Paper mail envelope: History of origin. Envelope history Envelope history

Printing paper envelopes- one of the activities of our printing house. Therefore, we decided to devote today's material to paper envelopes, or rather, to the history of their invention. But it's worth starting with the appearance of envelopes in general. After all, in fact, it began even before people began to write letters to each other on paper.

In dr. After firing the plaque with the text of the letter in Sumera, it was covered with a layer of clay, on which the recipient's address was written. Then the plates were fired again so that the letter and the envelope did not become a single piece (a tricky technology, we will not go into details). Upon receipt, the envelope was broken. By the way, two such letters with envelopes are kept in the Louvre.

In antiquity, letters were written on wax tablets. They were folded together and tied with a string, on which the sender's wax seal was put. And about the envelopes, as they say, no one bothered. Concerning paper letters- as we all remember from history, at first they were simply folded and sealed with wax or sealing wax. And, it would seem, why is there an envelope?

It's simple. The first paper envelopes appeared in England, and the "blame" for this was the new fashion for letters on small sheets of paper. And then (it was in 1820) the savvy owner of a stationery store in the English city of Brighton, Mr. Brever (or Brewer) came up with a brilliant business idea: to sell paper bags for them along with small sheets of paper. Seeing the success of the venture, Brever entrusted the manufacture of postal envelopes to twelve special enterprises and even invented a machine for their manufacture. Among other things, other sources write that the world owes the invention of the envelope-making machine to the masters De la Rue and Hill. The idea of ​​gluing the flap of the envelope certainly appeared in France. The surname of the inventor is Poirier.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the British introduced new fashion! Envelopes began to be produced in different shades. Then each of them corresponded to its day of the week. Colored envelopes and now in a trend, we quite often order the printing of colored envelopes for invitations, postcards or business correspondence. And if they want to give the envelope an elegant look, they do

When did the envelope appear, how many centuries, cities and countries did it pass to appear in the form we are used to seeing it in our time?

The Louvre contains the most ancient envelopes that archaeologists managed to find during excavations in Syria. The letters were applied in cuneiform on the tablets, then the resulting letters were burned, then they were coated with a layer of clay, wrote the "address" and burned again. To read such a message, the addressee had to break the clay envelope. In ancient times, envelopes were dispensed with at all. The messages were written on wax tablets, they were folded in pairs facing each other and tied with a cord, which was stamped. The Greeks made a mixture of clay and wax for printing, while the Romans did with wax alone. The color of the seal indicated the content of the letter: wedding invitations were indicated in white, and tragic messages in black. In Russia, they used birch bark letters and sent them as messengers, the "address" was written all on the same birch bark and tied to the message with a thread.
Paper envelopes appeared in 1820, and before that correspondence was written on paper, then folded in a certain way and sealed. The Brighton-based merchant Brever, who had his own paper mill, made a small batch of special letter bags and handed them out to his customers free of charge. The demand was overwhelming - this thing turned out to be very fashionable and everyone wanted to send their letters in such packages. At first they were made by hand, but when demand increased, the first machine for making envelopes was invented in London, from small (for business cards) to large sizes. They were still glued together with sealing wax, until the Frenchman Poirier came up with the idea of ​​gluing the flap of the envelope.

At the end of the 19th century, the British introduced into fashion multi-colored envelopes marking the days of the week: on Monday it was customary to write letters on aqua paper, on Tuesday - on pale pink, on Wednesday - on gray, on Thursdays - on light blue, on Fridays - on silver, on Saturday - on yellow, and on Sunday - on white.
In tsarist Russia, the price of an envelope was 6 kopecks in silver, the place of the stamp was not determined and it could be placed in any corner on the obverse. The color of the stamp was determined by the weight of the letter. Later, we finally decided on the place of the stamp - in the upper right corner, now a stamp is being glued there, replacing the stamp.

The history of the origin of the envelope

"Modern man, writing letters and sealing them in envelopes, hardly asks himself the question where the envelope came from and what he owes his birth to.

The word "envelope" comes from the English verb "to cover" - to close.

Emergence paper envelope owes a simple accident.

In 1820, the owner of a sand paper shop in the city of Brayton (England) Brever decided to arrange an original exhibition in his shop window to attract customers. All night long he worked tirelessly on the construction in the large window of a grandiose pyramid of countless sheets of paper of various sizes.

The base of the pyramid was sheets of paper intended for printing newspapers, and the top was a piece of paper the size of a business card.

The paper pyramid in Brever's shop window caught the attention of the entire city. Day and night, a crowd gathered around the shop window. Special attention was awarded the leaf crowning the pyramid.

If before that the Breiton people used paper of any format for letters, then after the "exhibition" it was considered a special chic to write letters on paper in the format of a business card.

Soon, however, it turned out that this was inconvenient: in order to send a letter by mail, it was necessary, of course, to write the recipient's address, and since then no one had the slightest idea about envelopes, the address was written on the same sheet of mubagi as the letter itself ... For this, the letter was folded in such a way that there was free space for the address. There was no free space left on a small piece of paper.

The owner of the store began to receive numerous complaints from his customers about this, which led him to make a kind of paper bags for putting letters in them.

Brever, having thought over the shape and size of such a bag, made a small batch in 1820 and began, at first as a free supplement to the paper purchased from him, to hand them over to his customers.

The bags were a huge success and got the name "envelope", from the verb "close". The success of the envelopes was so great that Brever was forced to entrust their production to twelve special enterprises.

Despite the fact that mail is increasingly crowded out electronically communication, good old Postal envelope still serves us.

Of course, in the field of transferring clean information, mail is no longer a competitor to the Internet, but there are things that cannot yet be transmitted in the form of electronic impulses - valuable parcels, parcels, packages of documents with "wet seals", seed material and much more.

And although in modern world via the Internet, Ostap Bender could have sent a million to the People's Commissariat for Finance in a fit of Tolstoyism, but he would not have been able to bring it back under the pretext of a paradise apple jam for his uncle.

Envelope preimage

However, envelope- is by no means such an old invention as it might seem. Although, if one renounces the fact that the envelope is something of paper, or at worst, parchment, then the very principle of the envelope was known in ancient Assyria.

It was there that the clay cuneiform tablets were coated with wet clay and fired again: with proper firing, adhesion did not occur. With a certain skill, the "letter-brick" could be neatly split and read.

Letters without an envelope

Military triangles

The paper messages familiar to us were previously transmitted simply in a folded form, just like during the Great patriotic war soldiers sent home "triangles" - specially folded paper for letters. So it happened before: most of the messages were sent without any postage envelopes, just the letter itself was folded in a certain way.

But sealing letters by simple addition did not solve a very important issue - protection from other people's curiosity. Everyone could neatly unfold the paper, read the contents and wrap it back without arousing any suspicion.

Medieval wax seals

The problem of confidentiality of correspondence has existed for a long time, therefore, already in the Middle Ages, they began to use a special composition with which letters were sealed - sealing wax. The seal from the sealing wax could be removed only once, but it was difficult to restore it so that no suspicions arose. The seal made of sealing wax had to be broken if you wanted to read the message. This is where the expression "print a letter" came from.

The dignity of sealing wax was also its disadvantage - it adhered strongly to the paper and sometimes it was quite easy to tear the letter during opening, especially if the paper had become dilapidated due to dampness and a long journey.

Manipulations with a candle could also damage the text of the document that was going to be sent by mail. In addition, a letter without an envelope would inevitably get dirty and frayed, and during long journeys by horse mail, which sometimes lasted months, the letter reaching the addressee risked turning into a dirty piece of paper, which is even unpleasant to take in hand. It was then that the idea of ​​the envelope appeared.

The envelope not only protected the letter from pollution and damage, limited the access of unauthorized persons to information, but also allowed sending several messages in one package without the risk of losing them.

The first envelopes we are used to

"Language of envelopes"

First envelopes appeared for diplomatic messages in the 17th century, and mass production standard envelopes for postal items was carried out only by the Brighton Brewers bookselling house in 1820. And in this case, the customers were not diplomats at all, as it was before, but mainly the fair sex, among whom the fashion of writing "graceful letters" quickly spread. At that time, envelopes were more of a fashion - along with openwork umbrellas from the sun, hats and skirts with crinoline. Folded around the envelope whole system special postal etiquette.

V mail envelope At the beginning of the 19th century, everything mattered: the color of the wax seals, the shape, and the method of gluing. A whole "language of envelopes" arose, similar to the language of flowers. White wax seals on a square envelope most often served as a wedding invitation, small elongated envelopes with ruby ​​or gilded sealing wax - a marriage proposal or a love confession. A red envelope with red sealing wax is a solution to money issues, most often a business proposal or notice. Chocolate sealing wax on a dark parchment envelope is a clear invitation to a banquet.

Machine Created Envelopes

In 1844, Londoners Hill and de La Rue invented a machine that could mechanically make envelopes. The British, on the other hand, introduced into fashion multi-colored envelopes marking the days of the week: on Monday it was customary to write letters on aqua paper, on Tuesday - on pale pink, on Wednesday - on gray, on Thursdays - on light blue, on Fridays - on silver, on Saturday - on yellow, and on Sunday - on white. This had not only an aesthetic, but also a practical meaning: in this way it was possible to sort out letters quite easily by the time of their writing, which was of tremendous organizational significance in the regular business correspondence.

The envelope developed rapidly, getting more and more complex design. In the future, another requirement, important for the industrial era, began to be presented to it - standardization. The standard size allowed for more successful mechanization of postal processing.

Of course, modern telecommunications have done Postal envelope rather, a tribute to tradition in business and personal correspondence. But, nevertheless, the envelope is not completely squeezed out, and in many cases it is simply irreplaceable.

Ilya Laptev

Chief Editor

A little about envelopes

Mail envelopes are gradually becoming a thing of the past. But apparently, they are unlikely to disappear forever. Even today, they are still a practical necessity - when sending business letters with wet stamps, documents, official notices. They have long lost most of their communication functions, such as maintaining relationships at a distance. Nowadays, such correspondence is more used as a beautiful gesture, an expression of friendship, love, affection.


Envelopes from the past

Surprisingly, the symbolic use of envelopes takes us back to the 19th century. Then their appearance carried much more meaning than the content. But first things first.

Envelopes are not that long ago. At first glance, it seems that they should have appeared not much later than parchment or paper, or even earlier, because writing has existed since time immemorial. But this is only partly true. What we now call an envelope was actively used by people in the Middle Ages. The exact dates of the evolution of the envelope are unknown. Representatives of ancient civilizations used clay tablets as information carriers. Sometimes they were sealed in something like a brick, which the addressee could break and read what was written.

Much later, something that looks more like a modern envelope appeared. In the Middle Ages and up until the 19th century, envelopes had one problem. Seals made of sealing wax were used to seal them. Actually, this is where the expression "seal" came from. It was not so easy to open them: for this they had to be heated or considerable efforts had to be made to open them. In either case, the content could be damaged. At that time, it could take months to deliver correspondence, and the letter reached the addressee in a shabby form.

An attempt was made to solve the problem at the beginning of the 19th century. In England, local entrepreneurs have put on stream the production of envelopes for business letters. True, they were used more by romantically inclined ladies to send love letters, invitations to a ball, and spread gossip. In this case, the color of the sealing wax was more important than the content. Therefore, despite the invention of another method of gluing, almost no one used them. Sealing wax of the same color announced that you were invited to the ball. Another - that bad ones came to you. A little later, the envelopes began to change their design. Letters began to be distinguished not only by the color of the sealing wax, but also by the color of the envelope. Each color corresponded to a different day. Thus, during business correspondence, it was more convenient to sort them so as not to get confused.

More familiar envelopes - without sealing wax and colored paper - began to be used in the 20th century. The pace and rhythm of life became more intense, the machines were more perfect. Now the address bar has become the main one.

Envelope! How many tricks does a boring rectangle carry?

The envelope has changed dramatically over the past century and a half. Over time, it turned into an ordinary quadrangle. However, to this day, it is fraught with many small tricks. Now, unlike in the 19th century, it is not customary to hint at the addressee about the contents of the color of the sealing wax or envelope. Nevertheless, these nuances remained in a modern envelope, though not so catchy.

Today envelopes are distinguished by several parameters. The most popular are offset envelopes. They are the most common because they are the cheapest. If an organization buys a large batch, these are usually ordered. They are made from the cheapest raw materials. They can be found in any stationery store. Such envelopes are used both for sending letters and for household needs: storing money, notes, receipts, and so on.

More expensive envelopes are made from coated paper. They are denser, stronger and lighter in color. These envelopes cost a little more, but it is much more pleasant to receive letters in them.

If a rectangle made of coated paper is just white, then the brown color of craft paper gives it more solidity, or at least mysteriousness. Plain envelope, even if it is of the most dazzling white color, you can always automatically put it aside in a far corner and forget about it. You never know any spam comes to them. Craft paper gets more attention.

There is also bleached craft paper available. Brown is used in special cases, but bleached is a prerogative. large companies and reputable organizations for mass mailing.

One of the most popular formats is euro envelopes. They are slightly larger than the standard ones, made of good white, thick paper. Often they are produced with a plastic window in the address bar.

Modern technologies allow you to order individual envelopes. In this case, the customer himself determines what will be on such a rectangle (square, circle, triangle, etc.), how it will look, and so on. Here, fantasy is not limited to anything. Such envelopes are usually used to send individual messages to emphasize a special relationship to the addressee.

Psychology of the envelope

Despite the fact that now is far from the 19th century, the format, color and illustration of the envelope still matter. Previously, this was not hidden: the format necessarily had a semantic load. Nowadays, design is used rather in hidden commercial purposes to push the addressee to certain actions (decisions).

It also matters not only what the envelope is made of, but also what is drawn on it and how the recipient's lines are arranged. For the first few seconds, attention is focused on the address bar. Therefore, if you supplement the envelope with an image, placing it next to this place, you can attract attention and create a certain impression. The researchers say that bright circular pictures are better perceived, as well as pictures of children. In this case, it is better when the picture shows movement, and not static.

Typically, such techniques are used by companies that want to make a certain effect on the reader, motivate him to something or interest in something. Correctly chosen colors, arrangement of pictures, as well as themes that correspond to the perception of the content, can really do a lot to achieve your goals.

Specifications of envelopes

With the exception of individual envelopes, all others have specific standards. So envelopes are distinguished by the type of gluing. They come with a wet-glue valve - mk. This is the old-fashioned way of wetting a sticky strip with saliva. Another type of gluing is a self-adhesive valve - sk. The top and bottom of the glue flaps are simply pressed together. Well, the most common method in our time is self-adhesive tape - skl. The tape is removed from the upper strip and glued to the lower part.

Also, envelopes are distinguished by the format and location of the sealing flap. Today, the most common formats are: C6, E65, C65, C5, C4. The sealing flap can be located on the side or top. In addition, envelopes can have two types of address bar layout. Some have guide lines, others just have corners printed to indicate where to fill out the address.

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