The Public Paperfolding History Project

Main Index Page

Last updated 21/11/2023

x

Course in Paperfolding by Eleonore Heerwart, 1896
 
Eleonore Heerwart's 'Course in Paperfolding' was published by Charles and Dible in London and Glasgow in 1896.

The English version (or at least, a substantial extract of it) was included in 'COET '91: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Origami in Education and Therapy', Edited by John Smith, which was published by the British Origami Society in 1992. The information on this page is taken from this version. I have not seen the original work. The text may have been reset but I presume the plates have been accurately reproduced from the original work.

The paperfolds shown in the plates are numbered but not named or otherwise discussed. This seems odd and consequently I wonder whether there might have been much more explanatory text in the original book. Without this additional text, if it exists, some of the illistrations are difficult to understand.

Working from the pictures alone, some of the designs are easy to identify, but others can only be identified on a tentative basis.

In his 'Bibliography of Paper Folding', which was privately published in 1952, Gershon Legman commented that this book represented 'The end-point of the sterile complexity of the Froebel folds.'

**********

Analysis

Folds of Life

Plate 1 shows how to fold the three basic groundforms, the Single Blintz Base, the Double Blintz Base and the Triple Blintz Base from which many of the Forms of Life illustrated in other plates are made.

Designs pictured in Plate II:

2, The Salt Cellar

********

3, The Pepperpot

**********

4. The King's Crown

**********

5, Unidentifiable

**********

6, The Squid

**********

7, The Pajarita

**********

8, The Windmill

**********

9, The Ship

**********

10, The Cigar Case

**********

11, The Vase

**********

12, The Boat with Sail

**********

13, The Double Boat

**********

14, The Boat with Fishbox

**********

15, The Large Box

**********

16, From the context, probably The Frame

**********

17, From the context, probably The Solid Box

**********

Designs pictured in Plate III:

2, The Cross

**********

3, The Scent Bottle

**********

4, The Muff

**********

5 and 6, These pictures may be intended to represent the Pyramidal Hat, but if so they are curiously misplaced in the sequence of designs.

**********

7, The Jacket

**********

8, The Trousers

**********

9, The Double Hulled Boat

(A version of the double boat, which, from its context, is presumably folded from a blintzed windmill base)

**********

10, The Duck

**********

11, The Picture Frame

**********

12, The Looking Glass

**********

13, The Junk Box

**********

(Somewhat oddly this sequence does not conclude with the Chinese Junk, which is absent from this work.)

**********

4, The Pig

**********

5, Probably, from the context, Another Double Boat

**********

6, The Fish

**********

7, From the context, probably, The Bench with Arms

**********

8, The Corner Cabinet

**********

9, The Yarn Spool

**********

2, Probably, from the context, The Basic Box

**********

3, Probably The Stand

**********

4, The Shovel

**********

5, An axe or hammer

**********

6, The Seat

**********

7, The Bathchair

**********

8, The Piano Stool

**********

Designs pictured in Plate IV:

Note that this plate also illustrates four miscellaneous designs which are not Folds of Life and some Cut and Fold Polyhedral Nets which are examples of the technique of Cardboard Modelling.

1, The Newspaper Hat (not the Pyramidal Hat)

**********

2, The Pencil Case

**********

3, The Paper Boat

**********

4, The Soldier's Cap

**********

5, The Bellows

**********

Miscellaneous Designs

6, Unidentified

**********

7, The Love Knot Letterfold

**********

8, The Cut and Fold Windmill

9, The Slit and Assemble Cube

**********

Cardboard Modelling Designs

Cut and Fold Polyhedral Nets

**********

Erkenntnissformen (Forms of Knowledge)

(Mathematical Folds and Constructions)

Details of these folds can be found in Plates V and VI below.

**********

Schonheitsformen (Forms) of Beauty

Details of the many Folds of Beauty illustrated in this book folded from squares, hexagons, equilateral triangles, rhombi and pentagons can be found in many of the other plates below. I have not carried out a detailed analysis of these forms.

**********

The Introductory Text

**********

The Plates

**********