[HN Gopher] Lost by Schoolgirls: A display of 17th century paper...
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       Lost by Schoolgirls: A display of 17th century papercuts
        
       Author : geox
       Score  : 76 points
       Date   : 2024-07-23 12:24 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nationaltrust.org.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nationaltrust.org.uk)
        
       | webwielder2 wrote:
       | What's normal to [them], amazes us!
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McbdzzqVtDA
        
       | Anotheroneagain wrote:
       | It seems the star may have been flattened, at least the version
       | that I know is supposed to be 3D.
        
         | pimlottc wrote:
         | Got a link for making the 3d version?
        
           | Anotheroneagain wrote:
           | You can find many on
           | youtube,https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZctVLoNMXQ for example
        
         | gus_massa wrote:
         | It looks similar to one of the origami my daughter used to
         | make. I think it's 2D, but I should ask her.
        
       | mensetmanusman wrote:
       | I wonder what the cost of these would have been at the time, I'm
       | guessing paper was at least an order of magnitude more expensive
       | and the purchasing power was lower.
        
         | mbsd wrote:
         | You will probably find this interesting
         | https://www.folger.edu/blogs/collation/writing-paper-expensi...
         | 
         | > To put this in perspective, the average laborer making 6-12
         | pence a day could purchase up to 75 sheets of paper with a
         | day's wages.
        
           | Cerium wrote:
           | The Paper Index: Today's minimum wage worker (pre tax) pay
           | can buy about 170 times more paper (about 12k sheets per
           | day).
        
         | mytailorisrich wrote:
         | It was a boarding school for girls at the time, so for the
         | elite.
        
         | inglor_cz wrote:
         | There is an active manual paper mill in Czechia, one of the
         | very last around Europe. Dates back to 1596 AD. You can book a
         | tour around the facility and see people working in all stages
         | of manual paper production.
         | 
         | https://www.rpvl.cz/en/
         | 
         | The paper is beautiful (and often used for diplomas etc.), but
         | expensive as heck. A single A4 costs about a dollar.
        
       | firewolf34 wrote:
       | So many different little human trends, crafts, styles... lost to
       | time. Makes you wonder what we're missing.
        
         | bdjsiqoocwk wrote:
         | From the looks of it, not much.
        
       | pvaldes wrote:
       | This is one of those histories that feel fake at the first sight.
       | 
       | If the title claims that the paper was cut around 1674, I don't
       | see the proofs anywhere. I see again a lack of critical thinking
       | to spot available alternatives that are more logical, or a try to
       | make the history more appealing.
       | 
       | This paper seems made by a machine, does not have any fungus on
       | it and is white (after 350 years should be yellow). Chemical
       | processes to keep the paper white and free of fungus attack
       | weren't invented until 1850.
       | 
       | The floorboards may have 350 years, but the materials in those
       | photos seem very 20th.
        
         | goosedragons wrote:
         | Paper turns yellow in part due to exposure to sunlight. You can
         | see well preserved 17th century books today that are a similar
         | whiteness and grain, not entirely covered in fugus either. A
         | 20th century work would not have hen spelt as hean. There also
         | appears to be foxing on both the fox and nude figure...
        
         | gus_massa wrote:
         | From the article:
         | 
         | > _Dr Isabella Rosner, an expert in early modern material
         | culture, identified the paper cuttings at Sutton House which
         | are almost identical to only two other known surviving
         | examples, one of which is a decorative box dating to the 1680s
         | held in a collection at Witney Antiques in Oxfordshire._
         | 
         | I was not able to find photos of the box in Google, but it look
         | like they already have similar drawings of the same time.
        
           | gus_massa wrote:
           | Too late to edit:
           | 
           | Since mid nineteen century, most paper is acidic. It's
           | cheaper but it slowly self destroy
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acidic_paper
           | 
           | Older parer and non acidic paper survives better.
        
         | OJFord wrote:
         | These particular examples are claimed to have been left some
         | time between when the school was created in the second half of
         | the 18th century, and 1891 when it was taken over by 'St John's
         | Church Institute, which provided skills-training and pastimes
         | for young men from the parish church.'
         | 
         | The longer 350 years refers to previous 'almost identical'
         | examples found elsewhere. (Yes 'nearly 350 years ago' is a
         | misleading title.)
         | 
         | The National Trust took over the property before the war,
         | discovering and preserving these artefacts during renovation in
         | the 80s.
         | 
         | It seems perfectly plausible to me, they just needed to stay
         | dry.
        
         | trte9343r4 wrote:
         | London has high air moisture. All the oils and water from floor
         | board would get through right to paper. One cleaning with a
         | mop...
        
         | InfamousRece wrote:
         | Very old paper tends to stay white:
         | https://bookcollecting.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/paper-cotton...
        
       | ajb wrote:
       | There was a similar one where they found paper aeroplanes in an
       | old schoolhouse, that probably predated actual aeroplanes.
       | Unfortunately the only report is in the Daily Mail, not exactly a
       | reliable source:
       | 
       | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2111963/Schoolboys-...
        
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       (page generated 2024-07-26 23:10 UTC)