The History of Watermarks in Paper is a long one. It’s fascinating and little known about outside of Academia.

The process of watermarking paper reached expert levels as far back as the 12th and 13th centuries – mainly in the South of France where the Cathars and Huguenots had to hide their heretical religious leanings.

The symbols used were codes and messages. They were also dates. Ancient books and manuscripts have long been dated by the watermarks rather than the printed number/letter dating.

It’s a shame that this is yet another beautiful craft that is being phased out through modern technology :o(