TITLE: Paper making by hand in India
AUTHOR: Dard Hunter
PUBLISHER: Pynson Printers
PLACE: New York
YEAR: 1939
EDITION: First
NUMBERED: 138 / 370
BINDING: Hand-blocked India print cloth-covered boards, black calf back by GerhardGerlach, deckled fore and bottom edges, slipcase
NO.OF PAGES: pp.129, Illustrated with eighty-four photogravure plates and twenty-seven (27) tipped-in specimen plates
SIZE:
Height: 30.2 cm
Width: 24 cm
Depth: 3.2 cm

LIMITED EDITION, SIGNED COPY OF MOST IMPORTANT BOOK ON PAPER MAKING BY HAND IN INDIA

Limited to 370 numbered copies, of which this is number 138, signed by Hunter

In this work, Hunter takes us on a journey through various Indian provinces, examining the techniques used to make paper by hand in each one and providing a valuable record of a vanishing industry. The account of his travels through the country is illustrated with photographs of papermaking equipment and of artisans at work making paper; it describes in detail the materials used and the techniques employed to make paper in each region, and enumerates the special challenges Indian papermakers face in finding quality raw materials and dealing with the discouragement of British colonial officials. Hunter holds out little hope for the future of the craft in India, where artisans are focused on trying to produce paper at lower prices than the machine-made kind--a hopeless task--rather than on making the kind of high-quality paper that cannot be produced on a machine. This work is all the more significant for capturing a dying art and preserving remnants of its products.

In 1911, Dard Hunter wandered into the London Science museum and saw the hand papermaking and type-founding exhibits. The equipment for these crafts - papermaking moulds, watermarks, steel punches, copper matrices, and hand-held typecasting moulds - inspired Hunter to learn more about these centuries-old crafts. Hunter finally realized his dreamand established a commercial hand papermaking mill in Lime Rock, Connecticut. In 1930 the first paper was made. While in operation, the mill provided Hunter with enough handmade paper for many of his later limited edition books but, due largely to the Great Depression the mill was closed in 1933. While Hunter never again started another commercial paper mill, he spent the rest of his life pursuing the investigation of making paper by hand throughout the world and would share this knowledge through his books written on the subject. Beyond the significance of his books, one of Hunter's greatest accomplishments was the establishment of the Dard Hunter Paper Museum. Originally housed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it now comprises most of the collection of the Robert C. Williams American Museum of Papermaking located at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.