478 PAPER-HANGINGS 



art of making paper-hangings has been copied from the Chiuese, among whom 

 it has been practised from time immemorial. The English first imported and began 

 to imitate the Chinese paper-hangings; but being long exposed to a high Excise 

 duty upon the manufacture, they have only recently carried it to that extent and 

 degree of refinement which the French have been enabled to do, unchecked by taxa- 

 tion. The first method of making this paper was stencilling; by laying upon it, 

 in an extended state, a piece of pasteboard having spaces cut out of various figured 

 devices, and applying different water-colours with the brush. Another piece of 

 pasteboard, with other patterns cut out, was next applied, when the former figures 

 were dry, and new designs were thus imparted. By a series of such operations, a 

 tolerable pattern was executed, but with no little labour and expense. The processes 

 of the calico-printer were next resorted to, in which engraved blocks, of the pear or 

 sycamore, were employed to impress the coloured designs. 



Paper-hangings may be distinguished into two classes: 1, those which are really 

 painted, and which are designed in France under the title of papiers -peints, with 

 brilliant flowers and figures ; and 2, those in which the designs are formed by foreign 

 matters applied to the paper, under the name of papier tontisse, or flock paper. 



The operations common to paper-hangings of both kinds may be stated as follow : 



1. The paper should be well sized. 



2. The edges should be evenly cut by an apparatus like the bookbinder's press. 



3. The ends of each of the 24 sheets which form a piece should be nicely pasted 

 together ; or a web of paper should be taken. 



4. Laying the grounds is done with earthy colours of coloured lakes thickened with 

 size, and applied with brushes. 



An expert workman, with one or two children, can lay the grounds of 300 pieces 

 in a day. The pieces are now suspended upon poles near the ceiling, in order to be 

 dried. They were then rolled up and carried to the apartment where they are po- 

 lished, by being laid upon a smooth table, with the painted side undermost, and rubbed 

 with the polisher. Pieces intended to be satined are grounded with fine Paris plaster, 

 instead of Spanish white ; and are not smoothed with a brass polisher, but with a. 

 hard brush attached to the lower end of a swing polishing rod. After spreading 

 the piece upon the table with the grounded side undermost, the paper-stainer dusts 

 the upper surface with finely-powdered chalk of Brianc,on, commonly called talc, or 

 with China clay, and rubs it strongly with the brush. In this way the satiny lustre 

 is produced. 



The printing operations are as follow : 



Blocks about two inches thick, formed of three separate boards glued together, of 

 which two are made of poplar, and one (that which is engraved) of pear-tree or syca- 

 more, are used for printing paper-hangings, as for calicoes. The grain of the upper 

 layer of wood should be laid across that of the layer below. As many blocks are re- 

 quired as there are colours and shades of colour. To make the figure of a rose, for 

 example, three several reds must be applied in succession, the one deeper than the 

 other, a white for the clear spaces, two and sometimes three greens for the leaves, and 

 two wood colours for the stems ; altogether from 9 to 12 for a rose. Each block 

 carries small pin-points fixed at its corners to guide the workman in the insertion of 

 the figure exactly in its place. An expert hand places these guide pins so that their 

 marks are covered and concealed by the impression of the next block ; and tho 

 finished piece shows merely those belonging to the first and last blocks. 



In printing, the workman employs the same swimming -tub apparatus which has been 

 described under block-printing (see CAXICO-PRINTIHG), takes off the colour upon his 

 blocks, and impresses them on the paper extended upon a table in the very same way. 

 The tub in which the drum or frame covered with calf-skin is inverted contains 

 simply water thickened with parings of paper from the bookbinder, instead of the 

 pasty mixture employed by the calico-printers. In impressing tho colour by the 

 block upon the paper, he employs a lever of the second kind, to increase the power 

 of his arm, making it act upon the block through tho intervention of a piece of wood, 

 shaped like tho bridge of a violin. The tool is called tasseau by the French. A 

 child is constantly occupied in spreading colour with a brush upon the calf-skin head 

 of the drum or sieve, and in sliding off the paper upon a wooden trestle or horse, in 

 proportion as it is finished. When the piece has received one set of coloured impres- 

 sions, tho workman, assisted by his little aid, called a drawer, hooks it upon the 

 drying poles under tho ceiling. A sufficient number of pieces should be provided to 

 keep the printer occupied during the whole at least of one day, so that they will bo 

 dried and ready to receive another set of coloured impressions by the following 

 morning. 



All the colours are applied in the same manner, every shade being formed by means 



