PAPER-Hangings, furniture now greatly used, and generally approved, as it is at once airy and cheap.
The paper manufactured for hangings is of several kinds, some being made in representation of stucco work, for the covering ceilings or the sides of halls, stair-cases, passages, &c. and others in imitation of velvet, damask, brocades, chints, or other such silks and stuffs as are employed for hanging rooms. The principal difference in the manufacture lies, however, in the grounds: some of which are laid in varnish, and others in the common vehicles for water-colours; and in the raising a kind of coloured embossment by chopt cloth, which is called stock-paper.
Unwrought PAPER proper for Hangings.—The kind of paper employed for making the paper-hangings is a sort of coarse cartoon manufactured for this purpose; and there being a particular duty on paper-hangings, it is required, under considerable penalties, to be stamped before it be painted or otherwise decorated for this purpose. There is no occasion, however, to be more particular in explaining the qualities of this kind of unwrought paper; because it is to be had of all the great dealers in paper, manufactured in a proper manner.
White and coloured Grounds for PAPER-Hangings.—The common grounds laid in water are made by mixing whiting with the common glovers size, and laying it on the paper with a proper brush in the most even manner. This is all that is required, where the ground is to be left white; and the paper being then hung on a proper frame, till it be dry, is fit to be painted. When coloured grounds are required, the same method must be pursued, and the ground of whiting first laid; except in pale colours, such as straw-colours or pink, where a second coating may sometimes be spared, by mixing some strong colour with the whiting.
Manner of painting the PAPER-Hangings.—There are three methods by which paper-hangings are painted; the first by printing on the colours; the second by using the stencil; and the third by laying them on with a pencil, as in other kinds of painting.
When
When the colours are laid on by printing, the impression is made by wooden prints; which are cut in such manner, that the figure to be expressed is made to project from the surface by cutting away all the other part; and this, being charged with the colours tempered with their proper vehicle, by letting it gently down on a block on which the colour is previously spread, conveys it from thence to the ground of the paper, on which it is made to fall more forcibly by means of its weight, and the effort of the arm of the person who uses the print. It is easy to conclude, that there must be as many separate prints as there are colours to be printed. But where there are more than one, great care must be taken, after the first, to let the print fall exactly in the same part of the paper as that which went before; otherwise the figure of the design would be brought into irregularity and confusion. In common paper of low price, it is usual, therefore, to print only the outlines, and lay on the rest of the colours by stencilling; which both saves the expence of cutting more prints, and can be practised by common workmen, not requiring the great care and dexterity necessary to the using several prints.
The manner of stencilling the colours is this. The figure, which all the parts of any particular colour make in the design to be painted, is to be cut out, in a piece of thin leather or oil-cloth, which pieces of leather or oil-cloth, are called stencils; and being laid flat on the sheets of paper to be printed, spread on a table or floor, are to be rubbed over with the colour, properly tempered, by means of a large brush. The colour passing over the whole is consequently spread on those parts of the paper where the cloth or leather is cut away, and give the same effect as if laid on by a print. This is nevertheless only practicable in parts where there are only detached masses or spots of colours: for where there are small continued lines, or parts that run one into another, it is difficult to preserve the connection or continuity of the parts of the cloth, or to keep the smaller corners close down to the paper; and therefore, in such cases, prints are preferable. Stencilling is indeed a cheaper method of ridding coarse work than printing: but, without such extraordinary attention and trouble as render it equally difficult with printing, it is far less beautiful and exact in the effect. For the outline of the spots of colour want that sharpness and regularity that are given by prints, besides the frequent extralinearations, or deviations from the just figure, which happens by the original misplacing of the stencils, or the shifting the place of them during the operation.
Pencilling is only used in the case of nicer work, such as the better imitations of the India paper. It is performed in the same manner as other paintings in water or varnish. It is sometimes used only to fill the outlines already formed by printing, where the price of the colour, or the exactness of the manner in which it is required to be laid on, render the stencilling or printing it less proper; at other times, it is used for forming or delineating some parts of the design, where a spirit of freedom and variety, not to be had in printed outlines, are desired to be had in the work.
Management of the Flock Paper.—The paper designed for receiving the flock is first prepared with a varnish-ground with some proper colour, or by that of the
paper itself. It is frequently practised to print some Mosaic, or other small running figure in colours, on the ground, before the flock be laid on; and it may be done with any pigment of the colour desired, tempered with varnish, and laid on by a print cut correspondently to that end.
The method of laying on the flock is this. A wooden print being cut, as is above described, for laying on the colour in such manner, that the part of the design which is intended for the flock may project beyond the rest of the surface, the varnish is put on a block covered with leather or oil-cloth, and the print is to be used also in the same manner, to lay the varnish on all the parts where the flock is to be fixed. The sheet, thus prepared by the varnished impression, is then to be removed to another block or table; and to be strewed over with flock; which is afterwards to be gently compressed by a board, or some other flat body, to make the varnish take the better hold of it: and then the sheet is to be hung on a frame till the varnish be perfectly dry; at which time the superfluous part of flock is to be brushed off by a soft camel's-hair brush; and the proper flock will be found to adhere in a very strong manner.
The method of preparing the flock is, by cutting woollen-rags, or pieces of cloth with the hand, by means of a large bill or chopping knife; or by means of a machine worked by a horse-mill.
There is a kind of counterfeit flock-paper, which, when well managed, has very much the same effect to the eye as the real, though done with less expence. The manner of making this sort is, by laying a ground of varnish on the paper; and having afterwards printed the design of the flock in varnish, in the same manner as for the true; instead of the flock, some pigment, or dry colour, of the same hue with the flock required by the design, but somewhat of a darker shade, being well powdered, is strewed on the printed varnish; and produces nearly the same appearance.