Sheet with stripes with guilloche pattern 1800 - 1900

This anonymous sheet features stripes with a guilloche pattern, and was made with pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, over black chalk on laid paper. The repeated pattern is quite striking, but why create such a sheet? What could it be used for? The pattern here creates meaning through visual and historical associations. The guilloche, a band of interlaced circles, had long been a feature of classical architecture. The pattern was revived during the Renaissance and again in the Neoclassical era. This sheet may be a sample of the kind of design used by bookbinders, wallpaper makers, and other artisans. As historians, we can use resources such as trade guild records and design pattern books to understand the uses of such sheets. Art like this is contingent on the social needs and institutional structures of its time.