2010700 Years of paper use in Hungary - Set

The first Hungarian document on paper dates from 1310. The size of the straw-coloured fragment of a sheet of paper cut to the shape of an irregular, horizontal rectangle is 233-240 x 168-171 mm. The hand-made paper is relatively thick, but the thickness varies, and its condition shows the signs of the centuries. The letter of Cardinal Gentilis is today kept by the Hungarian National Archives. The first Hungarian documentation of the history of paper is contained in the diary of the magistrate of Lőcse Konrád Sperfogel kept between 1516 and 1537, in which he recorded a genuine account of how the first paper mill in Hungary burnt down. Until then only foreign watermarked paper had been used and it was at this time that independent Hungarian paper-making and watermarking began. The first mention of Hungarian paper merchants dates from 1542 which records the activity and names of traders in paper from Pozsony (today Bratislava), Pest, Debrecen and Szikszó. The first licence for the establishment of a paper mill was issued by the town of Brassó in Transylvania (today Brasov, Romania) in 1546 to construct the first private Hungarian paper mill in Vidombák. The first royal privilege for the operation of a paper mill was issued to Sámuel Spillenberg, the founder of the paper mill in Teplic in historic Upper Hungary, in 1615. The first account of the paper trade was given in a work by the internationally renowned Hungarian letter-cutter and printer Miklós Kis of Misztótfalus in 1698. In this he relates the difficulties of obtaining paper for his print works, his business connections with different paper mills and the tribulations of founding a paper mill. The first history of paper for a historic county of Hungary was written by the church minister and historian László Bartolomaeides in 1806. He wrote about the paper mills and early paper-making in Gömör county. Systematic research into Hungarian watermarks began in the early 19th century and already has a 200-year history. The compulsory use of watermark years by paper mills was ordered by the viceroyal council of Transylvania, the Gubernium, in 1808. This was the first successful official initiative to prevent the adulteration of paper and to introduce date watermarks for official documents. The first Hungarian paper factory was founded in Fiume (today Rijeka, Croatia) in 1827. In 1900 the watermark became a trademark in Hungary when the 12 largest Hungarian paper manufacturers’ watermarks were registered as trademarks and the use of domestic watermarked trademark paper was ordered. The stamp design shows the first deed on Hungarian watermarked paper issued in Pozsony by the papal legate Cardinal Gentilis de Monteflorum. On the first day cover the reverse of the document and the building of the Hungarian National Archives are depicted. The special postmark employs the motif of a dragon watermark