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“Marley’s Ghost”, an excerpt from A Christmas Carol in prose. Being a Ghost-story of Christmas, by Charles Dickens, illustrations by John Leech, 1843, Wikimedia, HERE.
It
is almost Christmas and often at this time of year people post a Christmas
letter talking of the doings of the past year and wishing a Merry Christmas and
the best wishes for the coming year to their friends and those they love. Today, people of the 21st century,
simply fold the letter, slip it into a pre-made envelope and seal it with the pre-glued
flap and send it on its way with a stamp.
 |
A letter sheet from 1628, opened up to show the folds, address and seal, with the letter written on the opposite side, from Wikimedia, HERE. Letter sheets were used until the middle of the 19th century.
But
this isn’t how it was always done. So, just how would Ebenezer
Scrooge have posted a letter?
To
write a letter like Ebenezer Scrooge in an authentic, late 18th and
early 19th centuries, period correct manner1 from the,
you need to find the correct size of handmade paper, you need to know about and
have a paper knife2, you must know how to fold and cut your paper
with your paper knife, and finally you need to know how to seal your letter
with either sealing wax or wafers.
“The most convenient form
for a letter, is a sheet of quarto paper...”
 |
Folding and cutting a paper manufacturer’s full-sized sheet of writing paper, in half twice would provide you with a sheet of quarto paper, an excerpt from Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering, page 102-103
During
the late 18th and early 19th centuries letters were
written on what is today called a “letter sheet”. The Young Man’s Best Companion noted
that, “The most convenient form for a letter is, a sheet of quarto paper”. A sheet of quarto paper is piece of paper
that is one quarter of a manufacturer’s full-size sheet of writing paper,
folded and cut twice to provide four sheets of paper.
Unfortunately,
and obviously, the final size of a sheet of quarto paper depends on the size of
the original full-size sheet of the paper and manufacturers of the late 18th
and early 19th centuries made paper sheets in several different
sizes.
 |
The sizes of manufactured paper, an excerpt from The Statutes at Large, Volume the Ninth, page 138.
During
the late 18th to early 19th century in England, and anywhere
else that used paper manufactured in Great Britain, “Medium” sized writing
paper, was 17-½ by 22-½ inches (44.5 by 57.2 cm), which when folded twice and
cut with a paper knife would make a four quarto sized sheets, that measured 8 ¾
by 11 ¼ inches (22.2 by 28.6 cm), which is almost the same size as modern 8-½ by 11 inches (21.6 by 27.9 centimeters) sheets of paper3.
Alternatively,
Melissa in “How to Post a Letter, 19th Century Style”, suggested using 11 by 17 inch (27.9 by 43.2 cm) paper on which to write
your late 18th and early 19th century letters. This would be a folio sized sheet of paper
and not a quarto sized sheet. However,
when you have folded this sheet down the center, each leaf would be quarto
sized.
 |
Two different sized sheets of paper make two different sized folded letters, photograph by the Author.
I
folded a letter using both sizes of paper as a test and found that folding a
quarto sized sheet of paper in half, which creates an “octavo” sized leaf of
writing paper, makes for a small letter when it is folded around itself to seal
it. In the end I don’t know whose
interpretation is the most correct, Lady Smatter’s or Melissa’s, however based
on the excerpt from the Young Man’s Best Companion, I believe that Lady
Smatter is more correct. However, to be transparent,
for the following photographs I used a 11 by 17 inch
(27.9 by 43.2 cm) sheet of paper to create my letter.
To write your letter...
 |
An excerpt from the Young Man’s Best Companion, page 64.
So,
to be period correct and write a letter as they would have in the late 18th
and early 19th centuries you could find some handmade paper of the
correct size, fold it, and cut it with a paper knife into quarto sheets and
start to write, or you could cheat and use a modern 8-½ by 11 inch (21.6 by
27.9 centimeters) or a 11 by 17 inch (27.9 by 43.2 cm) sheet of paper.
 |
Folding your sheet of paper down the center to create a folio or booklet, photograph by the Author.
To
start your letter, take a sheet of paper and using your paper knife, fold it
down the middle into a booklet. When you
fold a quarto sized sheet in half to make a booklet, you make a two-leaf pamphlet
of four octavo sized pages. When you
fold a folio sized sheet down the center, you have a two-leaf booklet of four quarto
sized pages.
 |
Your booklet of four pages, photograph by the Author.
According
to the Young Man’s Best Companion, letters were begun on the first page,
which is the front side or “recto”, of the first leaf, and you would write
on “three succeeding pages”, which would leave the fourth page, or the
backside or “verso”4, of the second leaf blank.
Don’t
forget “to leave on the middle of the margins of the third page, a space an
inch and a half square to receive the wafer or seal”. This space should be in the center of the “outer
margin”, the side of your booklet opposite the fold. If you forget to do this, when the recipient tears
or cuts the paper to open the letter, they will damage some part of the message
since, “the wax or wafer must be placed on part of the writing, which will
of course be destroyed”5!
Because
in England, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries,
it cost double to mail a letter in an envelope and in other countries it cost
an extra penny on top of the regular postage to post an enveloped letter,
people would leave the fourth page of their quarto booklet blank; so that it
would become, when folded, an envelope.
 |
An excerpt from the Young Man’s Best Companion, page 64 to 65.
The most proper way to fold
a letter, written on quarto paper...
 |
Folding a letter, an excerpt from the Young Man’s Best Companion, page 64.
To
fold a letter, so that the fourth page of the letter wraps around the other
pages, making a protective envelope; step one start by folding the top two
inches (5 cm) of the letter over. Step
two, fold up the bottom two inches (5 cm) of the letter. Step three, fold over the “inner margin”,
the side next to the center fold separating the leaves and pages, to within a
one and a half inches (3.8 cm) of the open “outer margin”, to make the
inner margin flap. Step four, fold over one
and a half inches (3.8 cm) of the “outer margin”, to make the outer
margin flap.
 |
Here is how to fold your letter, Step One to Step Two, photograph by the Author.
Next
and last, tuck the inner margin flap into the folded over outer margin flap. The Lady Smatter recommends tucking the
closed inner margin flap into the outer margin flap, so that only the second leaf
(third and fourth page) of the folded over outer margin flap is sealed to inner
margin flap, this way only the space that you left in the “outer margin”
of page three will be torn away when the letter is opened.
 |
The inner margin flap tucked into the outer margin flap, photograph by the Author.
Addressing and sealing the
letter...
 |
An excerpt from the New Complete English Dictionary ...: Wherein Difficult Words and Technical, John Marchant Gordon, 1760.
Now,
seal your letter with either wafers, which were small, dry paste disks6,
or with sealing wax, where the inner and outer flap come together. You can also cheat if you are not concerned
with historical accuracy and use a sticker.
 |
The opened letter, showing the seal, the address the return address and the torn portion of the outer margin when the letter was ripped open, photograph by the Author.
Because
of how the letter is folded, both addresses are written on the fourth page, which
is the backside or verso of the second leaf, the return address should be
written just above the seal and the recipient’s address on the opposite side of
the folded letter.
 |
A completed letter, ready to be posted, photograph by the Author.
For
a video on how to fold a letter into own envelope, watch “Posting a Christmas
Letter Like Old Ebenezer Scrooge ©”. HERE.
I
wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and the very best wishes for the
coming year!
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Burn This Book! ©”,
where we will talk about how to improvise, adapt and overcome, when misplaced
in the wilderness.
 |
Outdoor Survival Skills, by Larry Dean Olsen, photograph by the Author.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I
announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1
Little did I know when I started this article that the practice of letter
writing had changed so drastically in the last 175 years. Lady Smatter, who writes about Jane Austen
and England during the Regency Period of 1811 to 1820 in her blog, Her Reputation
for Accomplishment, has done an impressive job of researching and writing about
letter-writing during the late 18th and early 19th
centuries. She has published twelve
articles, all of which can be found HERE. Also the article “Anatomy
of a Regency Letter”, HERE,
is a good introduction which talks about the size of writing paper during this
period.
2
 |
The Author’s paper knife, photograph by the Author.
A
“paper knife” is not the same as a “pen knife”. A pen knife has a sharp point and a short,
sharp blade and was used to sharpen the nibs of quill pens and later
pencils. A paper knife was a knife that
had a rounded tip and a blade with a smooth, rounded edge, which was perfect
for cutting through the paper fibers that had already been weakened by folding. In fact, the flat of the paper knife blade
was often used to create a sharp fold, which could then be cut by the edge of
the paper knife.
See
also “A Paper Knife Was Not a Letter Opener” by Kathryn Kane, the author of The
Regency Redingote
3 According
to Lady Smatter, in her article “Anatomy of a
Regency Letter”, the common size of a sheet of quarto letter paper “could
range in size from somewhat larger than standard 8.5×11 inch paper (A4 paper if
you’re not in the US) to somewhat smaller”.
In fact, a common size of paper was “Post” paper, which measured 15 ¼ by
19 ½ inches (38.7 by 49.5 cm), and which when folded and cut into quarto sheets
would have produced four sheets of paper which each measured 7-5/8 by 9-¾
inches (19.3 by 24.7 cm)
4 According
to Tate.org, HERE,
“The front or face of a single sheet of paper, or the right-hand page of an
open book is called the recto. The back or underside of a single sheet of
paper, or the left-hand page of an open book is known as the verso”.
5
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, letter
openers would sometimes use an “erasing knife” to break or lift the
seal. An erasing knife was a short sharp
knife like a modern X-ACTO® knife which could be used to gently scrap away
stray ink marks off the surface of the paper or to slide under the sealing wax
or wafer
6
For information on how to make sealing wafers and the etiquette of when to use
sealing wax instead of sealing wafers, go to Lady Smatter’s “Making (and
Faking) Wafers”, HERE,
“Sealing with Wafers”, HERE,
and “Wafer Etiquette”, HERE.
Sources
Baston, Karen; “William
Hunter’s Library: the Shapes of Books”, October 9, 2017, https://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2017/10/09/william-hunters-library-the-shapes-of-books/, accessed December 11, 2021
Gordon,
John Marchant;
New Complete English Dictionary ...: Wherein Difficult Words and Technical,
[Printed for J. Fuller, London, 1760], page QUE to QUE, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QaeHpTY7Pr8JOpxvhlRXWof1PzrerMFqiQcMVANexSBNYb74NelytLzFcgLkB1mSly47jg5InpBJ7EJ7PbJ2aWha9I-nXdU1e6DViBBZ4U12cy_rDykThiDtV5tSE5NO4TtWcJD_De0N558vG6yGO10LSA9lnwnw7k_W8we4pJACi3MXjGvbowUHa5MHf6NFBp7eOez34QgiXpM62246Fx3v_tdts5HXu4HmhdDXRAMQtfWlS5DNGq0IcR825m6ywDC4U8fwY_luALl9r-b_MA8GsPa86w, accessed December 15, 2021
Johnston, Edward; Writing
& Illuminating, & Lettering, [Published by John Hogg, London],
page 102-103, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47089/47089-h/47089-h.htm, accessed December 11, 2021
Kane, Kathryn; “A Paper
Knife Was Not a Letter Opener”, The Regency Redingote, May 24, 2013, https://regencyredingote.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/a-paper-knife-was-not-a-letter-opener/,
accessed December 16, 2021
Lady Smatter, “Anatomy of
a Regency Letter”, Her Reputation for Accomplishment, May 6, 2015, https://herreputationforaccomplishment.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/anatomy-of-a-regency-letter/, accessed December 11, 2021
Melissa, “How to Post a Letter, 19th Century Style”, February
14, 2011, [© Iowa State University Library Preservation Department, 2021], https://parkslibrarypreservation.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/how-to-post-a-letter-19th-century-style/,
accessed December 11, 2021
The
Statutes at Large, Volume the Ninth,
[Printed by Charles Eyre and Andrew Strahan, London, 1776], page
138, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qaez-3CYllslnIpD9vsc7LD9eVGbyVFLHFUyzh1oeW5jAdnPTWFNwJ8aQfbLxIe2IDrv4_CTbWZUs5UvHRMtaqxQfhmXni1SnSYRsruJpmelfJhwCWpIXEZcpdsOy7kycOk0_ViB82dz9ZYu9rVNXTI2Q_0luGKKz9aRIEr1S_BJCX4_BtnXfjoyAee8_j_hWGl8L17IBmpllF1Ht_5V_3egxFu_MOSPRQ5nTOTCeUlOqnPu20Ra-tJMGGTbdIo3IB1YNjImkfCbLup7IPi_k7hq2UJiG7s20i4mkpjUCBiPxqPhV4E,
accessed December 15, 2021
Wikimedia, “Opened up
1628 lettersheet”, by Albrecht von Waldstein, 1628, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WallensteinBriefSiegel.jpg,
accessed December 11, 2021
Wikimedia, “Marley’s
Ghost”, by John Leech, illustrator, from A Christmas Carol in prose. Being a
Ghost-story of Christmas, by Charles Dickens, [1843], https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marley%27s_Ghost_-_A_Christmas_Carol_(1843),_opposite_25_-_BL.jpg,
accessed December 11, 2021
,_opposite_25_-_BL.jpg){kind=link}
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