Bull's Head and Mermaid - The Bernstein Project - Österreichische ...
Bull's Head and Mermaid - The Bernstein Project - Österreichische ...
Bull's Head and Mermaid - The Bernstein Project - Österreichische ...
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Ill. 1: Briquet: Les Filigranes<br />
bruck to Vienna at the beginning of the 19 th century. From<br />
this codex the watermark pair “He-Goat” (entire figure, Piccard-Online<br />
No. 085727) can also be used for comparison<br />
(Ill. 7). Piccard gives as his source for drawing No. 085727<br />
the folia 10, 16, <strong>and</strong> 17. A comparison of the beta-radiography<br />
of this watermark <strong>and</strong> Piccard’s drawing thereof reveals<br />
this drawing’s precision. <strong>The</strong> second drawing, No.<br />
085729 (Ill. 8), is quite different: the wire figure of the paper<br />
mould seems to have been deformed – the he-goat’s<br />
head has been flattened. Piccard names folia 11 <strong>and</strong> 13 as<br />
the source for this tracing, but when examining photos of<br />
the watermarks in these two sheets, two variants of the hegoat<br />
were detected. <strong>The</strong> sections circled in Ill. 8 show that<br />
in folium 11 the wire was broken, whereas the wire for folium<br />
13 was clearly connected. In addition, the point marked<br />
with a white arrow shows a different bending of the wire.<br />
And lastly, it is possible to see differences in how rounded<br />
parts of the head are (black arrow).<br />
Piccard’s drawing gives quite a different impression of this<br />
watermark. By incorrectly interpreting the section around<br />
the eyes <strong>and</strong> mouth, whose deformations can only really be<br />
understood by comparing it to No. 085727, the relationship<br />
between the two watermarks has become blurred. And<br />
whether Piccard’s simplifications of the forelegs are within<br />
the “width of the line” seems doubtful.<br />
Because they are found in the fold of the codex, it is difficult<br />
to record the watermarks of the semi-folio manuscript<br />
W 718 (Böhm II Suppl. Nr. 413), a Lehenbuch of the Earldom<br />
of Görz from the years 1398 to 1408 that was<br />
brought to Vienna in 1870 from the Schatzgewölbe in<br />
Graz. In addition, the exact course of the wire of the watermark<br />
“Lion” (Ill. 9) is difficult to make out, both in the original<br />
<strong>and</strong> in the beta-radiography. By placing the beta radiography<br />
<strong>and</strong> the drawing over one another, one sees that a<br />
number of simplifications have been made (for instance at<br />
the belly of the lion), as well as a misinterpretation of the<br />
heart-shaped tassel at the end of the tail, <strong>and</strong> a deviation of<br />
several millimetres in the position of the chain wires (see<br />
white arrow). In the face of these wide deviations, <strong>and</strong> in<br />
order to better underst<strong>and</strong> the course of the wire, the author<br />
has also attempted to trace the watermark, comparing<br />
this drawing with that of Piccard (Piccard/white, my own<br />
drawing/grey).<br />
This comparison shows that the precision of tracings<br />
must still be brought to question, <strong>and</strong> Piccard’s statement<br />
that his drawings vary from the original only with regard to<br />
the width of the lines does not always st<strong>and</strong>. Nevertheless,<br />
after my own attempt at drawing this watermark, Piccard’s<br />
accomplishment deserves our highest respect.<br />
Literature: Auer / Wehdorn, Das Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv;<br />
Bittner, Gesamtinventar; Böhm, Die H<strong>and</strong>schriften<br />
des Kaiserlichen und Königlichen Haus-, Hof- und Staats-<br />
Archivs; Antonius, Die H<strong>and</strong>schriftenabteilung; Piccard, Die<br />
Wasserzeichenforschung als historische Hilfswissenschaft;<br />
Piccard, Die Wasserzeichenkartei Piccard im Hauptstaatsarchiv<br />
Stuttgart, Bd. V; Amelung, Nachruf auf Gerhard Piccard,<br />
388; Bannasch, Wasserzeichen als Datierungshilfe;<br />
Gerardy, Datieren mit Hilfe von Wasserzeichen, 51f.<br />
M.H. (C.P.-K.)<br />
Watermark Collections<br />
One of the first to realize the significance of watermarks as<br />
an aid in dating was the natural scientist Gotthelf Fischer<br />
von Waldheim, who in a paper published in Nuremberg in<br />
1804 titled “Beschreibung einiger typographischer Seltenheiten<br />
nebst Beiträgen zur Erfindungsgeschichte der<br />
Buchdruckerkunst”, reproduced thirty watermarks from the<br />
73