These characteristics - measurements and spacing between the wire the paper was formed on - are the paper's Y profile, and matching Y profiles mean the paper came from the same batch. Bower says it is not unusual for an individual to have stationery that comes from many batches, and that even when the paper is ordered from the stationer, there could be different batches mixed in, although the watermarks and embossing or engraving are the same. The discrepancies in the Sickert and Ripper letters pertain to their measurements. For example, the "Dear Openshaw" letter with the A Pirie watermark is from the same batch as the November 22nd A Pirie Ripper letter mailed from London, but not from the same batch as the other November 22nd A Pirie letter supposedly mailed from Manchester. Clearly, the Ripper had a mixture of A Pirie batches when he wrote these November 22nd letters, unless one wishes to make the case that there were two different individuals who just happened to write Ripper letters on A Pirie 8c Sons paper of the same type and color on November 22nd.
Differences in measurements can, in some instances, be attributed to conservation. When paper is heated by applying a protective membrane, for example, the paper shrinks slightly. More probable is that the differences in measurements can be explained by reorders from the stationer. During the late 1880s, personalized stationery was usually ordered in a quire, or twenty-four sheets, including unprinted second sheets. A reorder of the same personalized stationery on the same type of paper with the same watermark could quite easily come from a different batch. Or perhaps the stationer used a different standard size, such as Post quarto, which was approximately seven by nine inches, or Commercial Note, which was eight by five inches, or Octavo Note, which was nominally seven by four-and-a-half inches.
An example of a discrepancy in paper size is a Ripper letter with a Joynson Superfine watermark that was sent to the City of London Police. The torn half of the folded stationery measures 6% inches by 9%o inches. Another Ripper letter on the same type of paper with the same watermark was sent to the Metropolitan Police and that stationery is Commercial Note, or eight by five inches. A Sickert letter written on Monckton's Superfine that we examined in Glasgow measures seven and one-eighth inches by nine inches, while a Ripper letter sent to the City of London Police on the same type of paper with a matching Monckton's Superfine watermark measures seven and one-eighth inches by eight and nine-tenths. Most likely, this suggests the Monckton's Superfine stationery is from different batches, but this by no means indicates it was from different Ripper letter-writers.
I point out these different paper batches only because a defense attorney would. In fact, paper of the same type and watermark but from different batches doesn't necessarily mean a setback in a case and, as Bower pointed out, having studied other artists' paper, he "would expect to find variations like this." Bower also discovered paper in Ripper letters that did not have variations, and because they also had no watermarks, these letters were not really noticed by anyone else. Two Ripper letters written to the Metropolitan Police and one Ripper letter written to the City of London Police are on matching very cheap pale blue paper - and for three letters to come from the same batch of paper strongly indicates that the same person wrote them, just as matching watermarks, especially three different types of matching watermarks, are hard to dismiss as coincidence.
Our discovery of "matching" watermarks has been a source of great excitement for all of us working the Ripper case, but I must admit that a not-so-good watermark moment came early in the investigation. The head of conservation at the Public Record Office, Mario Aleppo, contacted me and said his staff had found numerous other A Pirie amp; Sons watermarks and I might want to have a look. I immediately returned to London and discovered to my horror that the A Pirie amp; Sons watermarks were not on Ripper letters but on the stationery the Metropolitan Police were using at the time. I was shocked. For a moment, I was completely unnerved and thought my life might disintegrate right before my eyes. There has always been a theory that Jack the Ripper was a cop.
The A Pirie amp; Sons watermark on the Metropolitan Police stationery is the only other non-Sickert/Ripper-related A Pirie watermark I have found during my research, but I am happy to report that the watermark on the Metropolitan Police stationery is quite different from the one on the Ripper and the Sickert letters. The police stationery watermark has no date and includes the words LD and Register. The paper is of a different quality and color. It is eight by eleven inches and not greeting-card size. Besides the difference in the wording and design of the watermarks, the police paper is wove and the Sickert/Ripper paper is laid.
The firm Alexander Pirie 8c Sons, Ltd., got its start in the paper-making business in 1770 in Aberdeen, and its rapid growth and respected reputation resulted in the acquisition of cotton mills, plants, and factories in London, Glasgow, Dublin, Paris, New York, St. Petersburg, and Bucharest. A Pirie didn't become a separate company until 1864, and from this information one might presume that there was no A Pirie amp;c Sons watermark prior to that date. However, existing records in Aberdeen do not indicate exactly when A Pirie began using its name on watermarks. A Pirie became a limited-liability company in 1882, merged with another firm in 1922, and went out of business at some point in the 1950s.
The records of A Pirie 8c Sons are preserved in a strong room at the Stoneywood Mills in Aberdeen. Keenly aware of my limitations as a paper-manufacturing or stationery expert, I asked antiquarian books and documents researcher Joe Jameson if he would go to Aberdeen and look through thousands of A Pirie records. For two cold, rainy days, he dug through boxes and was able to ascertain migraine-producing details about lime waste, rag boiling, paper machines, how many tons of soda were ordered, sediment removed from river water, shareholders, sketches of trademarks, types of paper manufactured - just about anything one might want to know about how paper was made from the late 1700s until the 1950s.
Over the better part of a century, tons of Alexander Pirie amp; Sons paper were shipped to London and other parts of the world. This prestigious company was proprietary and did not hesitate to sue if another manufacturer tried to delude the public into thinking its paper was made by A Pirie amp; Sons. The obvious question in this case is exactly what I asked Peter Bower: How common was the A Pirie watermark found on the three Ripper and eight Sickert letters?
After a thorough search of the company records, I can only say with certainty that while the paper may not be uncommon, as Bower said, it might be somewhat uncommon as personal stationery. It seems that A Pirie paper was used primarily for the printing of bankers' and other business ledgers, business stationery, and nonwatermarked printing and lithographic printing paper. I have no idea which stationery shop the Sickerts used when Walter or Ellen ordered the blue-bordered stationery printed on A Pirie amp; Sons paper. The shop may not have been in London, and its records may no longer exist. I also can't say how unique their particular watermark was, but it isn't to be found in an A Pirie amp; Sons list of fifty-six trademark designs that were in the Aberdeen records.
But there is a very good chance I didn't see their watermark in the examples I found because the Aberdeen records might be incomplete. I do know that in the only A Pirie amp; Sons catalogue I managed to get hold of, the list of their products for 1900 shows twenty-three designs, and the watermark of interest is not among them.