Cranford Sky Blue

This mid-18th century paper, found in Cranford, Middlesex, has a yellow floral ogee motif printed on to thick, hand-made rag paper. It is unusual because yellow, although a popular colour, was expensive and prone to fading. It was manufactured using ‘slip-printing’, a technique to make the paper appear more expensive than it really was due to its ‘shadow’ effect, which was achieved economically by using the same block to print two different colours.