The Scrap Album - Site Guide

History

From the early 1800s publishers produced picture sheets that were uncoloured or, at extra cost, hand coloured and sold by stationers and booksellers.

The colourful embossed reliefs beloved of Victorians originated in German bakers’ shops where they were used to decorate cakes. From this early beginning scraps were later used as decorative additions to Christmas cards and valentines. They were also used to illustrate historical as well as popular events of the time.

The immediate forerunner of the embossed scraps were sheets containing small chromos printed in a rectangular format to be cut out in exactly the same way as the first penny postage stamps.

In the Victorian home a popular pastime was to embellish the folding screens that the draughty living rooms required.

Production

Scraps, stamped embossed reliefs, chromos or die cuts are small paper images printed by the process of chromo-lithography and embossed.

After printing of the scrap the sheets were coated with a gelatine and gum layer which gave the finished sheets a glossy surface, embossing came next giving the scrap their three-dimensional look.

The final production process was to pass them through a punching / stamping press to cut away the unrequired areas of paper from the design leaving the individual images connected by small ladders, often bearing the name or initials of the maker.

The elaborate use of stamping can often be seen in uncut scrap sheets. Optimum use of space, required minimal cutting and lead to the intricate and ingenious design of the cutting die.

 

 

    Opposite
  • A humorous selection of Victorian scraps

The Victorian Scrap

Albums & Scraps
Saint Valentines Day
Easter & Fairyland
Christmas & New Year
Printed Ephemera
Publishers