Marbled Paper - Origins

Paper was first invented by the Chinese over two thousand years ago. In the third century pastel-coloured paper began to appear. The colours included blue and mauve, while yellow was used for official documents, calligraphy, poetry and Buddhist canons.
The Emperor Shi-Hu (295-390) was the first to use multi-coloured paper for his decrees while the first marbled paper, with five colours, was the work of the Chinese paper-maker Hsia-Cheng (713-741).
The Japanese certainly learnt about paper production from the Chinese and from the twelfth century onwards sheets of paper were decorated in Japan using marbling techniques.
Marbled paper probably reached Europe along the silk route from the Far East, through India and Persia to Turkey. Merchants returning from the Orient were the first to talk about Turkish paper and paper with infinite patterns and shades with veins similar to those found in marble.