The aesthetics of authenticity: Printed banknotes as industrial currency

Technology and Culture

Volumn 46, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 31-50

  Robertson, Frances ^a  

^a GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 17544376652     PISSN: 0040165X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/tech.2005.0037     Document Type: Article

References (119)

1. See "Two Chapters on Bank Note Forgeries," chap. 2, Household Words, 21 September 1850.
2. Walter Bagehot, Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market (London, 1878), 68.
3. Current ideas on mechanical reproduction are still dominated by the work of Walter Benjamin, in particular his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," first published in 1936; see Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (London, 1973), 219-53. Benjamin (1892-1940) was one of a group of Marxist critical philosophers within the orbit of the Frankfurt School. At the time of his death by suicide while fleeing the Nazis in 1940 he was working on a study of modernity in Haussmann's Paris after 1850 that has recently been published in English translation; see Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, ed. Roy Tiedemann (Cambridge, Mass., 1999). In relation to sustaining trust, works that have been important in developing ideas about the links between the rhetoric of marks, materials, processes, and the wider social context include Steven Lubar, "Representation and Power" Technology and Culture 36 suppl. (1995): S54-81; Ken Alder, "Making Things the Same," Social Studies of Science 28(1998): 499-545; Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton, N.J., 1995); and Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, "The Image of Objectivity," Representations no. 40 (fall 1992): 81-128.
4. Current ideas on mechanical reproduction are still dominated by the work of Walter Benjamin, in particular his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," first published in 1936; see Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (London, 1973), 219-53. Benjamin (1892-1940) was one of a group of Marxist critical philosophers within the orbit of the Frankfurt School. At the time of his death by suicide while fleeing the Nazis in 1940 he was working on a study of modernity in Haussmann's Paris after 1850 that has recently been published in English translation; see Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, ed. Roy Tiedemann (Cambridge, Mass., 1999). In relation to sustaining trust, works that have been important in developing ideas about the links between the rhetoric of marks, materials, processes, and the wider social context include Steven Lubar, "Representation and Power" Technology and Culture 36 suppl. (1995): S54-81; Ken Alder, "Making Things the Same," Social Studies of Science 28(1998): 499-545; Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton, N.J., 1995); and Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, "The Image of Objectivity," Representations no. 40 (fall 1992): 81-128.
5. Current ideas on mechanical reproduction are still dominated by the work of Walter Benjamin, in particular his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," first published in 1936; see Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (London, 1973), 219-53. Benjamin (1892-1940) was one of a group of Marxist critical philosophers within the orbit of the Frankfurt School. At the time of his death by suicide while fleeing the Nazis in 1940 he was working on a study of modernity in Haussmann's Paris after 1850 that has recently been published in English translation; see Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, ed. Roy Tiedemann (Cambridge, Mass., 1999). In relation to sustaining trust, works that have been important in developing ideas about the links between the rhetoric of marks, materials, processes, and the wider social context include Steven Lubar, "Representation and Power" Technology and Culture 36 suppl. (1995): S54-81; Ken Alder, "Making Things the Same," Social Studies of Science 28(1998): 499-545; Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton, N.J., 1995); and Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, "The Image of Objectivity," Representations no. 40 (fall 1992): 81-128.
6. Current ideas on mechanical reproduction are still dominated by the work of Walter Benjamin, in particular his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," first published in 1936; see Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (London, 1973), 219-53. Benjamin (1892-1940) was one of a group of Marxist critical philosophers within the orbit of the Frankfurt School. At the time of his death by suicide while fleeing the Nazis in 1940 he was working on a study of modernity in Haussmann's Paris after 1850 that has recently been published in English translation; see Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, ed. Roy Tiedemann (Cambridge, Mass., 1999). In relation to sustaining trust, works that have been important in developing ideas about the links between the rhetoric of marks, materials, processes, and the wider social context include Steven Lubar, "Representation and Power" Technology and Culture 36 suppl. (1995): S54-81; Ken Alder, "Making Things the Same," Social Studies of Science 28(1998): 499-545; Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton, N.J., 1995); and Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, "The Image of Objectivity," Representations no. 40 (fall 1992): 81-128.
7. Current ideas on mechanical reproduction are still dominated by the work of Walter Benjamin, in particular his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," first published in 1936; see Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (London, 1973), 219-53. Benjamin (1892-1940) was one of a group of Marxist critical philosophers within the orbit of the Frankfurt School. At the time of his death by suicide while fleeing the Nazis in 1940 he was working on a study of modernity in Haussmann's Paris after 1850 that has recently been published in English translation; see Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, ed. Roy Tiedemann (Cambridge, Mass., 1999). In relation to sustaining trust, works that have been important in developing ideas about the links between the rhetoric of marks, materials, processes, and the wider social context include Steven Lubar, "Representation and Power" Technology and Culture 36 suppl. (1995): S54-81; Ken Alder, "Making Things the Same," Social Studies of Science 28(1998): 499-545; Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton, N.J., 1995); and Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, "The Image of Objectivity," Representations no. 40 (fall 1992): 81-128.
8. Current ideas on mechanical reproduction are still dominated by the work of Walter Benjamin, in particular his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," first published in 1936; see Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (London, 1973), 219-53. Benjamin (1892-1940) was one of a group of Marxist critical philosophers within the orbit of the Frankfurt School. At the time of his death by suicide while fleeing the Nazis in 1940 he was working on a study of modernity in Haussmann's Paris after 1850 that has recently been published in English translation; see Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, ed. Roy Tiedemann (Cambridge, Mass., 1999). In relation to sustaining trust, works that have been important in developing ideas about the links between the rhetoric of marks, materials, processes, and the wider social context include Steven Lubar, "Representation and Power" Technology and Culture 36 suppl. (1995): S54-81; Ken Alder, "Making Things the Same," Social Studies of Science 28(1998): 499-545; Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton, N.J., 1995); and Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, "The Image of Objectivity," Representations no. 40 (fall 1992): 81-128.
9. Joseph A. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis (London, 1954), 317.
10. Ibid. Schumpeter notes that it was only in this period that "capitalism was analytically discovered, or, as we may also say, became analytically conscious of itself" (318).
11. Edinburgh. Encyclopaedia, s.v. "Currency."
12. Ibid. The Restriction Act of 1797 was overturned by the Resumption Act of 1819, although actual resumption did not take place until 1821; Schumpeter, 693; London Encyclopaedia, s.v. "Bank."
13. Ibid. The Restriction Act of 1797 was overturned by the Resumption Act of 1819, although actual resumption did not take place until 1821; Schumpeter, 693; London Encyclopaedia, s.v. "Bank."
14. Eugene Nelson White, "The French Revolution and the Politics of Government Finance, 1770-1815," Journal of Economic History 55 (June 1995): 227-55; Peter Bower, "What One Man Can Make Another Can Copy," Bond and Banknote News, October/ November 1988, 19-20.
15. Eugene Nelson White, "The French Revolution and the Politics of Government Finance, 1770-1815," Journal of Economic History 55 (June 1995): 227-55; Peter Bower, "What One Man Can Make Another Can Copy," Bond and Banknote News, October/ November 1988, 19-20.
16. John Philipson, A Case of Economic Warfare in the Late Eighteenth Century (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1990), describes three early paper molds for forged assignats from Haughton Mill.
17. Schumpeter (n. 4 above), 688-95.
18. Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections, P 37/4.
19. There were 4,825 detected forgeries in 1811, and the number rose steadily to 27,999 in 1820. To paraphrase the author Granville Sharp, hanging did nothing to reduce this crime, only the reintroduction of gold sovereigns in 1821 did; Sharp, The Gilbart Prize Essay on Practical Banking (London, 1854), 241.
20. This was in tribute to a Peter Lapping, one of the plate forgers referred to by Hill. Angus Gunn, Aberdeen Banking Company, memorandum dated 8 August 1825, Bank of Scotland Archives, bundle ABC/6/2/18, HBOSplc Group Archives, Edinburgh.
21. I b i d.
22. "Two Chapters on Bank Note Forgeries," chap. 2 (n. 1 above). See also Encyclopaedia Britannica, suppl. to the 4th, 5th, and 6th eds., s.v. "Money."
23. "Two Chapters on Bank Note Forgeries," chap. 2 (n. 1 above). See also Encyclopaedia Britannica, suppl. to the 4th, 5th, and 6th eds., s.v. "Money."
24. See, for example, Porter (n. 3 above) for case studies of the application of quantitative methods to administration and business in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For another example of the pragmatic, even rhetorical, character of the appeal to science, see William J. Ashworth, "Between the Trader and the Public: Defining Production and Measures in 18th-Century Britain," Technology and Culture 42 (2001):27-50, in which Ashworth shows that "setting standards was an administrative endeavor involving just enough scientific authority to justify its imperative" (49).
25. C. E. Challis, ed., A New History of the Royal Mint (Cambridge, 1992), 419-31. Newton brought his tenacity to bear on the issue of standardization, to bring the sizing of coins to greater exactness.
26. On the upheaval in paper production after the invention of Louis Robert's continuous-web paper machine in 1798, see Louis André, Machines à papier: Innovation et transformations de l'industrie papetière en France, 1798-1860 (Paris, 1996); Peter Bower, Turner's Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of His Drawing Papers, 1820-1851 (London, 1999); Richard D. Hills, Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988 (London, 1988); Richard Herring, Paper and Paper Making, Ancient and Modern (London, 1856); C. Tomlinson, ed., Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, vol. 2 (London, 1854), 357-74; Anselme Payen, Précis de Chimie Industrielle, vol. 2 (Paris, 1859), 458-84.
27. On the upheaval in paper production after the invention of Louis Robert's continuous-web paper machine in 1798, see Louis André, Machines à papier: Innovation et transformations de l'industrie papetière en France, 1798-1860 (Paris, 1996); Peter Bower, Turner's Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of His Drawing Papers, 1820-1851 (London, 1999); Richard D. Hills, Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988 (London, 1988); Richard Herring, Paper and Paper Making, Ancient and Modern (London, 1856); C. Tomlinson, ed., Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, vol. 2 (London, 1854), 357-74; Anselme Payen, Précis de Chimie Industrielle, vol. 2 (Paris, 1859), 458-84.
28. On the upheaval in paper production after the invention of Louis Robert's continuous-web paper machine in 1798, see Louis André, Machines à papier: Innovation et transformations de l'industrie papetière en France, 1798-1860 (Paris, 1996); Peter Bower, Turner's Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of His Drawing Papers, 1820-1851 (London, 1999); Richard D. Hills, Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988 (London, 1988); Richard Herring, Paper and Paper Making, Ancient and Modern (London, 1856); C. Tomlinson, ed., Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, vol. 2 (London, 1854), 357-74; Anselme Payen, Précis de Chimie Industrielle, vol. 2 (Paris, 1859), 458-84.
29. On the upheaval in paper production after the invention of Louis Robert's continuous-web paper machine in 1798, see Louis André, Machines à papier: Innovation et transformations de l'industrie papetière en France, 1798-1860 (Paris, 1996); Peter Bower, Turner's Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of His Drawing Papers, 1820-1851 (London, 1999); Richard D. Hills, Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988 (London, 1988); Richard Herring, Paper and Paper Making, Ancient and Modern (London, 1856); C. Tomlinson, ed., Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, vol. 2 (London, 1854), 357-74; Anselme Payen, Précis de Chimie Industrielle, vol. 2 (Paris, 1859), 458-84.
30. On the upheaval in paper production after the invention of Louis Robert's continuous-web paper machine in 1798, see Louis André, Machines à papier: Innovation et transformations de l'industrie papetière en France, 1798-1860 (Paris, 1996); Peter Bower, Turner's Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of His Drawing Papers, 1820-1851 (London, 1999); Richard D. Hills, Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988 (London, 1988); Richard Herring, Paper and Paper Making, Ancient and Modern (London, 1856); C. Tomlinson, ed., Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, vol. 2 (London, 1854), 357-74; Anselme Payen, Précis de Chimie Industrielle, vol. 2 (Paris, 1859), 458-84.
31. On the upheaval in paper production after the invention of Louis Robert's continuous-web paper machine in 1798, see Louis André, Machines à papier: Innovation et transformations de l'industrie papetière en France, 1798-1860 (Paris, 1996); Peter Bower, Turner's Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of His Drawing Papers, 1820-1851 (London, 1999); Richard D. Hills, Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988 (London, 1988); Richard Herring, Paper and Paper Making, Ancient and Modern (London, 1856); C. Tomlinson, ed., Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, vol. 2 (London, 1854), 357-74; Anselme Payen, Précis de Chimie Industrielle, vol. 2 (Paris, 1859), 458-84.
32. For example, L'Illustration began publication in France in 1843, the Illustrated London News in 1842, and the Illustrierte Zeitung, in Leipzig, in 1843. Some useful general sources include: Gavin Bridson and Geoffrey Wakeman, Printmaking and Picture Printing: A Bibliographical Guide to Artistic and Industrial Techniques in Britain, 1750-1900 (Oxford, 1984); Anthony Dyson, Pictures to Print: The Nineteenth-Century Engraving Trade (London 1984).
33. For example, L'Illustration began publication in France in 1843, the Illustrated London News in 1842, and the Illustrierte Zeitung, in Leipzig, in 1843. Some useful general sources include: Gavin Bridson and Geoffrey Wakeman, Printmaking and Picture Printing: A Bibliographical Guide to Artistic and Industrial Techniques in Britain, 1750-1900 (Oxford, 1984); Anthony Dyson, Pictures to Print: The Nineteenth-Century Engraving Trade (London 1984).
34. For example, L'Illustration began publication in France in 1843, the Illustrated London News in 1842, and the Illustrierte Zeitung, in Leipzig, in 1843. Some useful general sources include: Gavin Bridson and Geoffrey Wakeman, Printmaking and Picture Printing: A Bibliographical Guide to Artistic and Industrial Techniques in Britain, 1750-1900 (Oxford, 1984); Anthony Dyson, Pictures to Print: The Nineteenth-Century Engraving Trade (London 1984).
35. For example, L'Illustration began publication in France in 1843, the Illustrated London News in 1842, and the Illustrierte Zeitung, in Leipzig, in 1843. Some useful general sources include: Gavin Bridson and Geoffrey Wakeman, Printmaking and Picture Printing: A Bibliographical Guide to Artistic and Industrial Techniques in Britain, 1750-1900 (Oxford, 1984); Anthony Dyson, Pictures to Print: The Nineteenth-Century Engraving Trade (London 1984).
36. For example, L'Illustration began publication in France in 1843, the Illustrated London News in 1842, and the Illustrierte Zeitung, in Leipzig, in 1843. Some useful general sources include: Gavin Bridson and Geoffrey Wakeman, Printmaking and Picture Printing: A Bibliographical Guide to Artistic and Industrial Techniques in Britain, 1750-1900 (Oxford, 1984); Anthony Dyson, Pictures to Print: The Nineteenth-Century Engraving Trade (London 1984).
37. For example, through a range of multivolume encyclopedias, such as Abraham Rees's New Cyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, 45 vols. (London, 1802-19). Richard Yeo's Encyclopaedic Visions (Cambridge, 2001), chap. 10, describes the debates beginning around 1800 over the "twin perils of specialization and popularisation" - in other words, about the widening social market for such publications, reflected in works such as the Encyclopaedia Metropolitan (London, 1845); the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (Edinburgh, 1830); and the popular Penny Cyclopaedia, published beginning in 1833 by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in London at nine pence per monthly part. See Yeo, 297.
38. For example, through a range of multivolume encyclopedias, such as Abraham Rees's New Cyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, 45 vols. (London, 1802-19). Richard Yeo's Encyclopaedic Visions (Cambridge, 2001), chap. 10, describes the debates beginning around 1800 over the "twin perils of specialization and popularisation" - in other words, about the widening social market for such publications, reflected in works such as the Encyclopaedia Metropolitan (London, 1845); the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (Edinburgh, 1830); and the popular Penny Cyclopaedia, published beginning in 1833 by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in London at nine pence per monthly part. See Yeo, 297.
39. For example, through a range of multivolume encyclopedias, such as Abraham Rees's New Cyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, 45 vols. (London, 1802-19). Richard Yeo's Encyclopaedic Visions (Cambridge, 2001), chap. 10, describes the debates beginning around 1800 over the "twin perils of specialization and popularisation" - in other words, about the widening social market for such publications, reflected in works such as the Encyclopaedia Metropolitan (London, 1845); the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (Edinburgh, 1830); and the popular Penny Cyclopaedia, published beginning in 1833 by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in London at nine pence per monthly part. See Yeo, 297.
40. For example, through a range of multivolume encyclopedias, such as Abraham Rees's New Cyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, 45 vols. (London, 1802-19). Richard Yeo's Encyclopaedic Visions (Cambridge, 2001), chap. 10, describes the debates beginning around 1800 over the "twin perils of specialization and popularisation" - in other words, about the widening social market for such publications, reflected in works such as the Encyclopaedia Metropolitan (London, 1845); the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (Edinburgh, 1830); and the popular Penny Cyclopaedia, published beginning in 1833 by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in London at nine pence per monthly part. See Yeo, 297.
41. For example, through a range of multivolume encyclopedias, such as Abraham Rees's New Cyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, 45 vols. (London, 1802-19). Richard Yeo's Encyclopaedic Visions (Cambridge, 2001), chap. 10, describes the debates beginning around 1800 over the "twin perils of specialization and popularisation" - in other words, about the widening social market for such publications, reflected in works such as the Encyclopaedia Metropolitan (London, 1845); the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (Edinburgh, 1830); and the popular Penny Cyclopaedia, published beginning in 1833 by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in London at nine pence per monthly part. See Yeo, 297.
42. L. T. C. Roll, Tools for the Job (London, 1986), 150.
43. Benjamin, Illuminations (n. 3 above), 219-53.
44. Ibid., 222.
45. On copying and reproduction during this period, see Hillel Schwarz, The Culture of the Copy (New York, 1996).
46. Dyson, 34-35; Barbara Rhodes and William Wells Streeter, Before Photocopying: The Art and History of Mechanical Copying, 1780-1938 (New Castle, Del., 1999), 22; Alois Senefelder, A Complete Course of Lithography (London, 1819; reprint, New York, 1977); Dennis Bryans, "The Double Invention of Printing," Journal of Design History 13 (2000): 287-300.
47. Dyson, 34-35; Barbara Rhodes and William Wells Streeter, Before Photocopying: The Art and History of Mechanical Copying, 1780-1938 (New Castle, Del., 1999), 22; Alois Senefelder, A Complete Course of Lithography (London, 1819; reprint, New York, 1977); Dennis Bryans, "The Double Invention of Printing," Journal of Design History 13 (2000): 287-300.
48. Dyson, 34-35; Barbara Rhodes and William Wells Streeter, Before Photocopying: The Art and History of Mechanical Copying, 1780-1938 (New Castle, Del., 1999), 22; Alois Senefelder, A Complete Course of Lithography (London, 1819; reprint, New York, 1977); Dennis Bryans, "The Double Invention of Printing," Journal of Design History 13 (2000): 287-300.
49. Dyson, 34-35; Barbara Rhodes and William Wells Streeter, Before Photocopying: The Art and History of Mechanical Copying, 1780-1938 (New Castle, Del., 1999), 22; Alois Senefelder, A Complete Course of Lithography (London, 1819; reprint, New York, 1977); Dennis Bryans, "The Double Invention of Printing," Journal of Design History 13 (2000): 287-300.
50. "Opinions and Remarks upon the Means of Preventing Forgeries," app. 4, Specimens and Descriptions of the Perkins and Fairman's Patent Siderographic Plan (London, 1819), Glasgow University Library, Special Collections, Y7 - b.10; Lance Day and Ian McNeil, eds., Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology (London, 1996), 550-51. In addition, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia describes "the process of multiplying engravings" (which it ascribes to Perkins and Fairman in 1819) in some detail; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, s.v. "Steel Engraving."
51. "Opinions and Remarks upon the Means of Preventing Forgeries," app. 4, Specimens and Descriptions of the Perkins and Fairman's Patent Siderographic Plan (London, 1819), Glasgow University Library, Special Collections, Y7 - b.10; Lance Day and Ian McNeil, eds., Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology (London, 1996), 550-51. In addition, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia describes "the process of multiplying engravings" (which it ascribes to Perkins and Fairman in 1819) in some detail; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, s.v. "Steel Engraving."
52. "Opinions and Remarks upon the Means of Preventing Forgeries," app. 4, Specimens and Descriptions of the Perkins and Fairman's Patent Siderographic Plan (London, 1819), Glasgow University Library, Special Collections, Y7 - b.10; Lance Day and Ian McNeil, eds., Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology (London, 1996), 550-51. In addition, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia describes "the process of multiplying engravings" (which it ascribes to Perkins and Fairman in 1819) in some detail; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, s.v. "Steel Engraving."
53. "Opinions and Remarks upon the Means of Preventing Forgeries," app. 4, Specimens and Descriptions of the Perkins and Fairman's Patent Siderographic Plan (London, 1819), Glasgow University Library, Special Collections, Y7 - b.10; Lance Day and Ian McNeil, eds., Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology (London, 1996), 550-51. In addition, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia describes "the process of multiplying engravings" (which it ascribes to Perkins and Fairman in 1819) in some detail; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, s.v. "Steel Engraving."
54. "Opinions and Remarks upon the Means of Preventing Forgeries," 40-41.
55. Ibid., 41.
56. There were about twenty-five engravers on the list of signatories, interestingly enough, and I would argue that this highlights the fact that the committee framed its response to the invention of siderographic duplication in terms of how they would jointly incorporate the new invention into their existing operations.
57. "Opinions and Remarks upon the Means of Preventing Forgeries," 42-45.
58. Sharp (n. 12 above).
59. Ibid., 244. Sharp's essay gives valuable insight into the potential ramifications of this "design brief."
60. Ibid., 245. On large print runs, see the frequently irascible letters of the paper manufacturer John Dickinson to the Cadell publishers (Walter Scott's publisher) during the period 1829-48, National Library of Scotland, MSS 21010.
61. Hills (n. 18 above), 40-41; Herring (n. 18 above), 89-92.
62. Sharp, 249. Brewer and Smith took out a patent for pressed-sheet metal watermarks in 1849; see Hills, 41.
63. Bower (n. 18 above), 29.
64. I b i d.
65. Evidence of how subtle, and yet how crucial, those sensory judgments could be was provided recently by the example of the Bank of England forgery operation conducted by the Nazis during World War II, mainly at the print unit in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Here it was discovered that carefully made linen paper with forged watermarks looked convincing but lacked the proper feel simply because the linen used was too new. The linen required was then distributed to factories for use as rags, after which it could be turned into more acceptable paper. Peter Bower, "Operation Bernhard: The German Forgery of British Paper Currency in World War II," in Exeter Papers: Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference of the British Association of Paper Historians, 1994, ed. Peter Bower (London, 2001), 45-46.
66. "A Paper Mill," Household Words, 31 August 1850.
67. Herring (n. 18 above), 93. He is referring here to the new issue Bank of England note of 1855.
68. "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street," Household Words, 6 July 1850.
69. C. M. Jackson-Houlston, "The Burial-Place of the Fashions: The Representation of the Dress of the Poor in Illustrated Serial Prose by Dickens and Hardy," Textile History 33 (2002): 98-111.
70. Sharp (n. 12 above), 253. It is interesting to see the mass-consumption application of these machines, which in the eighteenth century had been taken up largely by aristocratic hobbyists. Very fine ornamental turning lathes - such as the early French medallion lathe made for Louis XVI now on display at the Science Museum, Birming ham - were produced during the eighteenth century; Rolt (n. 21 above), 41. A wellknown example from literature of such an aristocratic hobbyist is the old prince Bolkonsky, Princess Marya's tyrannical father, in Tolstoy's War and Peace.
71. D. M. Henshaw, "Donkin's Pantagraph Engraving Machine with Rose Engine," Transactions of the Newcomen Society 15 (1934-35): 77-84. Day and McNeil (n. 26 above), 214-15. Donkin began working toward a new, improved paper machine in 1803 and took out a patent in 1807; Hills (n. 18 above), 96-97.
72. James Nasmyth, Autobiography (London, 1883), 168.
73. Henshaw, 80-81.
74. Nasmyth, 308.
75. Sharp (n. 12 above), 259.
76. Sharp, 258. This "engine-work," as it was called, was taken up at different rates. Two Scottish banks, the British Linen Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland, used this kind of machine-engraved drawing on their banknotes beginning in 1822 and 1826, respectively, but these are unusually early instances. See James Douglas, Scottish Banknotes (London, 1975), 58-62. The 1822 British Linen Bank series was engraved by Perkins, Fairman and Heath, and the 1826 Royal Bank of Scotland twenty-shilling note was engraved by the Edinburgh firm of W. H. Lizars.
77. Rees (n. 20 above).
78. Basil Hunnisett, A Dictionary of British Steel Engravers (Leigh-on-Sea, 1980), 88.
79. A. P. Woolrich, "John Farey, Jnr., Technical Author and Draughtsman: His Contribution to Rees' Cyclopaedia" Industrial Archaeology Review 20 (1998): 49-67. Farey began work on Rees's New Cyclopaedia in 1805, when he was just fourteen.
80. A. P. Woolrich, "John Farey, Jnr., Technical Author and Draughtsman: His Contribution to Rees' Cyclopaedia" Industrial Archaeology Review 20 (1998): 49-67. Farey began work on Rees's New Cyclopaedia in 1805, when he was just fourteen.
81. The elliptograph produced perfect ellipses, and the centrolinead indicated the lines of recession for an out-of-frame vanishing point. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, s.v. "Technical Drawing" and plate XXCCCV.
82. Woolrich, 65. As John K. Brown showed in "Design Plans, Working Drawings, National Styles: Engineering Practice in Great Britain and the United States, 1775-1945," Technology and Culture 41 (2000): 195-238, as late as World War II the belief in the "universal language" of technical drawing was contradicted by the fact that British drawings were not "readable" in U.S. workshops.
83. Louise Purbrick, "Ideologically Technical: Illustration, Automation and Spinning Cotton Around the Middle of the Nineteenth Century" Journal of Design History 11 (1998):275-293.
84. Alder (n. 3 above) presents a very relevant study of the role of technical drawing in the development of interchangeable parts in late-eighteenth-century France, where Diderot's objective, quantified "geometry of the workshop" was used in an attempt to develop a "neutral, rule-based standard."
85. The Glasgow Mechanics' Institute was founded in 1823, thanks to the example and influence of George Birkbeck (1776-1841), who also helped to found the London Mechanics' Institute in the following year. Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. "Birkbeck, George."
86. Hunnisett (n. 50 above), 128.
87. Douglas (n. 48 above), 141, 183, 237.
88. For another related example, see Pierre-Claude Reynard's "Unreliable Mills: Maintenance Practices in Early Modern Papermaking," Technology and Culture 40 (1999): 237-62, in which he contrasts the "run-to-failure" conditions of actual paper mills with the orderly, idealized conditions depicted in Diderot's
89. Encyclopédie.
90. Sharp (n. 12 above), 257.
91. Sharp, 250.
92. Wilson Lowry's daughters engraved duplicate plates for Rees's 1820 encyclopedia. Hunnisett, 88.
93. Sharp, 253.
94. J. Keyworth, Forgery: The Artful Crime (London, 2001).
95. This parallel was first drawn by Sharp, 254-55. Hills (n. 18 above), 123, also describes some other means of verification and authentication of the postal charge that were floated at the time, which depended on other types of technological control.
96. Sharp (n. 12 above), 252, describes this "Frankfort black" ink as "made of the charred husks and vines of Rhenish grapes."
97. "The New Bank of England Note," Illustrated London News, 30 December 1854.
98. Sharp, 257.
99. Keyworth. Maclise also designed two of the House of Lords murals; Julian Treuherz, Victorian Painting (London, 1993), 51.
100. Douglas (n. 48 above), 76-77.
101. First published as the Art- Union beginning in 1839, it became the Art Journal in 1849. It had a circulation of around twenty thousand in the 1850s. See Treuherz, 124.
102. First published as the Art- Union beginning in 1839, it became the Art Journal in 1849. It had a circulation of around twenty thousand in the 1850s. See Treuherz, 124.
103. First published as the Art- Union beginning in 1839, it became the Art Journal in 1849. It had a circulation of around twenty thousand in the 1850s. See Treuherz, 124.
104. Art-Union, June 1846, 145.
105. Antoine F. J. Claudet (1797-1867) was one of the earliest daguerreotype portraitists in Britain and owner of the "temple of photography" in Regent Street in the 1850s; Michel Frizot, ed., The New History of Photography (Cologne, 1999), 40-43, 105. Sharp (n. 12 above), 269.
106. "The Process of Multiplying Line Engravings" Art-Union, 18 January 1846. See also
107. "Printing and Piracy - A New Discovery" Athenaeum, 4 December 1841, and
108. Michael Twyman, Early Lithographed Books (London, 1990), 223.
109. See Dyson (n. 19 above).
110. "The New Bank of England Note" (n. 67 above).
111. Benjamin, "The Work of Art," 226.
112. Encyclopaedia Britannica, suppl., s.v. "Money."
113. S. Herbert Frankel, Money: Two Philosophies (Oxford, 1977), 32-42. Bagehot (n. 2 above), 68-69.
114. "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street" (n. 41 above), distantly echoing Cantillon's "velocity of circulation." Schumpeter (n, 4 above), 370. Banknotes therefore seem by their very flimsiness to announce their role as, in Simmel's words, "the bearer of movement from which everything else has been excluded"; Frankel, 8.
115. "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street" (n. 41 above), distantly echoing Cantillon's "velocity of circulation." Schumpeter (n, 4 above), 370. Banknotes therefore seem by their very flimsiness to announce their role as, in Simmel's words, "the bearer of movement from which everything else has been excluded"; Frankel, 8.
116. "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street" (n. 41 above), distantly echoing Cantillon's "velocity of circulation." Schumpeter (n, 4 above), 370. Banknotes therefore seem by their very flimsiness to announce their role as, in Simmel's words, "the bearer of movement from which everything else has been excluded"; Frankel, 8.
117. "Two Chapters on Bank Note Forgeries," chap. 2 (n. 1 above).
118. Benjamin, "The Work of Art" (n. 3 above), 242.
119. Georg Simmel, The Philosophy of Money, ed. David Frisby (London, 1990), 256.