Page 170

170                         Paper-Htangings. 
origin of the process. Printing on paper from cut wooden blocks is of great
antiquity, and any history of wood-engraving will demonstrate not only the
universality of the manufacture of large coarse representations of scripture
subjects, but also the prevalence of the practice of pasting them up as mural
decorations (in imitation of the paintings and hangings of the rich) in the
cottages of Germany and Italy, in the fifteenth century. How far this may
have been the origin of decorative paper-hangings the writer must here suggest
rather than discuss, but he cannot help observing that the primitive form
of 
production, that of printing a rude outline in one tint, leaving the colours
to be 
filled in by hand, is singularly identical, both in the treatment of these
early 
broadsides and in the first or earliest known paper-hangings. In a couple
of 
most interesting and practical notices read ten years ago to the Institute
of 
British Architects by Mr. Crace, a large mass of facts relating to the history
of 
the manufacture was brought together; but we cannot help feeling that in
them the claims of England to the honour of the origination of such decorations
are a little too strongly insinuated. From statutes in France referred to
by 
Mr. Crace, it appears that paper-staining was recognised as a trade as early
as 
1586. The earliest blocks for the manufacture known were those of Francois,
who worked at Rouen in 1620. 
The process of "flocking," now so important an element in the ornament
of 
paper, was patented in England by Jerome Lanyer (evidently Laimdr) in May
1634, but the terms of his patent enumerate almost every substance to which
flock could be applied, except paper. 
The stamped and japanne leather-hangings of the days of the Renaissance,
the imported Gobelins, and native Mortlake tapestries, had no doubt infused
into the people a taste for decorations of a rich kind, and very probably
the 
introduction from India of the beautiful hand-painted papers we occasionally
meet with in old-fashioned houses, perhaps suggesting the material, no doubt
tended to popularise this art in England. In the year 1712 we find printing
on 
paper recognised as a tradeq by the imposition of a tax of I Id. per square
yard 
for printing, independent of the duty on the paper itself. Forty-two years
later we meet with the singular advertisetnent of Mr. Jackson of Battersea,
who 
undertakes the execution of imitations of statues, "lively portraictures"
of gods 
and goddesses in chiar' oscuro, on paper. Somewhat later we meet in the trade
with the names of Messrs. Tootle and Young, Boyle, Graves, Pickering, Hall,
&c. Under the care and energy of these manufacturers the English papers
began to acquire a Continental reputation, and a considerable export trade
was 
established. Our goods were forwarded to America, Spain, and several of the
other European countries. Now, alas! matters stand very differently, since
we 
now import far more than we used then to export. In 1786 George and 
Frederick Echardts established the great Chelsea factory, and the papers
they 
manufactured are still well known in the trade. 
It is a curious fact that the process of flocking so early known should have
been apparently lost from about 1780 to 1800, when it was revived and 
reintroduced into the business. What are usually known as arabesque papers
appear to have been first produced in any excellence by Mr. Sherringham of
Marlborough Street, through whose enterprise two foreigners, Louis and 
Rosetti, were induced to work in this country. 
The Government restrictions on the trade have always borne heavily upon 
it. The payment of 201. for an annual license imposed by the 24 George III.
c. 41 ; the declaration that all paper-hangings "must be executed on
first-class 
paper," 42 George III. c. 94; the excise duty on paper of 3d. per pound,
and 
the lid. per square yard for printing, all combined to keep up the price,
and 
enable the French to outstrip us, and, consequently, to shut up the trade,
and 
prevent competition. 
Of course when paper was only made in moulds of certain sizes, in order to
manufacture a piece of paper-hanging twelve yards long, it became necessary
to stick as many as sixteen or eighteen sheets together, and in printing
and 
wear it was impossible to prevent the joints from shewing. The inventions
of 
M. Didot of Paris, the improvements effected by Mr. Donkin, and, finally,
the