The progress of the art: paper marbling in the United States, 1880-1950
Date
2016
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Paper marbling looks like magic. A marbler uses a brush to sprinkle pigments that float on a heavy solution. After manipulating the colors into a design with combs, the marbler sets a paper on top of the bath. The pattern reveals itself as the paper is pulled away. This process was shrouded in a level of mystery until the nineteenth century, when manuals and articles in periodicals began to explain marbling methods. A wave of new interest in the craft began in the 1880s, when authors no longer just broadly claimed to reveal secrets, but provided detailed guidance in conjunction with commercially prepared materials and tools. Hungarian-born marbler and marbling supplier Josef Halfer offered specific, thorough advice in his manual The Progress of the Marbling Art, along with carefully formulated products for sale. Halfer’s approach to supplying scientific precision, adapted to marbling distributors, teachers, and curious audiences in the United States, presented a special kind of demystification for professional bookbinders and novice marblers alike. Through contexts of bookbinding, manuals and lessons, technologies, and alternatives to hand-marbled paper, this study examines how specific instructions mediated a new, more clearly defined relationship between marblers and their materials.