This very worn tool came into my possession about a year ago, and has been a bit of an enigma ever since. The image is that of the fish and anchor used by Aldus Manutius when he began the Aldine press in 16th century Italy.

This tool, however, bears the makers name of John Paas, who was active in London in the early 19th century before his murder in 1832.

So why did Paas engrave the mark of a printer from 300 years earlier, and how has such a specific tool been used so much to wear down almost all the detail?

In 1820, when Paas was a successful toolmaker, another man called William Pickering began a publishing house. This publishing house used the same mark as Aldus Manutius had done.

Pickering was one of the first publishers to offer cloth bound books - as well as in paper and leather, which were more common at the time. Could this tool be something to do with his in house bookbinding workshop?

This second image show a surviving (and apparently quite rare now) binding probably done by William Pickering's workshop. The books are Pickering's 1832 edition of Milton from his "Aldine poets" series. It features the fish and anchor symbol on the cover, and also on the spine in a smaller size. Could this tool be a tool from this workshop, used on hundreds of spines several times each, causing the amount of wear present on the tool now? It seems possible - but without an exact impression match on a binding that can be traced back to Pickering, it's impossible to say for sure.