"Interested novices search for historical and instructional books on [marbling], which inevitably leads to Richard J. Wolfe, the person who has dedicated his life to the preservation of marbling knowledge. Josef Halfer and the Revival of the Art of Marbling Paper is Wolfe's final gift to the book history and marbling communities."
-Amy L. Tigner, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America

Josef Halfer practiced and taught marbling roughly three centuries after the craft had appeared in Europe, at a time when paper marbling was in decline and being replaced by mechanically-produced substitutes. However, his innovations coincided with recent advances in chemistry, biochemistry and bacteriology, and he was able to apply those recent advances to solving problems that had long inhibited progress in the marbling art. The techniques that Halfer pioneered enabled marblers to take the craft to new artistic levels, allowing more detailed patterns to be achieved than ever before, and resulting in the most delicate, intricate and beautiful forms that the medium is capable of producing.

Richard Wolfe had previously written about Halfer in his Marbled Paper: Its History, Techniques, and Patterns. (republished by Oak Knoll with corrections in 2018). In this book, Wolfe examines in more detail the contributions of one of the most important figures in the history of paper marbling, and he provides English translations of several of Halfer's "little texts."

The author had written a draft of the Historical Introduction and roughly translated a number of Halfer's pamphlets on marbling before he died in October 2017. Sidney Berger agreed to take on the role of editor to help finalize the introduction and put the translations in publishable form. His efforts and the support of the Wolfe family have enabled Oak Knoll to bring Richard Wolfe's last major project to its intended readers.

250 copies only, with 17 tipped-in samples of Halferian marbling techniques executed by the author.