court a formal procedure; however, it was a paper exchanging business.

#histodons

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The painting A Notary in His Office from Jan Berckheyde is shown. A notary is sitting at his writing desk, and is surrounded by various paper products. Highlighted are 5 of these paper products.

dbellingradt, 6 months ago

@histodons A closer look at every administrative activity of the period offers stored and waiting fresh paper sheets. Yet unused artifacts in different trading units of the paper trade: As detail no. 4 shows, you could buy paper as single sheets or in units up to 500, in the preferred format, quality and size, by the way.

And how did all these waiting papers get into the many secretaries? Well, ask the paper trade: https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/56966

#histodons #bookhistory #paperhistory

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The painting A Notary in His Office from Jan Berckheyde is shown. A notary is sitting at his writing desk, and is surrounded by various paper products. Highlighted are 5 of these paper products.

dbellingradt, 6 months ago

@histodons Wherever paper was used, waste paper could also be found. Here, in detail no. 5 paper leftovers, waste papers, are lying on the floor next to a used quill. The presence of fresh unused papers, written upon "used" papers, and waste papers, in one scene remind #histodons of the material life of hand-made paper in early modern Europe: it was produced, it was used, and it was recycled - often to fresh 'new' paper. #EarlyModernEurope was a paper age with #recycling rhythms.

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The painting A Notary in His Office from Jan Berckheyde is shown. A notary is sitting at his writing desk, and is surrounded by various paper products. Highlighted are 5 of these paper products.

dbellingradt, 6 months ago

@istuetzle @histodons @bookstodon sorry, no idea.

dbellingradt, 6 months ago

@matz surprise yourself and google British Library cyber attack

dbellingradt, 6 months ago

@histodons @sharporg As an author you should more than encourage your publisher to submit copies of your book to SHARP (and elsewhere). Some publishers just do not send books. For example, in the last two years, not one book from the series "Library of the Written Word" (Brill) appeared in front of the jury members. So choose your publisher wisely. Submitting free copies to win a prize or an award is, in my opinion, part of the support you want to get for your book.