It is generally considered that watermark was originally used by paper makers in early days to distinguish their own products. However, recent studies upon the watermarks of old papers such as collected from Italy and France, etc. have proved the watermarking in ancient days is made, for the most part, for some religious purposes, and not for such a simple purpose as is stated above.
In this paper, the origin and history of development of water-marking are studied on some typical samples found in various countries.
