Lace Paper Manufacturer's Trade Card

• Pépin Fils et Brouand, 5 Rue de la Perle, Paris
• Manufacture de Papiers Dentelles
• Late 19th century
• 250 x 400mm (5½ x 4¾in)
•  

The technique of making lace paper was discovered accidentally, in London about 1835, by Joseph Addenbrooke from the mechanical procedure of embossing.

The embossing process is carried out by a large machine which supplies an enormous force pressing the paper into the die pattern below. To convert the embossed paper into lace paper, the die which is made of hard steel still has the paper sticking to its surface, is placed on a bench where a man with a file wrapped in fine sand-paper rubs away upon it until every particle of paper raised on the protuberant points of the die is removed, leaving a number of little holes and the remaining parts sunk in the engraved hollow spaces of the die to form a perfect imitation of lacework.

MW