1839.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



141 



the date of the intRuluction of this improvement, but unfortunately with- 

 out success. The oldest in the trade have never hearil of it as a recent 

 invention. 



The satin ground is laid with satin wliite, a compound formed of lime 

 and alum, and it can be coloured to almost any tint. After being laid like 

 the common grounds, powdered French chalk is rubbed on it with a hard 

 brush till the gloss is produced, and it is then glazed with clear size. 



A process has been invented in England within the last five or six years 

 which adds materially the beauty of the satin grounds ; this is embossing, 

 where imitations of watered and figiu'cd silks, stamped leather, &c., are 

 produced. The embossing is performed by the paper being passed between 

 two rollers, on one of which is the engTa;-ed pattern, and which also being 

 slightly heated thus stamps the required design on the paper. 



A kind of paperhanging in which the English designers seem to excel is 

 called chintz, and has been introduced in imitation of the printed cottons 

 and muslins, which seem to have been copied from Indian designs. There 

 are in general several coloui-s in these patterns, requiring many blocks and 

 much delicacy in excculiou, though the number of blocks is sometimes 

 much lessened by printing wash colours ; such as yellow on blue making 

 gi'een, yellow on red orange, and lake on blue purple. 



A manufacture of Archer and Taverner is one of the most creditable 

 attempts in modem English paperstaiuing. It is an imitation of Chinese 

 paper, and is composed of eighteen sets of blocks, each set containing 

 four, altogether seventy-two blocks. It will be perceived that the flowers 

 in that paper are shaded, Avhich is efTectcd by a process resembling that 

 employed in blending the grounds. The long narrow brash is dipped in 

 the trough containing the prober tints of colour and spreads these on the 

 sieve, The block with the flowers engraved on it is then applied to the 

 sieve thus arranged in shades, and afterwards prints the flowers in the 

 tints, which are blended. This is a modern invention, first practised about 

 five years ago by the Messrs. Harwood, the oldest firm at present in the 

 trade. 



Another important mechanical contrivance was invented about twenty 

 years ago, whereby striped papers are executed with great exactness and 

 clearness by a machine in lieu of blocks, which owing to the working 

 always made an imperfect line. In this machine a copper trough, in which 

 narrow slits of the required l.n-cadth are cut at the bottom, being filled 

 with thin colour, is applied to the paper, which is made to pass over a re- 

 volving cylinder, and draws the colours through the slits in the trough, by 

 which the stripes arc formed. 



The ground of another specimen is crimson, and is laid with a staining 

 colour instead of distemper. This colour, prepared principally from 

 cochineal, is applied to the paper in the form of a wash, and is generally 

 laid six times to produce a fine stain, the first coat being done with gam- 

 boge. In working the pattern it is printed before the stainuig is done, and 

 tluis acquires a miich greater richness of colour. 



The next example is a flock paper, a kind of hanging, ouginally intro- 

 duced as an imitation of the wove tapestries and velvet damasks. It has 

 been employed in England more than 200 years, but about sixty years ago 

 the art was almost lost, and only revived forty years since. The mode of 

 working is very simple, although much mystery used to be observed re- 

 specting it. Flock is composed of the cuttings of white or bleached 

 woollen cloth cut up in a mill to the nocessaiy degree of fineness, 

 and then dyed to various tints of colours. It is applied to the paper 

 in the following manner : — The ground being prepared, the design is 

 first printed with the block in size, in order that the oil may bear out 

 when applied ; when this is dry it is then printed with a composition of boiled 

 oil and japan gold size, and while this is still wet the paper is laid on the drum 

 (a kind of box about five feet by three feet, with the sides of wood and the 

 bottom of ticking) ; the flock is then sprinkled over the paper, and the 

 workman, with a cane, beats the imder side of the drum, which causes the 

 flock to spread evenly over every part of the pattern, to which it is fixed by 

 means of the japan composition. Sometimes one flock is applied over 

 another, this is easily accomplished by merely repeating the process after 

 the first flock is perfectly dry. 



In the next specimen a beautiful imitation of tapestiy is produced by 

 the introduction of flocks of various colours, and is done exactly as in the 

 former examples, each flock being separately printed after the former ones 

 are properly hardened and set. 



I now take up the last of the three kinds of paperhangings, wherein 

 metals are employed to produce imitations of gilt leather, rich brocades, or 

 lightly etched ornaments. It is to these papers that our manufacturers 

 seem now to devote their chief attention, and they v.'ork them with great 

 beauty and richness, at a comparatively moderate price. I stated in my 

 former paper that the gilt leather was employed in England even in the 

 time of Henry VIII., and that the English were afterwards famed for its 

 manufacture. I have every reason to suppose that gold and silver and 

 metal leaf were introduced in the early paperhangings as an imitation of 

 the more expensive leaiherhanging, although I have not been able to dis- 

 cover the exact date of their first application. In addition to these there 

 is another material of much more recent introduction, called bronze or 

 imitation gold dust, which is now very extensively employed. This bronze 

 is the invention of an artist at Nuremberg, named Jolm Halitsch, who 

 was born in lo9.5 and died in I(i70, and his descendants have continued 

 the manufacture to the present time. It is prepared by sifting the filings 

 of difi'erent metals, washing them in a strong lye, and then placing them on 

 a plate of iron or copper over a strong fire, where they are continually 

 stirred till the colour is altered. Those of tin acqtiiru by this process 



shades of gold colour, copper, red, and flame colours ; iron and steel, blue 

 and violet ; and tin and bismuth, shades of a bluish white. The dust 

 tinged in this manner is then put through a flatting mill. 



A bronze paper is thus worked : — The design (as with flock) is first 

 stamped with size, and afterwards with boiled oil and japan gold size; 

 this preparation is allowed to dry, but while it still retains a tack the 

 bronze is bmshed over it with a hare's foot or soft brush ; it thus adheres 

 to the gold size, and the paper is in the state exhibited. 



In another paper a much more splendid effect is produced by a metal, in 

 imitation of gold leaf A gold size, resembling that for bronze, is first 

 applied, and while it has a tack the metal leaf is laid on. This metal, 

 sometimes called mosaic gold or D)itch metal, is prepared in Germany, 

 and is an amalgam of tm and copper. The eft'ect of it on the paper is 

 very much improved by embossing. 



When coloiu'ed flocks are imited with the metal pattern very splendid 

 hangings are produced. The metal, too, is sometimes^ shaded, which is 

 done by stains formed from berries, of which various kinds are used ; .and 

 metal is also applied on a bronze ground, but the process is simply that 

 already described. I need not add that in all cases where the metal is 

 employed gold leaf may be substituted, but it is rarely used on account of 

 the great increase in price. I have not described the washable paper- 

 hangings, or Delarue's patent paperhangings, because they are similar to 

 those of which I have already spoken, with the exception that they are 

 worked with japan gold size and turpentine instead of distemper, and the 

 latter by being embossed in horizontal lines furms, by embossing alone, a 

 pattern similar to that produced by printing. 



I have made particular enquiries as to how the manufacture of paper- 

 hangings is conducted in France. I have visited the factories, and have 

 the pleasure of being acquainted with the most eminent manufacturer at 

 Paris, Monsieur Dauptain, and from all I can learn I do not find that the 

 French employ other means than those known to us. In those papers of 

 siicli large dimensions they have double sets of blocks, and in the decora- 

 tive papers the mode of working is the same as our ovm ; look, in fact, at 

 what was done by our English manufacturers, Echardt and Sherringham, 

 fifty years since ; their works equal those of the French at the present 

 day. Whence then arises our inferiority in this art ? for that we are infe- 

 rior all must confess. In the first place our manufacturers complain that, 

 supposing they go to a great expense for an ornamental designi it is liable 

 to be pirated with impunity; and they say that were they protected by a 

 patent right they should be able to bring out designs of much gi-eater ex- 

 tent and perfection. This act of justice, I trust, will soon be granted to 

 them ; but even supposing this, I much fear we should still be behind our 

 neighbours. In Paris the workmen have a better eye for colour than ours, 

 they acquii'e, as it were, an imperceptible education in taste from the 

 splendid works so continually before them ; yet not depending on that alone 

 the principal manufacturers there, constantly retain able artists, who, 

 besides drawuig the designs, arrange the tints and direct the working. Here, 

 the task of the French artist falls to the hands of a mechanic, who, however 

 able he may be as a workman, is still ignorant as an artist. What is the 

 result? — the present mortifying comparison — can we now produce papers 

 in which the flowers are so delicately tinted — can we arrange colours witli 

 the same science and harmony displayed ? I repeat that though the French 

 manufacturers use the same simple machinery, yet that their productions are 

 far beyond our own — each tint, each shade of the numerous colours exhibited 

 in the arabesques are stamped by a separate block. The expense of getting 

 up these decorations is of course considerable, but instead of every year 

 bringing out as we do, some fifty patterns, they are content to produce, 

 perhaps, only one, or two, or three, each of which will always attract by the 

 beauty and taste displayed. What I now write, I have often said to our 

 manufacturers themselves, and some of them have replied ; supposing no 

 other obstacle, where can we get artists of the class to draw for us the 

 designs you speak of ? And here indeed is the difficulty — at present an in.su- 

 perable difficulty, for, truly, there is not at this time in this country a class of 

 decorative artists available for the paper-stainers. Those of any talent are so 

 very few that they demand too high a price for the manufacturer. And yet of 

 what consequence is it, not only in this, but in other manufactures, such as 

 printed cottons, wools, figured silks, china, ornamental metal work, that we 

 keep pace with other nations in regard to the taste displayed in these produc- 

 tions. How did the spiritand enterprise of Wedgwood raise the manufacture 

 of porcelain in this country ; where before his time we imported even for our 

 own use— he caused his productions to be esteemed in all the countries of the 

 globe for the elegance of their forms and the beauty of the designs which 

 adorned them, and thus has enabled the miinufacture to be carried to an extent 

 never before anticipated. There are not many Wedgwoods. How trifling 

 is the encouragement extended to our decorative artists, both for the true 

 and proper education in their art and their employment afterwards ! In any 

 of the new palaces, in any of the modern grand national moiuiments, even in 

 the national gallery itself, is there introduced any specimen of historical, 

 allegorical, or decorative painting ? Look at France, the new galleries of 

 ■\'ersailles, where every room is decorated, the Bourse of Paris, the Made- 

 leine. Look at Berlin— look at Munich. There the art is encouraged, the 

 artists numerous, and their productions esteemed. It appears presumption 

 in one so Inunble as myself to address thus the Institute of British 

 Architects, but yet with them in a certain degree must rest the remedy. It 

 is in yoiu' power to introduce in yoiu" designs the sister art of Painting. By 

 encouraging that, the evils of which I complain woidd soon disappear — 

 working schools, the only effective ones, would thus be formed, and besides 

 adorning our buildings, you would be the means of more widely difl'using 



