Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 305
4. That these water-marks, infinitely varied as they are, often
contain certain initial letters which seern to
connect them with
private persons, authors, or members of a secret society.
5. That, even in the present day, two or three firms use the
same designs in their paper-mark.
These points, which it is our purpose to illustrate, assure us
that it is an error to suppose either the most ancient or the most
modern paper-marks to be mere trade-signs. True, that there
are now some such which have been used, since the revival, as a
fashion, of the hand-made or rough-edged paper. But these are
quite easily distinguishable, and those who follow us in this investigation
will have no hesitation in deciding to which class
each paper belongs. On the other nand, Mr. Sotheby arrives,
from his own point of departure, at the same conclusion reached
by the present writer.
" I venture, " he says, " to assert that until, or after, the close of
the fifteenth century, there were no marks on paper which may
be said to apply individually to the maker of the paper. " With
Jansen, he agrees that " the study of water-marks is calculated
to afford pretty accurate information as to the country
where, and the probable period when, a book without date or
place was printed. . . . Until toward the close of the fifteenth
century there occur no marks in paper used for the making of
books, from which we are led to infer that they were intended
for the motto or device of the maker. That paper-marks were,
or rather became general, and not confined to particular manufactories,
is in fact inferrible from the fact that we are able to
trace similar marks in use from the commencement to the end
of the fifteenth century. " In some instances the varieties of the
same mark are, as Mr. Sotheby says, so abundant that, " instead
of the eight plates engraved by Jansen, it would require
more than fifty plates of similar size to give the tracings of all
the varieties of even two marks ; the letter P, and the « Bull's
Head.' . . . Hence it is that the frequent remark, l with little
variations,' is so generally found in the writings of all those,
even from the earliest period to the present time, who have
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