LAID AND WOVE HUNTER. 589 



ing for paper molds. The Moors established paper making in Eu- 

 rope in the tenth or eleventh century, and it is thought that metal 

 wire replaced the natural-fiber molds in Europe a century or so later. 

 As early as 1351 it is recorded that there were " wiresmiths and wire- 

 drawers " in Europe. The wiresmiths would pound out the strips 

 of metal into lengths, and the wiredrawers would draw these strips 

 through small polished holes in hard-metal plates, repeating the 

 process until the desired size was reached. In France a company of 

 wiredrawers existed previous to 1583, and in London in the year 1623 

 there was an incorporated company of wiredrawers under the title 

 of " The Art and Mystery of Drawing and Flattening of Wire, etc." 

 Its motto was Amicitiam trahit amor : " Love draws friendship." 

 The workers at this trade had their shops in Crooked Lane before 

 the alterations in London Bridge. 



The earliest watermark that has been discovered dates from about 

 1270 and was formed of wire, so we are led to believe that metal wire 

 as a mold covering was used for some time previous to this date. 



At whatever time the wire took the place of bamboo, the metal was 

 used in precisely the same way as the vegetable filaments had been 

 used, and the metal wire continued to make impressions of the laid 

 and chain lines in the paper, reproducing almost in counterpart the 

 lines left by the bamboo molds which had preceded the wire-covered 

 molds for many centuries. 



There is a great variation in the distance between the chain lines 

 and also in the number of laid lines to the inch in papers made on 

 either the ancient vegetable stalk molds or the metal wire molds. The 

 paper made on the bamboo surface had coarse laid lines and the chain 

 lines were usually widely spaced. When metal was first introduced 

 the chain lines became somewhat closer, and the paper was more uni- 

 form in thickness, due to the wires lying more evenly upon the ribs 

 of the molds than was possible with the uneven bamboo. In plate 

 2, b and c, will be seen two forms of early chain lines and the 

 impressions they left in the paper. This type of lacing was used 

 by early wire-mold makers, but the style shown in plate 2, d, was 

 adopted almost universally later, when lighter wires came into use. 



Until the middle of the eighteenth century the chain lines had been 

 laced or wired directly to the wooden ribs of the mold, which caused 

 the pulp to lie heavier along each side of every chain line in the sheet 

 of paper made thereon. (These ribs and the wire in process of con- 

 struction may be seen in pi. 3.) This heaviness is noticeable when 

 the paper is held to the light. From this slight mark of distinction 

 we are enabled to tell if a sheet of paper was made before the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, but, of course, molds are made at the pres- 

 ent time to imitate this characteristic. A sheet with this stamp of 

 distinction in handmade paper is termed " antique laid," but the 



