I must recommend a visit to Basler Papiermühle, a great museum in Basel dedicated to paper and its universe!his interesting exhibition Visitors are even invited to get their hands dirty…with paper.
In Basel, an excellent little museum has settled Old medieval paper mill. We follow in the footsteps of the Swiss city printing press, but we can also make a sheet of paper there, while trying different workshops in this place Fun and super educational.
I enjoyed my visit because everything related to paper, books and typography fascinates me.
This Basler Papiermuhle Different themes unfold on the four floors of the old mill. This route reveals the history of paper, writing and letters, as well as the history of printing.
of old machine Bringing a lost or outdated technology back to life – but just as fascinating. From one floor to the next, the permanent exhibitions cover different themes (binding, typography, letters, books and manuscripts, etc.), and you can wander longer in the places that interest you most…or spend all your time there. Just like I did with my girlfriend a few weeks ago!
Treasures worth seeing: old watermarked paper, miniature books, typewriter♡ and printing equipment (machines, protagonists, etc.)
This museum is located in Saint Alban, a former artisan district with 12 mills in the Middle Ages! The canal was dug by monks at St Albans Abbey.
The Paper Mill: An Interesting Museum in Basel
The strengths of the museum, in addition to the timeless range of objects, are Visitor workshop It invites you to touch, do and try, not just remain a spectator (free with tickets). So it is possible to print on paper, make paper or write with a quill pen.
the exhibition is three languages (DE/FR/EN), although we chose to attend German seminars for training, we also acquired French. If you can, the ideal is to go there during the week to calm down so you don’t have to wait to get into the workshop.
Workshop of the Basel paper mill
We can make a sheet of paper in a sieve and dip our hands into a bucket of water with fibers floating in it…
Also includes a watermark!
Writing with a quill or a pipe…really fun. We also printed the medieval calendar in two colors (I was born in the middle of Winmonat according to this calendar which is interesting).
Most Artistic: We experimented with marbled paper printing techniques, where colors float on the water, and we draw patterns by mixing color dots with elegant gestures to form patterns. You can see me in action below.
We also tried various printing and embossing machines (when marking embossed patterns on paper) and a very friendly and positive host shared his knowledge. He told us he was an apprentice to the machine he is showing at the museum today, incredible, isn’t it?
Pictures from our visit to the Basel Museum
old school typography
Typesetting, printing or casting machines used in newspapers….
This typesetting, a revolutionary machine born in America in 1885 that made it possible to combine the protagonist’s lines of text into a sheet and print newspapers very quickly. It combined a typewriter and a micro foundry and was used until the 1960s.
art of binding
Thousands of books are housed in our library…Each piece is a testimony not only to intellectual work, but also to manual, manual work.Books are the mirror of our culture and history
At the Basler Papiermühle exhibition
I learned that this Swiss-German city has always been an important center for book publishing. Gutenberg’s disciple Berthold Ruppel introduced printing technology to Basel in 1468.
Blink: The Dove of Basel
I left the museum with wax and a stamp representing the Basel pigeon (I showed you This Reel on Instagram) – I was an avid stamp collector in my childhood and I fell in love with this symbol, one of the first stamps issued in Switzerland in 1845.
If you like stationery too, take a quick look at the Basler Papiermühle store before leaving ^^
When I came across their booth I discovered the Papiermuseum in Basel At the beautiful Christmas market The Basel I show you, I love it Stationery shop. In the spring I visited it on a weekday – totally incognito (I mean I wasn’t there as a blogger and got the usual visitor greeting) – and the reception was excellent as the museum’s originality was totally seductive me.
If you are passing through Basel and are interested in this paper world, I can only recommend you to visit this superb museum.!
→ Other thoughts on the French-speaking part of Switzerland this time?Another favorite museum here Automata Magic There is also a magnificent museum tabulation…