I came across a page printed with a letter from #SirThomasWhite. Although the quoted letter was written in 1566, this printing was created around 1880/1890. Sir Thomas was of course the founder of St Johns College, Oxford. The letter is one in which Sir Thomas wishes God’s blessing upon all those at St Johns and that they might also pray blessings upon himself. I am sure that a lot of people likely looked at this piece but not really paid much attention to it. I on the other hand was intrigued. The paper looked old and so might have come from a published book of some type. I have not seen another copy of this page so do not know where it originates.

The other interesting thing about this page is the paper itself. It was made by #JosephBatchelor. Not a name that races to the forefront of your mind but if I tell you that Joseph Batchelor was the chosen papermaker of one #WilliamMorris, then one becomes aware of how good a craftsman Batchelor was. Morris set up his #KelmscottPublishing with the idea of producing books with fine hand made paper; making his books unique and of a better quality than other publishers.

An interesting piece of paper with a remarkable historical letter.