The Public Paperfolding History Project

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Last updated 6/3/2024

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Articles in The Observer newspaper, 1959 / 1960
 
In his 'The History of Paperfolding in Britain', which was published by the British Origami Society in 1975, David Lister says:

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August 1959

The 'Table Talk by Pendennis' column of 'The Observer' for Sunday 23rd August 1959, which was written by Anthony Sampson, contained a few paragraphs explaining how to fold the Flapping Bird.

The article in 'Scientific American' referred to in the text is Martin Gardner's article 'About origami, the Japanese art of folding objects out of paper' which was published in the July 1959 and included diagrams for the Flapping Bird.

The exhibition referred to is the 'Plane Geometry and Fancy Figures' exhibition held at the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts and Decoration.

The article also refers to a jumping frog (probably the Blow-up Frog) and 'a fish that opens its mouth' which cannot be identified with confidence but sounds like the Talking Fish.

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October 1959

The 'Table Talk by Pendennis' column of 'The Observer' for Sunday 11th October 1959, which was written by Anthony Sampson, contained a follow up explaining how to fold the Paper Kettle.

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20th December 1959

It is worth noting that in this article Harbin refers to the Preliminary Fold as the 'Birdhold Base' and the Waterbomb Base as the 'Water Ball Base', showing that he and Samuel Randlett had not come to an agreement about standardised names at this date.

(This design was also published in the Origamian for December 1959 where it was said to be Japanese.)

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3rd January 1960

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7th February 1960

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20th March 1960

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27th March 1960

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