The Art of Paper Cutting
An Accomplishment of the Last Century Revived
The quaint old
accomplishment of paper cutting has become almost a lost art, except
where it is still remembered by a few old ladies as having been
fashionable when they were young. Perhaps some of them can still take a
piece of paper and a pair of scissors and cut out designs, but their
hands are too old and tremulous to execute as delicate and complex
patterns as they used to make.
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| cut watch papers by Miss Hunnywell |
The girls of
50 years ago became very skillful at this work, and one lady tells of
often seeing her old mother, as the family sat talking after dinner,
draw out a pair of small scissors, pick any envelope or bit of paper,
and seemingly without any thought or trouble, cut out the most exquisite
flowers and arabesques.
Cut papers
were used for many purposes of decoration. Sometimes they were cut with a
ring at one end that slipped over a candle, the leaf of delicate paper
lace hanging down in front of the candlestick like an apron. These
“candle papers,” when dipped in melted wax and then allowed to harden,
had almost the look of exquisitely carved ivory.
Sometimes the
papers were cut in rounds to fit into the lids of watches, and were
presented by young ladies to the gentlemen of their acquaintance and the
young men of that day counted their popularity by the number of watch
papers that they had received.
Young ladies
exchanged cut papers with each other as tokens of friendship and these
shaped like hearts, ovals or envelopes, were often further embellished
by delicately painted wreaths and flowers, and by the sentimental verses
of the day, written upon a space left for them.
Sometimes the
cut papers were merely considered as works of art, and as such were
mounted on black haircloth and framed. No paste was used in the
mounting, as the papers were too delicate, and besides it would have
yellowed them. The edges were simply smoothed out with a soft brush, and
the glass put over them to hold them in place.
These large
cut papers were often done in memory of some one loved and lost, and the
center would be cut in the shape of a funeral urn and tablet. Upon this
tablet might appear some verse, the letters cut out with a sharp
penknife after the rest was finished. A favorite one was:
“Now to the winds let all my sighs be
given,
And reach—tho’ lost on earth—the ear of
Heav’n.”
Then would follow the date and perhaps the words, “Beloved the’ Lost.”
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| a candle paper cut |
The most
elaborate silhouettes had the eyes and hair afterwards touched in with
white or gold paint. The silhouettes themselves were generally black.
But there are some examples left where the profile was cut out in white
and laid on black.
About 50 years
ago a young lady of extremely small stature called Miss Hunnywell, made
herself quite famous as a professional paper cutter, and it was
considered “the thing” among the young gentlemen of that day to have a
watch a paper cut by Miss Hunnywell.
The manner of
her cutting was very ingenious, for she had neither hands nor feet. On
her right shoulder was something like a thumb, on her left side
something that might pass for a hand with two fingers, and with these
and her mouth she managed to cut out the most exquisite designs and lace
with marvelous rapidity.
Her work was
so much in demand, not only for its beauty, but because of its being
somewhat of a curiosity, that she, traveling from place to place, and
exhibiting her work, earned quite a little fortune. It was enough to
make her mark for a rogue, who married her, and then ran away with her
money, leaving her penniless.
It is said that after he deserted her the lady would never cut papers again, and died in an absolute state of penury.
There was a
certain Mistress Dolly Nichols of Petersburg, who was quite wonderful at
this art of paper cutting, and her drawing room was decorated with a
whole series of pictures from Mazeppa, wild horses and all, which she
cut out without the aid of pencil or any guide but her own fancy.
But this art
goes further back than the time of Miss Hunnywell or Mistress Nicholas.
It is some time early in 1700 that Mrs. Delaney, in her “Autobiography
and Correspondence,” writes of her closet at the farm as “decorated with
little drawings and cut papers of my own doing.”
Later on, when speaking of a young Mr. Twyford, who was deeply in love with her, she says:
“His mother’s
cruel treatment of him, and absolute refusal of her consent for his
marrying me, affected him so deeply as to throw him into the palsy. He
lived in this wretched state about a year after my marriage. After he
was dead they found under his pillow a cut paper that he had stolen out
of my closet at the Farm.”
When Mrs. Delaney was over 70 years old, she made her first attempt at copying flowers in cut paper.
Her manner of
doing it was thus described: “Having a piece of Chinese paper on the
table of a bright scarlet, a geranium caught her eye of a similar color,
and taking her scissors, she amused herself in cutting out each flower
by her eye in the paper. She laid the paper petals on a black backgrond,
and was so pleased with the effect that she proceeded to cut out the
calyx, stalks and leaves in shades of green, and pasted them down, and
after she completed a sprig of geranium in this way the Duchess of
Portland came in and exclaimed, “What are you doing with that geranium?”
having taken the paper imitation for the real flower.”
This was the
beginning of the collection of cut-paper flowers, which before her death
numbered 380 sheets, each one different.
That wonderful
collection has disappeared now, as has Mistress Nicholas’ wonderful
Mazeppa series. Only here and there do we come upon a cut-paper laid
away in some old portfolio or writing desk, or see it hanging, framed,
on the wall of some old-fashioned room, and the young ladies of today
find it more convenient to send a booklet or a printed card to their
friends, instead of the more personal tokens that used to be exchanged
in the old days of cut papers. –Katherine Pyle, Salt Lake Herald, 1897
More About Paper Cutting:
- Paper Cutting Traditions: Many links to artists, tutorials, articles, studios etc…
- Visit the paper cutting blog, “Scherenschnitte” by Cindy Bean
- Visit Elsa Mora’s http://elsamora.net
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