Posting a Christmas Letter Like Old Ebenezer Scrooge ©

 

 

“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 21^st 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 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th 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 18^th to early 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th 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