MTSU Book and Printing Arts and History

Marbled papers in the MTSU Art and Design Historical and Teaching Collection.

Below are images of marbled papers from our historical collections. Examples range from the early eighteenth century to the mid twentieth century.

A marbled cover from a book published in Italy in 1706.
This pattern is known as “spotted stone” or “Turkish.”

Marbled cover from a mid nineteenth-century volume published in England.
The pattern is known as “French curl.”

A “nonpareil” pattern on end papers from a French book published in 1836.

Detail of “nonpareil” pattern.

End papers of a book published in France in 1951.
This free-form, modern style of marbling became popular in the
twentieth century and is called “fantasy” or “Maître-Relieur.”

Detail of “fantasy” pattern.

Nineteenth-century “Spanish wave” pattern on a detached end sheet.
The wave effect is created by agitating the paper back and forth
while laying it onto the marbling bath.

Detail from detached endpapers, probably from the mid-nineteenth century.
It consists of gold vein (lithography) printed over “Spanish moiré.”
“Moiré” is similar to “Spanish wave,” but has more movement
and gives the impression of the wrinkles in fabric.

This nineteenth-century marbled paper uses a pattern known as “Stormont.”
The white dots are created by adding a dispersant, such as turpentine.

Nineteenth-century marbled paper. The pattern is made by sprinkling a dispersant on to a stone pattern.
It is called “Italian” because of its similarity to the look of Italian marble.

Web sites with more information on identifying historical marble patterns:

https://content.lib.washington.edu/dpweb/index.html

https://content.lib.washington.edu/dpweb/patterns.html

http://www.payhembury.com/Payhembury_Marbled_Papers/Patterns.html#grid

https://marbleart.us/Examples.htm

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2010/11/marbled-paper-designs.html