R U C K E R S    P A P E R S

Designs made from wood blocks

hand cut by Grant O’Brien

 

The new Vermeer paper O'Brien Type 15

 

 

This paper exists only on the 1598 spinett virginal which is either by Hans Ruckers (who died in that year) or, just at the start of his career, by Ioannes Ruckers.  No other instrument has this paper pattern.  The instrument on which this pattern occurs is in the Musée de la Musique, Cité de la Musique, in Paris.

 

This pattern is the one used on the front flap of the serenely beautiful painting by Jan Vermeer called 'The Music Lesson'.

 

 

This was painted by Jan Vermeer in Delft in about 1662 and is now part of the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace.

 

 

The detail above of the painting shows the paper very clearly.

 

        The only record I have of this paper is a very old and rather over-exposed negative of the photograph that I took of this paper in the 1970's.  This photograph has a scale as part of the image, so that the paper could be accurately reproduced to its original size.  There are numerous defects in the original paper including a crack in the front flap which has been re-glued together with a resulting lack in the detail across the central part of the paper.  There is also a non-original lock covering over a part of the paper.

        This photograph, with all of its defects, was used to produce a digital image of the original paper.  This paper, and O'Brien Number 7, are the only ones produced digitally.  All of the other papers are reproduced from wood blocks which I have cut by hand.