December, 1918 
21 
A portion oj 
“Vues d’lndos- 
tan,” a French 
paper on the 
walls of an old- 
house in New 
England 
The block is then carefully lifted, the paper 
is moved along to the left a distance equal to 
the length of the block, and the operation is re¬ 
peated. The printer is guided in matching the 
pattern by small brass pins that print dots in 
the margin of the paper. 
In this manner a strip about eight meters 
long is printed in one color. It is then hung 
from the ceiling until dry, when it is rolled and 
placed at the right of the printer. The strip is 
then printed throughout its length in a second 
color by the same slow process. This is con¬ 
tinued until all the colors required to complete 
the design have been applied. Occasionally 
between printings the paper is calendered un¬ 
der a heavy steel roller worked by hand on a 
steel table to flatten the color. 
The printing blocks are interesting. Upon 
examination it is found that each block is 
built up of three thicknesses of wood. The 
face, about ^4" thick, is of pear or similar 
wood. This is backed by two thicknesses of 
some strong wood, 
usually oak. A wood 
of fine grain is chosen 
for the face of the 
block because it per¬ 
mits the carving of 
delicate detail with 
the least probability 
of small parts break¬ 
ing in use. 
Preparatory to mak¬ 
ing the blocks, the 
complete design that 
has been painted in 
water color by the art¬ 
ist is traced in outline 
and transferred to the 
blocks. The parts that 
are to be left in relief 
on each block are then 
filled in with red as a 
guide to the block- 
cutter, who carves the 
rest of the surface 
away to a depth of 
about 3/16". 
Artistic Advantages 
Every step in the 
process is slow but the 
same results cannot be 
obtained in any other 
way. The hand of the 
worker comes into 
close contact with the 
material and this per- 
One of twelve 
panels, the 
“Psyche and 
Cupid” set, by 
Lafitte and 
Dufour. From 
Paris, 1814 
“Decor Chin- 
ois,” a French 
paper, by 
Zuber, in the 
style of the 
hand - painted 
papers of China 
mits a sensitiveness, a 
personal element to 
enter into the work. 
The very simplicity of 
the process by which 
hand-printed wall pa¬ 
pers are made ren¬ 
ders them free from 
the mechanical regu¬ 
larity and hardness 
that are present, at 
least to some extent, 
in all the products of 
machinery. 
Among the artistic 
advantages of the 
hand-block process is 
the opportunity it af¬ 
fords for the use of a 
large number of col¬ 
ors. Wall papers 
printed by machine 
are in twelve colors 
or less, while many 
hand-printed wall pa¬ 
pers contain from 
forty to sixty colors. 
Some fine floral de¬ 
signs in French hand¬ 
printed wall paper 
show as many as sev¬ 
enty-two colors. An 
American firm recent¬ 
ly produced a beauti¬ 
ful paper that con¬ 
tains one hundred and 
twenty colors printed by the old hand-block 
process which has been described. 
Early History 
The art of wall paper printing dates prac¬ 
tically from 1700, for previous to that time 
the process was in a formative stage. A cen¬ 
tury earlier, in 1610, Le Francois produced 
wall papers in imitation of velvet hangings at 
Rouen. These were made by applying finely 
cut wool, known as flock, to paper upon which 
an adhesive substance had been spread in the 
form of a pattern. Papers of this kind were 
known as “papiers veloutes”. 
La Papillon of Paris is credited with being 
the first to use wooden blocks in printing wall 
papers at the end of the 17 th Century. Hand¬ 
painting and stencilling were, however, em¬ 
ployed for many years after that date, often 
in combination with block printing, some parts 
of the design being done by one method and 
(Continued on page 60) 
