The papers of limited deluxe editions

Japanese paper, vat-made since the 8th century from the bark of kōzo, gampi and mitsumata, was known to European engravers before being adopted by publishers. The opening of Japan and the japonisme of the 1870s made it the paper of choice for deluxe printings: publishers of the late 19th century — Lemerre, Conquet, Rouveyre, and later the houses of the 20th century — placed Japan paper at the head of the limitation statement, ahead of China and Holland paper, for a handful of numbered copies. A distinction is drawn between 'old' Japan, silky and faintly ivory-toned, 'Imperial' Japan, thick, cream and satiny, of Japanese manufacture, and European imitations; 'mould-made' Japan is produced sheet by sheet, while 'pearled' Japan owes its sheen to gampi.

For the bookseller, a copy on Japan paper is almost always the summit of an edition: the catalogue entry gives its rank in the limitation statement ('one of 10 on Imperial Japan, ours no. 3'), notes the suites of plates or additional states that often accompany it, and describes the condition of the paper, whose surface marks easily. A signed binding and an inscription are readily added: a deluxe Japan copy with an inscription is a collector's piece.

Japan paper is sometimes confused with vellum paper or China paper, and any cream, silky paper is occasionally mistaken for Japan. Publishers also reused the name for machine-made papers, and certain 'Imperial Japan' papers dating from after 1900 were manufactured in Europe. A limitation statement should therefore be read alongside the bibliography: the number of copies on Japan paper is fixed there, and a copy 'on Japan' that is unnumbered in an edition which numbers them deserves to be checked.

A thin, silky, and lightly tinted paper made from vegetable fibres, prized for the finesse with which it renders the lines of an engraving or an etching. Publishers readily chose it, in the 19th and 20th centuries, for deluxe editions, alongside Japon or Hollande paper (other types of paper exist, but remain less common).

Laid paper of Dutch manufacture, esteemed since the seventeenth century for its strength and fine grain, made from linen or hemp rag. Publishers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries readily chose it for deluxe editions, alongside Japon or Chine paper (other types of paper exist, but remain less common).

Madagascar paper appears in the limitation statements of the 1920s and dominates the modern book until around 1960: Gallimard, Grasset and Plon used it for a few dozen limited deluxe copies of their first editions, ranking between imperial Japan and Holland paper at the top, and pure-fibre laid paper and esparto at the bottom. It is a fine, supple, faintly cream-coloured vellum of French manufacture, its name owing to the contemporary fashion for exotic-sounding designations; its exact composition is undocumented, and the presence of Madagascan fibres remains a matter of conjecture.

For the bookseller, "one of 35 copies on Madagascar paper" denotes either a limited deluxe copy or a second-tier copy, depending on the limitation statement, and its value lies in that rank: the catalogue entry cites it with its number and states what precedes and follows it in the hierarchy.

The Arches mill, on the Moselle, is attested as early as 1492; Beaumarchais had the paper for his Kehl edition of Voltaire made there, and the house became the benchmark for drawing paper and printmaking paper. Twentieth-century publishers made it into a large paper: Arches vellum, pure rag, white or cream, watermarked "Arches", carries the illustrations of livres de peintres and limited deluxe editions, sometimes "hand-made" (à la forme).

For the bookseller, "on Arches vellum" places a copy within the limitation statement: often coming after the Japon and Chine papers in an illustrated book, and often the sole large-paper issue of a first edition from the second half of the twentieth century. Arches must not be confused with Rives or Lana, neighbouring paper mills whose names appear in the same limitation statements.

Until the mid-19th century, all Western paper was rag paper: made from worn linen and hemp cloth, and later cotton. The invention of wood pulp around 1850 produced an abundant and cheap paper, but one that was acidic and fragile; rag paper then became the paper of quality, that of the fine large-paper copies, designated in the limitation statements as "pur chiffon" ("pure rag"), "pur fil" ("pure-rag") or "vélin chiffon" ("rag vellum"), watermarked with the name of the paper mill.

For the bookseller, the phrase "on pur fil" or "vélin chiffon" signals a large-paper copy, usually the last in the limitation before the ordinary issue: the catalogue entry gives its rank and number. For an antiquarian book, yellowed and brittle paper in a volume printed before 1850 raises the suspicion of a replaced leaf or an inserted facsimile.

French paper formats of the Ancien Régime take their name from their watermark: the raisin, from the bunch of grapes; the jésus, the colombier, the coquille. The grand raisin, roughly 50 × 65 cm, became one of the standard formats of printing. Folded in two it gives the folio, in four the quarto; the raisin has survived in the 50 × 65 cm size of drawing papers.

For the bookseller, the term "grand raisin" describes a large-size paper used for de luxe printings of the late 18th and early 19th centuries: Brunet and Cohen record copies "en grand raisin vélin", as with the Œuvres of La Fontaine illustrated by Moreau. The paper format should not be confused with the bibliographic format: "quarto grand raisin" refers to both at once.