from the Spanish Netherlands; the ladder in a circle, surmounted
with a star, found in an Italian paper; the grotesque animals found in
some early Bibles, from 1540 to 1549; the eight-pointed star within a
double circle of John Tate, supposed to have been one of the original
papermakers of this country; the ancient mark of the open hand;
"pot paper", with its variety of drinking vessels; unicorns and other
nondescript quadrupeds; the bunch of grapes; serpents and many others.
"Fools-cap" paper was originally marked with a crown, which Cromwell
exchanged to the fool's cap, and Charles II, by an oversight, continued
to the legal sheets, which still bear the name, though the device is now
altered to the figure of Britannia within an oval. The ink of almost
every writer will, on close observation, show a distinct shade peculiar
to itself.  This is most important to notice.  Let anyone write a
