The present day Hahnemühle FineArt logo reflects the company’s 425-year heritage in a contemporary, stylized version of the original trademark.
The “Mill of the Rooster” trademark circa 1584.
On February 27, 1584, a little over ten years before Shakespeare wrote his classic Romeo and Juliet, a paper mill was established on the banks of the pure, spring-fed Ilme river near the town of Dassel located in the beautiful Solling region of Lower Saxony, Germany. The Relliehausen Mill, as it was known then, was founded by a man named Merten Spieß under the now-famous “Mill Of The Rooster” trademark—a trademark that over the next 425 years would become synonymous with the highest quality writing and fine art papers the world has ever known. In 1886 the mill was purchased by Carl Hahne who renamed it Hahnemühle (Hahne’s mill). Eventually, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the official name evolved into Hahnemühle Fine Arts (GmbH) as it is known today.
Since its founding in 1584, Hahnemühle has been dedicated to creating uniquely beautiful writing and fine art papers in the traditional way, in the same location, using premium quality cellulose or cotton fibers and the same pure spring water from the Ilme. Very few, if any, other companies in the world today can look back with pride over such a long, rich history!
The original Relliehäusische Paper mill was located on the Ilme River in the beautiful Solling region of Lower Saxony, Germany. The present Hahnemühle FineArt mill still stands on the same site.
In the early days, up until the end of the nineteenth century, the mill employed no more than 15 craftsmen dedicated to producing fine, hand-made writing and foolscap papers. The term foolscap refers to a specific 17”x 13.5” size sheet that often carried a watermark resembling a jester’s hat, hence the name “foolscap”. Today, Hahnemühle employs 150 professionals worldwide and utilizes two automated paper making processes: the traditional mould-made cylinder process and, for higher capacity output, the fourdrinier machine process. Together they produce an average 3,000 tons of premium quality, fine art paper annually.
In the late 1990’s Hahnemühle began experimentally applying inkjet coatings to some of their traditional art papers in response to the burgeoning digital photographic market. The result was a totally unique line of digital fine art media that that has now become the largest and fastest growing segment of the 425-year-old company’s business!
A New Market Emerges
In the early 70’s, traditional baryta fine art photographic papers had begun to disappear in favor of “faceless” resin-coated plastic materials. Finally, by the time digital photographic and inkjet printing technology caught on, fine art photographers were left with very limited print media choices. These boiled down to plain white, glossy or matt paper, in one or two basic weights. It was here that Hahnemühle saw a great opportunity to combine some of their beautiful rag art papers, with premium inkjet coatings, to provide digital photographers with a full (and growing) line of magnificent fine art media choices that would go far beyond the beloved gelatin-silver baryta papers of the bygone darkroom age.
Quality and archival stability begin with the raw materials. Alpha cellulose or cotton linters (sheets of fine cotton seed fibers shown above) are blended with pure spring water and other ingredients to form pulp mixtures from which the various types of Digital FineArt paper are made.
As beautiful as the new papers in the Hahnemühle Digital FineArt Collection are, their rich look and feel are only the beginning. They are also masterpieces of inkjet-receptive coating technology and archival stability.
The age resistance, or stability, of these papers begins with raw materials. They are made from the purest spring water and alpha cellulose or cotton linters (the fine fibers of the cottonseed), which yield beautiful natural white papers without the need for acid or optical brighteners (OBA’s) that can seriously degrade archivability. The coatings Hahnemühle uses for the Digital FineArt Collection are also the finest, most stable available, assuring that the inks will sit high on top of the coating and not bleed into the paper fibers. The result is long-lasting images with extraordinary Dmax, color density and separation, contrast and deep dimensionality.
Accelerated aging tests performed by the American Test Institute and the Wilhelm Imaging Research Center have indicated that all the papers in the Hahnemühle Digital FineArt collection will remain age resistant for up to 165 years…some as long as 400 years or more!
Hahnemühle is pioneering innovative new digital fine-art products and programs responsive to the worldwide “green” movement.
Hahnemühle is pioneering innovative new digital fine-art products and programs responsive to the worldwide “green” movement.
The Rooster Goes “Green”
Never one to rest on its laurels, Hahnemühle is moving ahead developing innovative new digital fine art products and programs responsive to the worldwide “green” movement. In 2007 a new website was launched dedicated to the 425-year-old company’s aggressive environmental initiatives with the apropos URL www.green-rooster.com.
Hahnemühle’s first product entry into the “green” category was called Bamboo 290gsm (grams per square meter) and became the first fine art inkjet paper to make use of the fast-growing, easily renewable bamboo grass resource. Within one year of its introduction, Bamboo 290gsm was honored with an American Photo Editor’s Choice Award as one of the photo-imaging industry’s best new products!
Encouraged by the overwhelming success of Bamboo 290gsm, Hahnemühle introduced another “green”, digital fine art paper this year called Sugar Cane 300gsm. As the name suggests, this beautiful natural white, textured paper is made from 75% sugar cane (bagasse) fiber, which is an eco-friendly by-product of the sugar refining process. Cotton fibers gleaned from recycling their own paper mill waste make up the remaining 25%.
Stephen Johnson Photography, Main Gallery, Pacifica Center for the Arts, Pacifica, California, www.sjphoto.com
As of this writing, the Hahnemühle Digital FineArt Collection includes over twenty different types of magnificent papers and canvases, finishes and weights, many in sizes up to sixty inches wide. In the future Hahnemühle plans to continue working closely with its customers to develop new, environmentally responsive products to meet the most diverse needs of the most demanding digital photographers, artists, galleries and museums worldwide. For more information, visit www.hahnemuhledirect.com.
