After years of research, the Thomases have published a surprisingly thorough history in this beautifully designed book. Produced in an edition of 75 copies, the book is covered with T'nalak, a woven abaca fiber cloth made by the T'boli tribe of the southern Philippines, and decorated with a wax-resist ikat dye method. Donna Thomas's petite linocuts are printed in a rich, warm brown throughout the volume and on the slipcase, capturing some of the rich textures of plants and fibers used by Filipino artisans. The letterpress printed pages are made from a sumptuous and sturdy cotton rag, flecked with a Filipino plant additive called timkin. Printed and bound by Peter and Donna Thomas, the final result is a pleasing blend of highly artistic features and absorbing accounts of hand and machine papermaking in the Philippines. Particularly intriguing are the abundant handmade paper tip-ins including abaca, cogon, kawayan (bamboo), and salago. The samples are sewn by hand into the book, with a single loop-stitch on three corners, inviting the reader to lift and touch both sides of the paper on the one free corner. The book's innovative landscape page structure enhances the viewing of the samples. The tip-ins are placed at the edges of full-sized sheets which are interspersed with the history of papermaking in the philippines Peter and Donna Thomas. Santa Cruz, CA: 2005. 50 pages, 11 x 13 5/8 x 1 inches in slipcase. Handset, letterpress printed on paper handmade by Peter Thomas from cotton rag. Quarter bound with leather spine; boards covered with T'nalak, a cloth woven from abaca fiber. Includes 15 linoleum block print illustrations by Donna Thomas, 11 paper samples handmade by Filipinos from Philippine plants, production notes for paper samples, a history, and translated excerpts of a nineteenth-century Spanish manuscript documenting the first hand paper mill in the Philippines. Edition limited to 70 regular copies and five special copies. $950 for regular copy. reviews Close up of binding structure of The History of Papermaking in the Philippines. All photos courtesy of the publisher. The History of Hand Papermaking in the Philippines reviewed by melissa potter 46 - hand papermaking half-sized sheets, allowing the reader to linger with a sample even after turning the page. Dumsang made all but one of the samples; the salago was made by Loreto and Mildred Apilado at the Cottage Industry Technology Center in Metro Manila. These tip-ins are complete with notes on their production, appealing to papermakers who might like to experiment with these fibers on their own. The book is full of rich material previously unrecorded in hand papermaking's foremost texts. Traveling numerous times to the Philippines, Peter visited archives and museums and conducted many interviews to put together this 40-page history, complete with footnotes and appendices. Hand papermaking got quite a late start in the Philippines; even with proximity to and free trade with China, it was not until the 1600s that papermaking technology was brought to the Philippines. A very nice addition to the book's engaging notes is a description of an official appeal by Spanish entrepreneur Don Jose Huet for a license to set up one of the first, and unfortunately unsuccessful, paper factories in the Philippines back in the early 1800s. Even on the industrial, machine-production level, papermaking could not be called a huge success in the Philippines. It started, failed, and restarted many times throughout the twentieth century. This book includes interesting etymological explanations for long-standing terms linking the Philippines to papermaking. Famous for its production of abaca rope in the 1820s, the Philippines supplied this hemp alternative to boats bound for New England ports, where rag merchants collected the spent fiber. Papermakers who know abaca also as "Manila hemp" now have a mystery solved. The resulting paper, good for wrapping (but not good as fine paper, since the fiber was full of tar from the boats), became known as "Manila paper," a term still used today. The hand papermaking movement in the Philippines had its renaissance in the 1970s. It can be traced back in part to a "back to the land" collective, established in the provinces on the island of Luzon, where Louie Stuart proposed the use of cogon grass as an environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative for business paper. Julia White from New Mexico brought a one-page mimeographed sheet on how to make paper, and Dumsang began taking classes and making paper from plants. Papermaking was recognized as a simple and repeatable effort for villages throughout the Philippines. The federal government (both Marcos and Aquino in particular took keen interest in Filipino hand papermaking) and private industries provided muchneeded support, through business training and establishing industry committees to promote the growth of hand papermaking as a micro-industry. It has enjoyed a degree of international success as a result. Peter and Donna Thomases' book closes with thoughts on market challenges for Filipino papermaking in the future. A table on one of the book's last pages records per capita paper use by country. The Philippines is the lowest consumer, and the United States, not surprisingly, is the largest. Armed with such information, it is difficult to overlook the poetry of a small, handmade book edition such as this one. Since papermakers, bookmakers, and scholars are among the populations still relishing special book collections, we can hope that The History of Hand Papermaking in the Philippines will make its way into libraries and museums where it can be enjoyed and learned from. Detail of type and linoleum cut from The History of Papermaking in the Philippines. Page spread from The History of Papermaking in the Philippines, showing tipped-in paper samples.