Papel traspuesto - transposed or mislaid paper
Publicado: 21 Mar 2011 18:28
According to the theory for the printer he should use the most perfect side of a sheet of paper for printing! Sounds logical! Alas, in the production of stamps this turned out to be not so often the case!
Why????
In the period when stamps got printed sheet by sheet and the printed sheet got gummed afterwards, the printer just had to pay attention to the fact that the paper was fed into the press with the felt side - the far more perfect side of a sheet of paper - faced upwards! We might expect the printer to have the experience and skill to know and tell the felt side from the wire side!
But did he act accordingly??? it will be shown that he quite often did not!!
In the later period when paper for stamp printing was delivered with the gum applied to it, he had no choice! And certainly not when stamp paper got supplied to the printer in long reels that were pre-gummed....
The question could then be posed to the paper manufacturer whether he should have take care of it. I.e. that the gum was to be applied to the wire side!
Assuming that everybody involved had a good knowledge of how to use paper for printing postage stamps, we can pose that the felt side was for printing and the wire had to be gummed..... Let us call it "mormal paper" or "papel normal". In the case that the wire side got the printing and the felt side the gum, we speak of "transposed paper" or "papel traspuesto"!
N.B. there is no mention here so far of any watermark! Watermarks play no role! Watermarks have to be described in terms of how they relate to the dandy-roll - the pattern of the watermark being fixed to the cylinder called like that - and hence how they relate to the felt side of the paper - as it is the felt side that got in touch with the dandy-roll!
to be continued ...
Why????
In the period when stamps got printed sheet by sheet and the printed sheet got gummed afterwards, the printer just had to pay attention to the fact that the paper was fed into the press with the felt side - the far more perfect side of a sheet of paper - faced upwards! We might expect the printer to have the experience and skill to know and tell the felt side from the wire side!
But did he act accordingly??? it will be shown that he quite often did not!!
In the later period when paper for stamp printing was delivered with the gum applied to it, he had no choice! And certainly not when stamp paper got supplied to the printer in long reels that were pre-gummed....
The question could then be posed to the paper manufacturer whether he should have take care of it. I.e. that the gum was to be applied to the wire side!
Assuming that everybody involved had a good knowledge of how to use paper for printing postage stamps, we can pose that the felt side was for printing and the wire had to be gummed..... Let us call it "mormal paper" or "papel normal". In the case that the wire side got the printing and the felt side the gum, we speak of "transposed paper" or "papel traspuesto"!
N.B. there is no mention here so far of any watermark! Watermarks play no role! Watermarks have to be described in terms of how they relate to the dandy-roll - the pattern of the watermark being fixed to the cylinder called like that - and hence how they relate to the felt side of the paper - as it is the felt side that got in touch with the dandy-roll!
to be continued ...